Exercising God’s Love, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

April 15, 2023

This sermon is a continuation of the past six sermons concerning the love of God, but now we’re going to continue with a new title, so they’re going to be totally tied together. So, Part 6 of last Sabbath’s sermon was a kind of bridge into what we’re going to be covering now in this sermon series that’s going to be entitled Exercising God’s Love or simply Living God’s Love. It’s the same thing but exercising means there are things we have to do.

God just can’t say, “This is the kind of love you’re supposed to have.” There is something we’re to do in response and so that’s why we’re going through these things and in a manner that’s probably—well, I know it is—it’s at a level that’s more than we’ve really grasped in its fullest in the past.

So, up to this point we have focused on two important elements that have so much to do with the purpose of the series we just went through. The first was the aspect of fear, and it’s kind of interesting how it’s described throughout scripture because it’s in the Old Testament and the New Testament when it comes to a matter of God’s love and then contrasting it with this matter of fear.

Because we don’t tend to think that we have anything to fear if we’re not living God’s way of life. But the reality is you can’t live peace, you can’t live what God created us to live unless you’re living His way of life. He shows the way to peace. The opposite of that is what we’ve referred to as a matter of drama, which is the opposite of peace, which does produce fear in people’s lives. There are things that happen in life that produce fear and it’s good to understand that and grasp what God is talking about when He tells us this.

So, He created us, He knows us, and God’s desire is to remove that from our lives totally and completely so that we have confidence and boldness and peace, and the way of life He wanted us to have in the first place. But created us so that we wouldn’t be able to experience it until He called us. That’s a part of the equation. To understand that process is awesome, that God created us to experience those things, to experience what it’s like to be selfish. Incredible.

Next, toward the end of Part 6 last Sabbath we began to focus on another important element that we have not grasped well in the past, that candidly, has prevented us from far better understanding or seeing, if you will, what God is specifically revealing here in what we’re covering here, that He revealed to John, that He gave to John that’s written in the book of 1 John.

We’ll come back to some of that later, but to me these are some of the most exciting things in scripture, having to do with what God gave to John. Because he was the last apostle, original apostle if you will. He wrote things, obviously, in the book of John first of all, and then 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and of course, the book of Revelation, and those things at the end toward the latter part of his life when he was in his nineties.

So again, they’re awesomely inspiring. What’s incredible in some of this is there are people who say they can’t be the same author, the author of Revelation, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John can’t be the one who wrote the book of John. Scholars are not always too bright. Well, you can’t help it anyway in the world because they try to disprove various things that God has recorded and given, but the reality is we’re going to go over some things here that show very candidly it’s the same person because of what he says.

To me, that’s exciting, it’s inspiring, and in here God has revealed the most meaningful, most exciting things that He could ever reveal to mankind. He started with what Christ gave us, and we’ll talk about that in a moment.

It’s important that we review a little of what was covered last Sabbath about the matter of how the misuse of the word “hate” has been used by translators. I’m going to go back and review a little of that because this is important to grasp and comprehend what is being said here.

Although we touched upon it, again, a little bit in Georgia, you obviously, you all got cut off so you didn’t get to hear it. 1 John 2:9, let’s look at this again.

1 John 2:9—Whoever says they are in the light, and hates their brother, is in darkness even until now. Now, this is a distorted translation. It is not a word for “hate” in scripture. It doesn’t mean hate. We’ll come back to this. Anyway, it has nothing to do with hate, and by translating it in this manner this has worked to hide what otherwise is of great importance in understanding how to more perfectly measure, if you will, the strength or lack of it, in other words, God’s strength in our life, of God’s spirit working in our life.

This is what has been needed in the Church as well, to understand there are ways we can grasp and understand with a great confidence that God’s spirit is working in us. We have been living through a period of time here at the end-time where God has been cleansing the Church, where God has been desiring and crying out to us in that respect, that we address things in our life that need to be changed. The reality of some of this is that there are individuals in the Church—it’s been with us ever since I’ve been in the Church—of people who haven’t been living truthfully God’s way of life.

We went through that through Philadelphia, ever since I’ve been in the Church in 1969, and then we went into Laodicea. It got worse. Laodicea was known because of a lack of love in their life towards one another. The Apostasy happened for the very purpose, it says, because they had no love of the truth.

So we can deceive ourselves as human beings and think we’re okay. It’s this thing of are you inside the temple or are you out in the court? Do we deceive ourselves that somehow we’re living okay by going through the motions of certain things? And that isn’t enough.

This is what 1 John is going to go through and tell us. That’s what God is going to tell us, or anyway, that’s what He’s revealing more of.

So again, going back to this word of “hate” there is a scripture that we are more familiar with in the book of Luke, and that’s in Luke 14, that uses this same word. But it’s easier to see here that it definitely is not the word for “hate.”

So, we went through some of this where after Christ gave the parable of a certain man who had prepared a great dinner, sent his servants out to draw people, gather people in, invite them in, if you will, to this feast or great dinner he was going to have. He prepared it and sent his servants out, and slowly but surely then individuals began to make excuse of why they couldn’t come.

Now, this is very much like what’s happened in God’s Church in times past. It’s an incredible thing here. But God wraps it up here in a parable, Christ did from God, that there is so much said here through time about how people have responded to God and what God is doing. The word “to invite” is connected in scripture to a calling, that God does the calling, He does the drawing, but it’s up to us how we respond.

We have seen through time here that a majority of the people who have been called have turned away, but not only that, there have been many people who have been given opportunity to hear and never acted upon it as was given as an opportunity. That’s an invitation.

So, the parable has a lot of meaning to it.

Let’s take a look at this, Luke 14:16—Then he said to him, A certain man planned a great dinner and invited many, then sent his servant at the time of dinner to tell those who were invited, Come, for all is now ready. I think of the end-time especially. When you get to this point in time after two thousand years – actually, nearly six thousand years now, but on a larger scale on the past two thousand years since the time of Christ because that’s when the Church began, after Pentecost of 31 AD – this was multiplied many times over in many of these parables and fit those occasions.

But when you think about here we are toward the very end, the 144,000 is nearly complete and it’s ready, we’re there. We’re ready for Christ’s return. We’re ready for the government of God to be established on the earth. We’re right at that point in time.

Now, for us, because time is different than what it is for God’s perspective, we don’t grasp six thousand years. We can barely grasp seventy unless we live that long, and if we live that long then we may want to grasp a little more.

But it says here they were invited, and it says, “Come, for all is now ready.” But all of them as one began to make excuses. Of why they couldn’t come, of why they couldn’t do what was being offered, what God was offering, in essence. The first said to him, I have purchased a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused. Just making excuse of why they couldn’t do something of this particular nature. They had other things. We do that as human beings. We try to deceive ourselves, make excuses why we can’t go through the motions to live the specific way God says we should do it. It’s amazing, the human mind.

Verse 19—Then another said, I have purchased five yokes of oxen, and I am going to try them out. “I’m going to see how they perform, how they work.” So, this was important to them, and that’s the problem. So many things in life that people tend to think important to them that they place before God. Idolatry. Raising up an idol. That’s what they’re doing here. Something else was more important than the invitation, in essence, that God has placed before them.

So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to the servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. On a spiritual plane, this is what God has done. He’s done that through time in one respect over the past two thousand years. I’m not going to go through the first four thousand there.

But God is preparing a government. But toward the end, mankind has gotten worse. Their response to God has gotten worse. To call people to give them an opportunity for His way of life has gotten worse because the world is getting worse. Technology is creating a thinking in people where they don’t want to hear this, they don’t want to hear the truth. God opened up the door, a measure in that respect, during a period of time where they were still willing to learn, during Philadelphia. But as time went along it got worse and worse and worse.

And so, when God calls us and we have an ability, He shows us who we are and what we are, and we know we have nothing to be lifted up by, and that’s a good thing. The more we understand we need help the better it is. I hope you understand what I’m saying. Humility is the most needful thing for God to work with us by His spirit, through His spirit. He’s been doing that and it’s good for us to understand that of ourselves.

And the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room. So, the master said to the servant, Go out in the highways and the hedges, and compel them to come in so that my house may be filled. This is an amazing thing when you understand a lot of what’s being said here and realizing right up to the end here that God’s been going through this process more and more toward the end-time for PKG. It’s gotten to a point where people do not want anything to do with what they hear here.

It's going to take so much to shake this world. That’s why it’s going to be, has to be such a shock to the mind. There are people who are beginning to wake up. That’s why we’ve had these news things out here on occasion talking about them, that there was a period of time when the world wasn’t discussing WWIII, China as they are now, Russia as they are now. Especially China and the power that’s there, a navy that’s stronger than this country’s. Mind-boggling what’s taken place.

They’re starting to be aware of this but not enough. Not enough that they’re scared. They’ll be scared when it starts. That’s a good thing for the human mind. It’s unlike what happened during the days of Noah when God just determined all—All!— are going to be put to sleep, in essence, put to death, and then brought up, those who can then, in the Great White Throne.

Only one family who would respond to God at that particular time – one man, if you will. It came down to one man. One man was left, Noah, with whom God could work with. That’s mind-boggling. Who would listen, who would hear, who had been prepared ahead of time for what God was going to give to him, the job that God was going to give to him. That’s astounding.

Our world today is far worse than it was in the days of Noah because of technology and the use of it. I hope we see that and understand that.

…he said, Go out in the highway and the hedges and compel them to come in, For I say to you that none of those who were invited will eat of my supper. Incredible. That’s exactly where we are. There are people who have been invited, who came up to a point in time even as far as the Church is concerned and look what’s happened.

Look what’s happened during the time of PKG since the Apostasy. We’ve gone through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. I believe a few thousand altogether. But hundreds we’ve known. Others who had an opportunity that came up to a point but wouldn’t make the extra step, give the opportunity to see certain things.

Some in the ministry who were given opportunity to see things to a certain point but couldn’t repent, couldn’t come to a point where they would make a change and begin to teach what they knew was happening. That’s horrible.

So, we’ve gone through some incredible things, we truly have.

He says here what will happen because of that response. And what does that mean in reality? They won’t be in the Millennium. They won’t be in what God has been preparing for six thousand years, His Kingdom to come, His government to come and begin to rule on the earth. They’re not going to get to experience that. And yet all who lived during Philadelphia, that’s what they were taught and that’s what they said in the beginning, and even those who were called during Laodicea, they wanted to see the return of Christ, God’s government to be established.

Then God says because of certain actions in people’s lives, because they raise up something else and make excuses in their life for not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, they’re not going to taste of His dinner. It’s very simple.

After this, a great multitude went with him. And he turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me, this is Christ speaking, If anyone comes to me and does not hate, that same word, their mother, their father, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes, and their own life also, cannot be my disciple. Anybody reading this ought to have enough sense to understand this can’t be right. That’s not God. That’s not God’s way of life. He’s not telling anyone, Christ wasn’t telling anyone, you should hate others, especially in your family. That’s not what he’s saying.

So, that’s the first great clue. There has to be something else being said here because it can’t be that everything that God teaches will all of a sudden say to hate. So, yeah, it doesn’t mean “hate.” It means, in essence, what we’re always taught, God, Christ must be first in our life, and all others we love less by comparison.

It’s a word that has to do with comparison. That by comparison God is first, and all others we are to love less. Not hate. So, that’s pretty easy to understand just by the context alone of reading it.

So again here, it’s a matter of comparison, to love less by comparison their father, their mother, wife… Because these have been some of the greatest obstacles of people being called and drawn, is oftentimes, it’s a relationship and they can’t make that extra step to live this way of life because it’s not what they want. So, those are choices.

He says if they don’t do this, love less, they can’t be my disciple. Because if God isn’t first, if Christ isn’t first then the individual is missing the whole point of the life they’re supposed to be living.

Let’s go back now to 1 John 2 and look at how it should be translated now that we have gone through this again because we’ve talked about this in times past in Luke and what it’s discussing here, “love less by comparison.”

1 John 2:9—Whoever says they are in the light… Now, there’s a lot said there. That’s a sermon in itself. Because everyone who has come into God’s Church, everyone who has been baptized tends to believe that, in every way they’re in the light. But if they’re not living this way of life faithfully and truthfully, in spirit and in truth, candidly, God says they’re a liar. Because that’s the choice. We have to live it in spirit and in truth.

Whoever says they are in the light and loves less, in other words, by comparison their brother is in darkness even until now. The word meaning “just now,” “even up to this point in time.” So, it’s a very strong word that’s being used here.

We can deceive ourselves. It’s like this thing of being out in the courtyard and whether we’re in the light or in the dark. We can deceive ourselves into thinking we’re in the light. But if we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing…?

That’s why this sermon is entitled Exercising God’s Love. That doesn’t just happen. It’s a choice. There are things we have to do to exercise love toward others the way God says to, and if we’re not doing it that way then we deceive ourselves and we’re not in the light.

So again here, it’s a matter of a contrast. It’s just like Luke 14 clearly telling us we should love others less than Christ and Christ should be first as far as our allegiance is concerned. The word “allegiance” here is a good term, which by definition is a matter of loyalty, faithfulness, and obedience. So, we’re to be faithful to Christ, to God, loyal, to be obedient, to live the way we’re told.

So, in the case of this verse, we’re to love less. What are we to “love less by comparison”? The comparison is being made to brethren in the Church in the Body of Christ, and that if we love any of our brethren less than what John is writing about here we’re in darkness. It’s as simple as that. If we’re loving less than the way God tells us we’re supposed to by John here in 1 John—I’ll just say it—we’re in deep doo-doo. We are.

Because there is one way that is true and there is one way that is not true. There is one way that’s in the darkness or one way that’s in the light. There is not to be an in between. It’s either dark or light, living it or not living it, faithful or unfaithful, loyal, unloyal, obedient, disobedient. It’s very simple in that respect.

So, if we’re loving others less than what we’re being told here John is making it very clear we’re still in the darkness. It needs to be understood what God is giving us now is of much stronger or clearer matter of, if you will, a requirement in life that we need to see and grasp and understand if we’re to move forward, if we’re going to move forward faithfully.

Because God is going to clean the Church thoroughly and that’s still going on right now, still happening…still happening. Amazing how it’s going on. It’s going to happen some more because of this series. That if we’re not living right toward each other we do not belong! It might seem harsh, it might seem hard, but this is God’s Church, we are God’s people.

The honor that He’s getting ready to bestow upon us is something we cannot grasp, really. We can be told about it, but to grasp that as soon as Christ returns and we’re going to be known at the end-time as being those who were faithful to the end, that we were willing to go through anything and everything and that we strove with all of our being to be right with God, to do what He gave us to do – not just to kind of go through the motions and so forth.

God has already been weeding out people who have been unfaithful in robbing Him. That’s some of the most hideous things anyone could do who thinks they’re or claims they’re in the Church of God. They mix in the fellowship, and they don’t give Holy Day offerings? That’s a slap in a face to God. It’s a simple thing. It doesn’t matter what it is. I don’t care if it’s a dollar or fifty cents. If that’s all you have and you give it to God, that’s what we do. If that’s what’s left we do that because we want to honor God, we want to obey God, we want to be faithful, we want to be loyal to God.

And yet there are people who won’t do that, who haven’t done that. Some of those have been weeded out in the last couple of months because they don’t belong here. They’re living a lie. So, why should they come into fellowship and be together with God’s people and enjoy what God has to offer and begin to partake of some of the dinner if you will? God’s not going to let them do that. Because the greatest part of the dinner is right in front of us, what He’s been preparing.

I know as a whole we grasp and understand that. But that which doesn’t or isn’t doing what they should be? Choices. Choices. Choices. We all have choices. God is giving this because we can still make choices. He’s giving this because we can still repent. What a beautiful thing.

What an awesome thing to understand the love of God. Hence the previous sermons. To understand how much God loves us, what He wants for us, His desire toward us, and this is a good example of that. He wants us to repent because He wants us to receive what He placed before us. He wants us to be a part of the great dinner! Awesome!

So again, what are we being told? What are we being commanded by John? That’s the thrust of everything that’s being said here that we’re going through. We have to grasp what’s being said in its context.

1 John 2:10. This is part of the context — Whoever it is who loves their brother… Now, this is a word, this word “loves” here is “agapaó” as we’ve talked about here in the past series here. This is the word “agapaó,” and it means there’s a way to love, “In this manner, by the context of what you’re reading,” “in this manner, we’re supposed to love.” It’s not a word that says “agape,” it’s a word that says, “This is how you’re supposed to love, in this manner, in this way.” So, we’re being instructed here how to love. It’s up to us then to do it, to exercise it. It’s very simple.

Whoever it is who loves, in other words, in this manner their brother (their sister). In all that John is writing that’s the context. In everything that John is telling us, in that manner, what he’s instructing, abides in the light. So, if we love in that manner we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, we’re living what we’re supposed to be living, we’re exercising God’s love in the manner that He’s telling us in the book of 1st John here.

…and there is no – not “occasion.” That’s not even a word there in the Greek. And there is no stumbling or committing of offense, if you will, in them. That’s what it’s saying. If they’re doing this, obviously, there is no stumbling, there is no sin, there is no offense being committed in them or by them as the words mean here.

Verse 11—But whoever “hates,” no, whoever loves less their brother, in other words, by comparison, in the manner of what’s being commanded here, is in darkness and walks in darkness… That’s the problem, “walks in darkness” and isn’t doing what they’re being told. …and does not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded their eyes.

That’s a scary thing. That’s a horrible thing that can take place, that does take place, has taken place, that a person can go through the motions of things for so long that after a while that deception prevents them from seeing. The light is gone. There is darkness. When you’re in darkness you can’t see. What a horrible thing if we come to a point where we can’t see, we can’t hear what’s being said, and that happens.

So, all this, in turn, creates fear, unrest, dissatisfaction, drama, confusion, unsoundness of mind that’s actually the result of sin. If that continues without repentance, it becomes the norm. It becomes the way it is and can’t continue on in the Body of Christ.

It has to do with how one is actually living, and if it’s in the darkness it’s a matter that’s opposite the way of what John is saying here.

Let’s go back to the start, the beginning of what John is writing, and keep this clear understanding at the forefront as we’re going through this because there is so much here. There really is.

1 John 1:1. This is a powerful book. This is one of the most meaningful books on a spiritual plane that was ever written. John began to be given some of these things in the book of John, especially beginning in John 13 and 14 that we read on Passover, 15, 16, 17, in through there, because it’s revealing a start at least of the very things that John is talking about here that he was given a few decades later. But God gave time for John to build upon those things that God had given to him toward the beginning to come to this point to reveal more through him to the Church. Candidly, some things that have never been grasped nor comprehended in their depth.

1 John 1:1—That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon… Now, he’s going back and talking about Christ and things that Christ taught. John was there. Other apostles who were by this time dead, others in the Church who were still alive at this point that John’s referring to here, and then he’s telling them what they’ve been taught ever since that time through those other apostles and through him. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard…” Those who wrote the books, Paul himself, different ones who wrote so much. He’s referring to these things.

…which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes. So, it’s a matter they saw Christ and what came from him and the messages that came from him and those have been taught in the Church. That’s what he’s telling them. …which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life. He’s showing here something greater happened because of all this because it’s something now that could begin to be lived in the Church through the power of God’s spirit that was powerful, that was meaningful about a Body, a Church, the Church of God, the Body of Christ.

Then it goes on to say, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested. In other words, through Joshua the Christ. “The life was manifested.” What life? God’s life, the way of life, the way to live. He reflected it all and he taught it all, in that respect, about what we’re to do. …the life was manifested and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. It began through Christ. That’s what he’s saying here.

So John is now really building upon what he wrote about in the book of John. So, it’s wise we go back there and look at that, John 1, and then we’ll come back here in the flow. Because these are inspiring, these are powerful, these are meaningful, some of the most meaningful things ever given to mankind. Who has been able to receive them? Only the Church. Only God’s Church.

John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word. It’s about God Almighty, the Word. His way of life. His mind. Because it’s “Logos,” which has to do with the mind, the being, the thinking of God, and it’s described as “the Word.” It’s who He is. Then He begins to communicate that to others. This is who He is, this is how He communicates, who He is.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, obviously, because it’s Him, it’s His being, it’s His mind, it’s the revelatory thought—Herbert Armstrong gave a great definition of that—it’s the revelatory thought of God. He wants to reveal. He wants to share that mind, that thinking with others because it’s the only way of thinking that’s right. It’s the only way of thinking to live life, for it to be filled with peace and prosperity and all that’s good. No bad in it, not darkness in it, just light.

So, it says here, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is who God is. It describes God. What an incredible thing to understand that as we read scriptures and we read the way of life God’s telling us who He is. The more we love that, the word, the truth, the more we love God because we know that’s Him. It’s a beautiful thing and it’s all on a spiritual plane.

The same was in the beginning with God. Because that’s who God is. That’s what God is. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made of all that was made. Awesome!God did it all out of love. God did it through His word, His way of thinking, and “love” describes God totally.

In Him was life, eternal life.

That’s why it’s such a marvel to understand the angelic realm. They don’t have eternal life dwelling in them. They were given spirit life. God Almighty has eternal life in Him to sustain whomever He will. He has a Family He’s been molding and fashioning and preparing, and they’re going to be given eternal life. Spirit life, yes, but it’s more because it has to do with God being in them.

The angelic realm, God is not in them. They have the truth, they know the truth, they’ve been told the truth, and a third of them chose not to live it so they have nothing to do with God anymore. And God has, in that respect, nothing to do with them. Their end is coming.

That’s why in the Church in Philadelphia God hadn’t given that to us yet. Laodicea hadn’t been given yet to understand that the angels do not have eternal life dwelling in them. We thought, had been taught, that yes, they have eternal life. No, they don’t.

That’s why it became kind of a shock to people when God began to reveal to the Church that He can put to death whatever He creates. He can bring to an end if you will, whatever He’s created in the angelic realm, which is good news when it comes to Satan and the demons. They have their purpose for six thousand years and they’ll have their purpose at the end, at the hundred years and then it’s done.

The purpose is about the creation of Elohim, God’s Family, which is far, far greater than the angelic realm. Something that Satan didn’t agree with and didn’t want, became jealous of.

All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made of all that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light for mankind. That’s why we were created. That’s what it’s showing. His life and why we were created is what God wants to give.

Verse 5—Even the light shines in darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it. Awesome how it’s stated here. In other words, can’t lay hold upon it, can’t seize hold of it, the darkness can’t. Because when there is light, it’s gone, the dark. It’s not there and so the darkness can’t seize upon it. The light. The power is in the light. That’s what God is showing, what we’ve been given.

That’s why if we have darkness in our life it is about sin and it has to be conquered, it has to be overcome, it has to be repented of so that we can walk in light and see what we need to see on a spiritual plane.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. So, speaking of Christ and what God was going to reveal through him more powerfully to the world, and his position, his place in God’s government.

He was not that Light, speaking of John, but was sent to bear witness of the Light.

Then verse 14—And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father. It’s beautiful scriptures here speaking of Joshua the Christ. So, the word, the logos was made flesh. God gave physical life to a being, to His Son through the birth from his mother, but the Father was God Almighty.

We can’t comprehend that in its fullness and what it’s all about and how that he as a young person knew things, saw things in the mind because he was given something through he was physical, was given a unique mind. We as human beings, we don’t begin to see things of God in spirit and truth until God calls us, draws us of His holy spirit, and then gives us the impregnation of His holy spirit. Christ had to come to that point, but him being the Son he had certain things in his being, in his mind already because he was from God from birth.

How do you understand that? Only by God’s spirit, by growth, by maturing spiritually within the Church in time and coming in to see things more and more as time goes along. Awesome, it really is. It’s really very beautiful to understand how God worked through His Son and there could only be one like him in all of God’s purpose in creation. Beautiful!

And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So, here he was, he walked on the earth, he lived on the earth without sin. Never sinned. Incredible. And thereby he could become the only one who could be our Passover, whose blood could spill to the earth, whereby we could be forgiven of sin through him. From one who never had leavening in his life ever; he was always unleavened spiritually.

So, let’s go back to the beginning of 1 John because John is building upon, in what he’s saying in 1 John, of what was given back in the beginning that he wrote in the book of John. So, here we are back in 1 John now, a few decades later when this was written.

So again, John 1:1—That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which our hands have handled of the word or concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, in other words, in and through Christ, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life. The truth, what it’s all about, the Passover, the High Priest, His purpose, and how we can have part then in God’s Family.

…which was with the Father and was manifested to us— that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also—Beautiful!—may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Joshua the Christ. So, it’s about this fellowship. That’s what John is talking about here.

He’s talking about the Body of Christ and how we’re able to enter into a relationship with God through Christ. There is no other way. We can have this, and not only that, we can have a fellowship with one another because we can receive of the same thinking, the same mind because of the impregnation in the mind and we make choices to begin to change.

The longer time goes on and we are corrected in things in our life, we repent, we can become more at one with the word of God, with God, with what He gives us. We come into greater agreement with it. There can be nothing more beautiful and exciting than to be in agreement with God, to be at one. That means we agree with God. We go through experiences in our life within the Church and we become convicted. We have to experience things in order to become convicted that God is right, and we are wrong.

So, every time we repent what are we doing? Like Paul talked about, we’re agreeing that the law is good. We’re agreeing with God. We repent because we know that we’re wrong and we want help. These are beautiful scriptures, beautiful things that God has revealed to us.

Verse 4—Then these things we write to you so that your joy might be full. That’s what God wants to give us, life that’s filled with joy, happiness.

Sin, well, it does things to the mind, and it isn’t good, especially within the Church, obviously. Those things we have to conquer and overcome, we have to get rid of, just like the days of Unleavened Bread pictured, a desire to get rid of it so that our minds can be purified and cleansed and think better. We can never be perfect in this life in our minds. We’ll always have battles. But we’re to grow in understanding of these things and striving to live them.

Then these things we write to you so that your joy might be full. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you. From whom? Well, from Christ. It’s about what Christ gave to the Church. It’s about the time the disciples spent with Christ. It’s about the things that after the Church began that God gave them so much more, that Christ did. It comes from God through Christ, in that respect, to the apostles at that time.

This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. We’re to become the same way. That’s what this is about. We’re to be in the light. We’re to get rid of the things that create darkness.

If we say that we have fellowship… So, what is 1 John about? It’s about the Body of Christ. It’s about true fellowship within the Body of Christ, and to have true fellowship in spirit and truth with God the Father and Joshua the Christ it has to be right within the Church. How we think about each other, to the degree we love each other, to the degree we’re willing to forgive one another, to the degree we cease to judge one another in our harshness and our judgment and putting people down! This is not the Family of God to do that kind of thing.

God is showing us we have the ultimate standard of life to live by. We truly do. That brings joy and happiness and richness and meaning in friendships and fellowship that’s on a spiritual plane. It’s not a philia. It’s not like what was during Philadelphia, a brotherly love, a fraternal love. It’s far beyond that!

That’s what God has brought us to, to see and understand and live those things more fully than ever before. Why? Because we’re at that time that those things are to be revealed to the world more. What a beautiful thing that we’re blessed to receive things that the world is going to have at the beginning of the thousand years and on to build upon. We’re just blessed to live at this time. Not better than any other time.

This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness… You know, people that don’t tithe, that steal from God, I mean, those are the most basic of things that people are supposed to do. And if they don’t do that, what are they? Liars. That’s what God says.

Now, you have to multiply that then into all aspects of life of obedience. What in our lives need to be repented of? Are there things in our life that we need to repent of? And we have things that we always have things to work on. Why? Because our nature is selfish. It’s just ugly.

God’s, however, we can have access to that and be cleansed and be more fulfilled and have a greater love within the Body. Beautiful thing to experience.

If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, here we go… we lie. God is just calling it what it is. …and are not doing… See, exercising; that’s what this sermon is about. …not doing, practicing, living, exercising, in essence, the truth in our life.

That’s why over the past few years certain things that are really far more obvious God has brought to the surface that individuals have not repented of. Some heinous things that have been hidden in the darkness. They’re so heinous I wouldn’t even want to mention them, done by individuals who associated, who came into the temple and claimed in essence by being there that they were a part of the Body of Christ, and they had been cut off years before that because of the heinous deeds of their life that God has brought to the surface.

So, they had all that time to repent and did not repent and did not change. And if individuals will not change in those kinds of situations God says clean it up, get rid of it. So, God has cleaned it up in different ways. And if you knew some of those things, which I’m not going to go into nor tell you, you would be dumbfounded, it’s just better to know that there have been things that have happened throughout time, throughout the time I’ve been in God’s Church.

I’ve seen a lot of things, a lot of things that individuals have done that they’ve lied about, that they’ve come into the Church and had fellowship and they’ve done evil things – really evil. Didn’t quit. Didn’t repent. Didn’t change. That’s not the truth and yet those things God has allowed to happen. And really, what was far worse than that there are some really ugly physical things that have happened in people’s lives, things they’ve done.

But far worse than that are individuals who were taught by teachers at Ambassador College who have gone out and taught lies to God’s people. That’s far more heinous if we understand that. To distort, to twist the truth of God and tell people lies like 14/15 Passover? That destroys people. That kills people spiritually. People who adopt that and latch on to those things, removes them from the Body of Christ. When they commit such sins and begin to believe such trash because some minister told them that 14/15 was the proper way of addressing or keeping the Sabbath, or even just the 15th like the Jews, “Because the Jews can’t be wrong can they?” Christ said they were wrong two thousand years ago. Duh! Anyway, we won’t go there.

“So if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk…” and what else would we want if we’re in the Church? God’s way of life, the truth, the way to think right toward each other, to love one another. What else would we want? To do things the way God says to do them? Absolutely.

Verse 7—But if we walk in the light… So again, that’s a matter of choice. It’s a matter of living it and doing what we’re told and striving to do it, striving to fight against our carnal human nature, repenting on a regular basis when we see the sin. That’s walking in the light. Because as soon as we repent of something it’s gone and we’re in the light. God stays in us. Christ stays in us. His spirit continues to dwell in us. That is the only way to remain in the light, to continue in the light, is that God be there.

And how is that consistent then? When we repent consistently. Because we’re agreeing with God, we’re growing in character, we’re agreeing we’re wrong, God’s right. I want to get rid of all the crap in my life. I don’t know about you. I want to get rid of all the stink and the stench and the ugliness, the putrid part. Because selfishness, I’ll tell you what, the more you see, it really stinks. Selfishness is such an ugly, ugly thing. But we have to become deeply convicted of that. I don’t want it in me. It’s there. It’s a battle I have. Because we all have it. You’ll have it until you’re changed because our human nature, our physical nature, our physical bodies, and minds are geared that way and they don’t change until they are changed from physical to spirit. So, you have a battle in your hands until you’re gone out of this physical body.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another—Beautiful!—and the blood of Joshua the Christ His Son is cleansing us from all sin. How? Because we’re repenting. We’re doing what we’re supposed to do. We’re agreeing with God. We’re saying, “I don’t want that which is wrong, that which is in the darkness in my life. I want to repent of it whenever I see it. I want help. I want God’s spirit so I can do what is right, so I can continue to see what is right, so I can continue to see the light and live in the light.” What else would we want?

Verse 8—If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Do we all acknowledge, 100%, every member, every person in the Church of God that we have sin? Duh! Yes. Because we all have selfishness and selfishness by itself produces sin. You can’t live a perfect life. You can strive to, and that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re to strive to live what is right, to do what is right.

I could be out here on the stinking highway in a very short period of time and already that’s all it takes. Already I’m fighting a battle in thinking that ninety percent of the people are just nuts out here, and they shouldn’t have driver’s licenses. That can affect how you think toward others around you because that’s the way we are. That’s the way we tend to think. We have to be careful how we think toward others. So, we have battles in different areas of our life.

As soon as we get out in a crowd? I can go out in a shopping mall, and it doesn’t take very long. I’ve got a certain width here for four people to get down, or five, and there are four people wide coming right at me. Who is going to give? I have to stand up against the wall, let people by? Or do you have a little battle there in your mind and you’re going to see who gives first?

I’ve done that a few times in my life. I’ve held my ground. “You want to run into me? I’m braced. I’m ready. If you want to be that selfish and you don’t care about anybody else except your little group or what you’re doing and you’re going to run into me, then I’m going to stand right here. Go ahead, do it!”

Now, is that the right way of doing it? Are we called to set lessons, give lessons? No, but sometimes the carnality gets you. It’s like, okay. It would be better if I would just slam myself up against the wall and let them by and make a scene and say, “Aaaaaah!” No, sorry.

But we just have this nature in us. We do. We’ve just got to acknowledge it and keep fighting it. Are we going to trip and do stupid things and say things we shouldn’t to one another in life? Yes. But we have to strive to correct those things when they come out of us.

So again here, verse 8—If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. We all have sin. We all have selfish carnal nature. If we confess our sins… See, it’s repentance. That’s the beauty. That’s a beautiful thing to God when we will acknowledge sin. That’s when we do it, when we repent before God, and tell Him, “I’m wrong. I want repentance,” or whatever it is that you’ve done, and you want His holy spirit to keep fighting this because you can’t do it on your own. You just ask God for help. That’s what He wants from us. He wants us to see self. Because we can’t change without it. That’s a part of the transforming process.

…He is faithful. I know that. I hope you know that. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. You never have to be concerned about that. Just know and know that you know that as soon as you repent it’s gone, and God will continue to abide in you. You ask then as well for God’s spirit because you know you need that help and you’re acknowledging to God, “I know what I am, and I know that I need Your help to conquer and overcome.”

…He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So it’s a continual thing that goes on in our life.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His truth, the logos, His Word, is not in us. And sadly, I have known of people who have gotten to that point in life. It’s like they don’t grasp that they have sin in their life. They are better than that. You think, no, you’ve got sin in your life, and you’ve got to continue to fight it.

1 John 2:1—My little children, I write these things to you, so that you not sin. But knowing full well that we do. Then our ability to acknowledge it. But it’s the battle, it’s what we should strive to do, is not to have it.

Then if anyone does sin—see—we have an advocate. Now, I love this because there are a couple of places this is used, one over in John, where it talks about this. When Christ on the night of Passover told the disciples that there was this advocate that they could have access to. The holy spirit. He was talking about the holy spirit that would give us the help we need. It’s a word that means “helper,” or as it literally means, “called to one’s aid.” God is ready there to come to our aid. He wants to give us of His holy spirit. Christ spoke those things in John 14. Awesome!

So, we have an advocate. Now it’s about Christ, our High Priest. We have an advocate with the Father, Joshua the Christ, the righteous, our helper, because it starts with Passover. He’s our Passover. God has given him to us, in that respect, he gave himself to us, an unleavened life, to die, have his blood spilled to the earth so we could be forgiven of our sins.Then made our High Priest that we could receive help of his life and the Father dwelling in us.

Even he is the propitiation for our sins. That’s where it starts. …and not only ours but also for the whole world. So, in time (and we know the plan of God), through the Millennium, the Great White Throne greater things are going to be done in the sense of the numbers of people, and the greater the truth that they have, the ability to see.

Verse 3—Even hereby we do know that we know him, if… So, there is a confidence that comes if we keep His commandments. The word means “to guard; to keep watch,” if you will, “to guard over,” “to watch over” His word. His commandments, his instruction, that of Christ, that of God the Father, but it gets very specific here in 1 John as to what some of these things are that we really need to see more clearly in the sense of being able to measure our self within the Body of Christ.

Verse 4—Whoever says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar. So, it’s brought this up more than once now about if we’re not doing what is right, if we’re not living what is right we either are in the truth, living the truth, striving to live the truth or we’re allowing a lie, a deception to exist in our lives and trying to project that to others. We can go through the motions.

I’ve lived through this so much since 1969, and especially within the ministry, of seeing people who strive to project to others, “We’re in the Church and we’re living the same thing as you’re living and going to Sabbath services and going to the Holy Days and going out to eat and enjoying one another’s company,” in that respect, but not taking it even in some cases to a level of philia. It’s just selfish. And definitely not to a level of being genuine and true because of various sins. And when people have various sins in their life and won’t repent…? It’s better that those things are gone.

It's like coming to an understanding that it’s far better that Satan and the demonic world is gone forever. Anyone who chooses that way, that thinking, it’s better if they’re gone. In the Body of Christ, if individuals are going to continue to live in sin, cheat, lie to God, steal from God, which is mind-boggling, commit sins in their life that they shouldn’t be committing and know full well they shouldn’t be committing them (which I’ve been mentioning here in the last few weeks), some of those kinds of things that are done too often then in people’s lives, and if that happens the Body is better off without it.

Because it's like Paul talked about, “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Leaven spreads. The reality is it hurts the Body and it’s better that it’s gone. Hopefully, we grasp that more fully and the need to get rid of leaven, the need to get rid of sin in our lives, the need to strive to practice to live what God says is how we’re to live. All this that John is talking about is about fellowship and a desire we should have toward one another within the fellowship of the Church, that we be a genuine, close family in our thinking toward one another and our thinking towards others in the world as well, obviously.

But here is the area where that is practiced, in congregation to congregation. It doesn’t matter how large or how small it is. Sometimes we’re tested more being smaller. You know, some of the areas, you know in times past, in Worldwide where there were hundreds in a Church congregation I think when I was first called, the first Church I went to. Of course, the first one I went to had just barely over a hundred when I was first baptized. There for only a short time then went off to another area to live, and there were almost six hundred people in that Church.

Well, that was six times more than the whole town I lived in and grew up in, so a totally different world. Then Churches back then, three hundred people, four hundred people, because they wouldn’t split until they got up around five hundred or six hundred. Then the minister might have an AM and a PM Church or something like that, then they would have the expense of more coming in and work in an area because if they split up in different Churches.

So, it was easier a lot of times back then for people to get along, because they could gravitate to people who were like them. That’s generally what happened. And after a while, you have these cliques. Different people, in time that’s what grew. Why? Because we’re carnal human beings. Then we can deceive ourselves into thinking everything is fine in the Church, we love everybody. But then why are you always with the same group and you can’t mix with anyone else? Why don’t I ever see you visiting with someone else, talking to someone else? Why is it always the same, same ones?

Well, the reality is it’s because it’s easier to gravitate to likeness of whatever is in the mind. To understand that, there’s a lot there. But what an awesome thing when God can call so many people with so many different backgrounds, literally, as we have in PKG, because then you can see it more. Because in the big congregations people got lost and couldn’t see these things as clearly. It’s easier to deceive oneself in a larger congregation.

But if we’re small, to me there is a beauty in that. Because if anything is wrong with anyone you better address it. If there is a way of looking upon somebody in a wrong way, you better address it in your life. You better make sure your mind is right with God because if it isn’t you’re actually going through the motions of cutting yourself off from God.

We are to love one another, genuinely so, truthfully so, and if it’s not true and it’s not genuine then something is wrong. If it’s done in selfishness that’s not true. It’s not genuine. If it’s for our gain, our benefit, what are we doing? So, our thinking should be right toward one another.

Is there anything that anyone has against anyone else? Because if you do, you’re just living wrong, you’re thinking wrong toward your brother. Do we want the best for everyone? Do we want others to have what we have, if we feel that we have something that we want others to have?

So, these are the kinds of things we have to ask ourselves and make sure that we’re right with one another, that we think right. Because I know of skirmishes, I know of situations where people haven’t gotten along, where people argue and fight over certain things or get jealous or envious or get their feelings hurt, get offended by someone else. That’s a bunch of you-know-what. It’s just wrong.

So, where is the wrong? Where is the wrong thinking? The majority of times, it’s self! It’s easy to point outward and say something toward someone else and have these other fingers pointing back. Because that’s what we ought to be looking at, ourselves. “Why do I think that way?” “Why do I feel that way toward…?” That’s what we have to ask. And make sure you’re right. Because if you’re not thinking right toward someone else you’re just wrong and you’re deceiving yourself. We ought to be able to answer that question.

So, is there anyone we have a problem with? That’s where you start. Is there anyone that you have a difficult time being around? …a difficult time talking to? …a difficult time sharing with? Because if you do you need to see something.

That’s what we’re being taught, told within all the Churches wherever we’re scattered right now. This is what we need to look at because we’re being judged by that now in a way that we haven’t in the past. Because now is the time to clean it up even more. This means we have opportunity to repent even more of areas where we’re wrong in our thinking toward one another.

We shouldn’t harbor any wrong feelings toward anyone. That in itself is sin. Don’t we grasp that by now? Is there anyone we can’t love? …can’t want what is best for them?

I want to see everyone whom we visit have opportunity to live on into a new age. With all my being I want that. Isn’t that what we should want for one another? And if we don’t have a right thinking toward one another then how can that be true in our life? Is that the way we really think, or do we carry these things around that we have these sensitivities towards others and we’re on guard about what they might say?

Well, if someone has a particular weakness in an area and they tend to say things bad to you – you think they’re bad; maybe they’re not always bad. But sometimes people can think…well, they’re finding some reason and what they’ve said in that way. Like the sandpaper, you know, it’s rubbing against each other. That shouldn’t be there.

And even if someone is very deadly wrong in what they said to you, how do you deal with that? Do you love them? Do you want to and desire for them to be able to see what they’re doing? And if there’s something that can be done and said or whatever, that it be done in the right way, not in a self-righteous way.

Because I’ve seen so much of that in times past in the Church, in Philadelphia, and Laodicea especially where people would go to others totally self-righteous and lifted up and puffed up with pride and putting someone else down because it’s their chance to show them that they’re wrong about something. That’s not love. That’s just sickness, perversion. I hope we understand all those things.

But this is what we’re supposed to be seeing now more than ever before in the Church, because we’re getting really close, okay? We’re getting really close to a time period here where this world is going to go off. We don’t have a lot of time to change certain things and so we need to strive to make sure we’re living, walking what is right, exercising right thinking toward one another and not getting upset with each other over trivial things.

Because really, what we do as human beings is sometimes in relationships and we have these barriers between one another, it’s very trivial. Things of jealousy or envy or suspicion or a wrong judgment toward someone else because we feel more righteous than what they are. It’s that kind of garbage we’ve got to get rid of and just love each other, really want what’s best for one another.

So, we have those opportunities. That’s opportunities to change, to grow, to really love one another within the Body, and strive to live right toward each other. It’s a beautiful thing.

Whoever says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in them. But whoever keeps His word, if we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing, living what we’re supposed to be living toward one another… But whosoever keeps His word, truly in them is the love, agape.

John is talking about here this need for agape, God’s love, but letting us know there are things we have to do in order to have it exercised or come through our life. And if we’re not doing those things, it’s not going to come through us, which means in reality that God’s spirit is not going to be coming through us. So, we have to see that connection in fellowship in our relationships within the Body.

But whoever keeps his word, truly in them is the love of God, it’s God’s love, perfected. I want that. I think everyone else really wants that, wants that kind of love in us to perfect us in that kind of thinking toward one another.

That’s why these things of jealousy or pride that sometimes enters into people or being jealous of someone else or thinking that they have something we don’t have, and we want that. There is no place for that in the Church of God, in God’s Family. We are to love each other—How many different ways can you say it?—without anything in between that causes problems with that?

Who so keeps his word, truly in them is the love of God perfected. By this, we know that we are in Him. Because you see, if that doesn’t exist, if we don’t think that way and we know that we have some difficulties with someone, we’ve got to take care of this first. We’ve got to go before God and acknowledge to Him our wrong thinking toward someone else that belongs to Him.

It’s so easy to think others should be doing something in a different way and judge them accordingly, that they’re not doing something right. But you know what? All we have to do is look in a spiritual mirror and we’ve got plenty to work on ourselves. We truly do. We better be doing that first and foremost. We have to be careful of wrong thinking towards others and judging of others because it tends to lift ourselves up as being better. That’s an ugly thing before God, to lift ourselves up that somehow we know better and we’re able to judge those that God says we have no business judging. That’s His job. He’ll take care of it His way.

And you know what His way is? One of mercy, patience, love, and on and on it goes. That’s how He works with every one of us, and we have to learn to work that way toward one another. And if we’re thinking wrong toward someone, to fight against that.

But whoever keeps His word, in him truly is the love of God perfected. By this, we know that we are in Him. That’s what we want. We want to be in God and God in us, the power of His holy spirit living there.

Whoever says that they abide in Him ought themselves also to walk even as he walked. This is the most important key of everything that’s said by John right here. It’s hard to see on a spiritual plane; it’s harder to live on a spiritual plane. The reality is we really can’t live this without God’s spirit.

So, he’s making it very clear, he’s building upon something he’s already said before from the beginning as far as his ministry was concerned, as far as what he wrote in the book of John, “Whosoever says they abide in Him ought themselves to also walk even as he walked.” Who? Christ. And if we’re not doing that then we’re not living up to what we’re supposed to be living. We ought to know that none of us can walk that perfectly, so we have a lot of repenting on a constant basis to do in our lives. I know I do. So, we all do. We keep fighting and we keep fighting and we keep fighting, and that’s what determines truth, light, and so forth.

This is a key verse that we’re to recognize for it’s about how Christ walked. That’s what John is talking about, that that’s what the measurement is here. In everything that he’s saying this is the comparison he’s making when he uses the other word for love, “agapaó; in this manner.” In the manner of what he’s instructing it all always goes back to this, that we are to walk as he, Christ, walked. Pretty tall item.

To love others. What a beautiful thing to understand that kind of love. So, it’s about John 13:34. That’s how Christ walked. It’s stated here as the greatest statement of all (of understanding how he always walked), but this is how it was displayed to be seen by everyone, by us.

John 13:34—This is what Christ said on the day of Passover, the day he was going to be killed – during the night of the Passover when he was teaching the disciples. He says, A new commandment I give unto you… So, these are words, and we can read them as that’s a nice thing to say, but we’re supposed to live it day in and day out, especially within the Body of Christ.

…that you love, agapaó. A new commandment I give unto you that you love, agapaó, in other words, this is how you’re to love, in this manner, one another. This is a whole thrust of the book of 1 John. We’re to love in this manner. So, over and over again he’s comparing everything with this. This is how we’re to love, in this manner. If we’re not doing this we’re not living what we’re supposed to be living.

…as I have loved you. In the same manner. …that you also love one another. What was that? That was Passover night. It was about everything of what he came to do to be our Passover. Willing to love to the point of ultimate sacrifice of his own life, his own blood. Revealing to us that love, God’s love, is a sacrificing love. You have to sacrifice your own thoughts, attitudes, attitudes, and judgments and get rid of that stuff out of your life. Realize this is not what we’re called to.

We’re called to fight against those kinds of things and to genuinely love each other and to get rid of any of the obstacles. Because it comes down to, where is our sacrifice? What are we sacrificing?

Even if someone comes up and slaps you in the face, are you willing to sacrifice your feelings, your thoughts to do what is right in response, to recognize like David did when someone was cursing him and throwing rocks at him and said… Because his captain wanted to cut off his head right then and there. He wanted to ram him through with a spear, sword, whatever. David said “No, not so, because maybe God sent him. Maybe there is something I’m supposed to hear. Maybe there is something I’m not listening to, and I need to listen.”

What an attitude! To look at something in that regard and think, “Maybe I better listen. Maybe there is something that I need to see here that I’m not seeing.” A willingness to judge self first before judging and condemning and killing the other? That takes a lot. And if we do it on a regular basis it takes God’s spirit.

So, this is what God wants us to see and wants us to understand, that His love isn’t a philia kind of love. Isn’t that an amazing thing? Anyone who was in Philadelphia… We don’t have as many as we used to have. We’re getting older. What an awesome thing to understand that during that period of time, that’s what the Church was noted for. It wasn’t the Church of Agape. God didn’t call it that. He said it was the era of phila, Philadelphia. Which, that’s a start but it’s not what it’s all about. One group out there thought that’s the ultimate, that’s the epitome of everything so let’s call ourselves Philadelphia.

Don’t you want more? Don’t you know you need more? Don’t you know that’s not enough? That that’s a baby part of the picture? That’s barely a beginning spiritually. Everybody should have that, willingness to have philia, to be kind to each other. To have a fraternal kind of love shouldn’t be a hard thing to do in the Church of God.

But to have agape, that’s another matter because that comes from God. It’s a matter of God’s spirit. It’s a matter of one’s thinking, a matter of whether something is true in spirit or not, whether our relationship is right with God or not.

That’s what God is telling us now more than ever before, that this is what we’re to see, to cleanse our lives even more in the greatest relationship He wants us to grasp – Elohim. Begotten members of Elohim growing in the womb waiting for a time to be born.

And who wouldn’t want everyone to be able to be born into that, to be willing to sacrifice our own ways, that we think someone else should be doing a certain thing or how they should be doing it? “It’s not the way I would do it.” Well, no, there are many ways of doing things, and the main thing is we do it right before God. The main thing is we’re judging self always, always always.

Remember that example of David when rocks were being thrown at him, when he was being cursed, in essence. He said, “No, there may be something I need to see.” What a beautiful thing. Because the reality is we always have something to see. If something is wrong in a relationship there is something we need to see in ourselves. We’ve got to be very careful that we’re not thinking wrong then towards someone who we feel has hurt us, offended us.

Why are we offended? Where does that come from? Well, you better start here. That’s what it’s all about, looking at self.

That you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. It’s a beautiful scripture.

That’s enough to build upon until next Sabbath.

1. Chapter 1