In the home authority resides with the parents. This is enforced humility. Whether a child is reared by both parents, only one, or another adult as a surrogate parent, the parents possess the authority and responsibility to train their children, designate policy, and require that their children comply with that policy. As long as a child resides under his parents’ roof or receives their financial support, he is subject to their jurisdiction.
Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it. (Prov. 22:6, NASB)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), that it may be well with you [in adulthood], and that you may live long on the earth. (Eph. 6:1-3, NASB)
Children, be obedient to your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing to the Lord. (Col. 3:20, NASB)
Hopefully, parents are more discerning, prudent, and disciplined than their minor children, but this head start quickly disappears as the child approaches adulthood. In the child’s early, formative years, the father and mother must exploit these advantages to establish an environment of authority in which their children can grow and mature. Certainly love is not excluded from the training process, but parents properly express their love and instill a true sense of adventure, self-esteem, and personal destiny in their children only when the family organization establishes, enforces, and maintains high standards of thought and action. Within this structure of stability and discipline, the parents treat the child as a person, not as an achiever who must constantly prove himself, earn his parents’ love and approbation, and uphold the family name. When excessive pressure to justify himself is removed, the child has maximum opportunity to live his own life and develop capacity for happiness and freedom as an adult.
Authority demands responsibility, but no parent is perfect; all make mistakes from time to time. God’s system of enforced humility in the home does not require perfection. Certainly every responsible parent strives to be as fair as possible (Eph. 6:4a), but most important is a consistent system of authority (Col. 3:20). The objectivity of enforced humility, implemented by his parents, gives the child a stable, external support on which to grow and learn. The child himself is unstable enough without having to contend with weakness, permissiveness, vacillation, and continual inconsistency from his parents.
When a child responds positively to parental discipline and respects authority in the home, he becomes teachable. This genuine humility gives him the capacity to learn from his parents; he is receptive to being inculcated with truth. All parents are responsible for teaching their children to be thoughtful, courteous, and respectful of the privacy, property, and authority of others, as demanded by the laws of divine establishment. Christian parents are entrusted with the additional responsibility of presenting the Gospel to their children and educating them in Bible doctrine (Eph. 6:4b). Genuine humility in the home is the child’s self-motivated obedience to parental authority and instruction.
The objective of rearing a child is to prepare him to eventually leave home with an adult soul to match his adult body. This transition from authority in the home to freedom in life is one of the most difficult of all transitions. Many people never make the changeover. Enslaved by ignorance and arrogance, they remain mentally childish long after they become physical adults.
Such people never acquire the true independence of human maturity, which is self-restraint in accepting responsibility for one’s own life. They would rather be slaves than free. Slaves are restrained by others and are responsible for nothing; juvenile “adults” shrink from controlling themselves or accepting the liability for their own thoughts, decisions, or actions. They avoid the most basic freedom, the freedom within one’s own soul to think and make choices. Their unwillingness to be free manifests itself in incessant complaining. They blame their past or other people for all their failures, insecurity, and frustration; they are preoccupied with themselves.
An immature person has no capacity for impersonal or personal love. Like a cocked pistol with a hair trigger, his arrogance waits to take offense at the slightest snub or inattention. And anyone hypersensitive about himself is always insensitive to others. His subjectivity precludes alertness to anyone else’s feelings; the thoughtfulness of impersonal love cannot exist when a person concentrates only on an exaggerated image of himself.
Instead of operating from a position of strength in the divine dynasphere, the childish person depends on others for his happiness. In weakness and selfishness he demands the impossible: unconditional personal love, such as an infant receives from its parents. He demands unmerited love and attention from other people, and if such approbation is not forthcoming he conspires to make them as miserable as he is. This is the demand syndrome, in which a weak person seeks to control everyone in his periphery.
The courtesy and generosity of a truly noble individual may render him vulnerable to such unscrupulous manipulation. By exploiting the strengths of honorable people, the weak control the strong. Eventually the man of integrity must discern that he is being victimized and separate himself mentally or physically from the petty tyrant in his midst. The arrogant believer in the demand syndrome has never learned that his happiness depends on his own free will exercised in the divine dynasphere, not on what others must think of him or do for him. Inordinately possessive, perpetually jealous, and in love with himself, he never acquires the capacity to admire or love anyone else.
When a young person leaves home, the new organization for humility is his own soul. He must face the reality of who and what he is; he must assume responsibility for all his thoughts and actions and for the development of his own integrity. He must learn his limitations, abilities, and strengths and live within them without frustration, without fighting them, and without demanding equality with anyone else.
Freedom and equality can never coexist. God’s protection of freedom guarantees that inequality will be a perpetual historical trend. Never in the history of mankind can equality be achieved: first, because Satan gives preferential treatment to his servants and, second, because God has designated human volition to be the key issue in the angelic conflict. Both Satan’s injustice and God’s perfect justice insure human inequality in all dispensations.
We are born unequal, but the very fact that God perpetuates our lives after birth means that we are also born with opportunity. Each individual is given the chance to succeed or fail, but even in success or failure inequality still exists. No two people succeed to the same degree, and no two equally fail. In periods of general prosperity, some people prosper more than others; in hard times some still prosper more than others. In an environment of freedom, as in the United States, inequality exists; under socialism or marxism inequality also exists. Whatever the economic, social, or political conditions, inequality remains an inescapable fact of life.
One person may be less intelligent than another, yet he may surpass the intellectual in common sense, practicality, integrity, physical attractiveness, or athletic ability. Everyone possesses some trait in which he stands above other people and other traits in which he is inferior. No equality exists in any category, but that should not be a cause of frustration. There is nothing wrong because someone is better than you are in some field. A humble person eschews jealousy and appreciates excellence wherever it is found.
Inequality is not detrimental in itself. Inequality is distorted into a problem by the arrogance of resenting inequality or by the self-pity of refusing to face reality and exploit the opportunities of one’s own capacity in a particular realm.
Beginning with the woman in the Garden, who desired to be equal with God (Gen. 3:5-6), mankind continually seeks to solve the problem of inequality. But alleged solutions merely create new inequalities. “Liberty, equality, fraternity” became the motivation of the French Revolution, but in deposing the crown and declassing the aristocracy, the conspirators elevated themselves. They did not want equality; they lusted for power, vengeance, and superiority. Robespierre climbed to power proclaiming equality, but inaugurated the Reign of Terror, in which the guillotine claimed 40,000 lives, in order to control his fellow citizens and prevent his rivals from resolving their inequality with him. Victor Hugo later wrote that equality is merely the political translation of the word envy.
Violence or revolution never solves any personal, social, economic, or political problem, nor is equality a solution. The solution to people’s problems is not equality, but freedom and the “pursuit of happiness,” as expressed in our Constitution.
Happiness can and does exist in every category of society (Phil. 4:11-13). Some poor people are happy; some rich people are happy. Some who would be considered failures are happy; some successful people are happy. The dissatisfied office boy who assumes he would be happy as the president of the company is deluded. He would only take his old unhappiness with him into his new situation.
A dramatic historical example of a man who maintained his capacity for life under diverse circumstances is Joseph (Gen. 37—50). As a youth in Canaan, he was happy while superior to his elder brothers. During his adventures in Egypt he was happy as a slave, as the overseer of Potiphar’s estates, as a forgotten prisoner, and as prime minister of the Egyptian empire. Although Joseph was stripped of his insignia of rank—the coat of many colors—by his jealous brothers, he retained his leadership ability. They could not remove his mental attitude. His integrity and happiness remained. Joseph was a leader under any circumstance and was as industrious at the bottom of the social scale as he was at the top. Slavery and prison tested and strengthened Joseph; God included inequality tests in his education, grooming this man of genuine humility to become the greatest man of his generation. Joseph remained faithful to the Lord, and his abilities were recognized, although he remained a slave. He was promoted within the system of slavery (Gen. 39:1-5) and within the system of prison administration (Gen. 39:21-23). Rather than complain or conspire to gain his physical freedom, Joseph exercised the freedom in his soul. He oriented to his circumstances while exploiting the opportunities that God provided.
Joseph illustrates the principle that there is nothing demeaning in inequality. Overt status symbols and success standards are not the issue. The true issue is: Are you adjusted to life where you are? Are you grateful for what you have? Are you happy where you are? If you make yourself miserable there, you will never be happy anywhere else. Nor is there any excuse for unhappiness, because God has provided the logistical grace for every believer’s spiritual momentum in the divine dynasphere. The believer’s happiness depends on his attitude toward learning and applying Bible doctrine. Only you can make yourself happy; only you can make yourself unhappy.
By the time a person leaves home, he must understand that the most significant issue in his life is his own volition. Each individual life is determined by volition, not by environment, genetics, or any other factor that psychology or sociology might hypothesize. Decisions create environment, not environment decisions. Man is designed to be formed and shaped by his volition. The proper use of volition makes freedom and happiness a reality; the ignoble or irresolute use of volition enslaves him to the details of life. Despite any limitations in circumstances, talent, mentality, health, or appearance, each person has a soul—organizational humility—and the realization of his life’s potentialities comes from his free will. Within the organizational humility of the soul, volition carries the authority.
Enforced and Genuine Humility in the Soul
When a person uses his volition to obey legitimate authority, he has enforced humility. In his job or profession he submits with enforced humility to the authority of his boss. In athletics he willingly respects the authority of the coach and officials. In school he respects the teachers and administrators and adheres to their policies. In every contact with other people, his enforced humility causes him to respect their personal freedom, rights, privacy, and property. Even good manners manifest humility.
If a child fails to learn humility in the home, he must eventually learn it the hard way from the police officer, the judge, a demanding coach, an exacting employer. In this regard universal military training is vital to any nation. Military training contributes to national defense and, whether or not required by law, represents each man’s obligation to his nation’s freedom. Military service also sets up a buffer zone in which young men can acquire the discipline they lacked at home—only now under the more stringent demands of a tough drill sergeant.
Still, the best conditions for developing humility are in the home. Few people who establish a pattern of rebellion against their parents ever develop capacity for life, love, or happiness. The young person immersed in unrestrained recalcitrance closes down his future options. Bad decisions become cumulative; each abuse of freedom further reduces his chances of exploiting what God has provided.
Every person lives within the overlapping jurisdictions of different systems of authority, each of which predetermines certain decisions by its policies. If he obeys the rules and contributes to the purpose of those systems of authority that pertain to him, he possesses enforced humility. Orientation to authority is orientation to objective reality.
Genuine humility in an adult soul is a system of thinking and a way of life. As a system of thinking, humility is freedom from arrogance and human viewpoint; as a way of life, humility is grace orientation and capacity for life, thriving under legitimate authority. A believer with genuine humility has the self-discipline necessary to fulfill his objectives in life beyond what anyone requires, forces, or influences him to do. He possesses a personal sense of destiny in that he eagerly submits to the plan of God for his life. He understands the eternal significance of the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ so that he positively controls his life, redeems his time, and keeps his priorities straight. He knows that God’s plan is greater than he is; he keeps his eye on the goal.
I have fought that honorable fight. I have finished the course. I have guarded the doctrine [resident in my soul]. In the future a wreath of righteousness [one of many eternal rewards] is reserved for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge [evaluator], will award to me on that day [the judgment seat of Christ], and not only to me but also to all those [mature believers] who love His appearance [the Rapture]. (2 Tim. 4:7-8)
The believer with genuine humility knows the doctrines of supergrace and eternal rewards, lives in the light of eternity, and enjoys life to the maximum.
HUMILITY IN THE LOCAL CHURCH
God has established a third category of organizational humility, besides the home and the soul, for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to the divine institutions for believer and unbeliever, the autonomous local church is a Christian institution, a provision of logistical grace.
Like all effective organizations the local church has purpose, policy, and authority. Its purpose is the communication and inculcation of Bible doctrine. Local church policy is derived from the doctrine taught by the pastor, and all policy and enforcement of policy must support objective Bible teaching. The pastor insists on good manners and restricts activities that would distract serious students from concentrating on the Word of God (2 Tim. 2:14-17). The pastor holds the highest authority in the local church (Heb. 13:7, 17). He oversees a system of administration which, under his overall authority, is staffed by various church officers and deacons to insure the efficient, responsible operation of the church. The pastor’s authoritative teaching and his system of delegated authority constitute enforced humility for the royal family.
Within this system of enforced humility, genuine humility is the believer’s positive volition toward Bible doctrine. Humility, both enforced and genuine, provides teachability. If you are subjective, if you are continually proving yourself to others, if you relate everything in life to yourself, you are arrogant and unreceptive to all categories of truth. As does any unbeliever, the believer requires genuine humility to adjust to life in general, but he also needs genuine humility to faithfully learn and apply doctrine in the divine dynasphere. The believer’s humility is positive volition toward the truth of Bible doctrine as well as the truth of divine establishment.
An arrogant believer may listen to Bible teaching every day, but he is unteachable. He may go through all the proper motions; he may be considered a pillar of the church; but he remains preoccupied with himself. He is too subjective to accept the doctrines that expose his frailties and foibles. A hypocritical eclectic, he chooses to believe only what he wishes to hear and refuses to submit to the whole realm of doctrine. As a result he never grows spiritually despite his continual exposure to doctrine. The humble believer attends Bible teaching to learn God’s system, not to agree or disagree with the pastor. When a person does not know what God’s plan is, his agreement or disagreement means nothing. The humble believer grows because he is receptive to the truth rather than protective of his inflated opinion of himself.
A person who becomes a believer in adulthood has an advantage in the Christian life if he was authority-oriented as an unbeliever. When he accepts Christ, he is already teachable. That gives him an edge; he will have little difficulty respecting the authority of the Bible and the pastor. He has something wonderful going as an unbeliever; now he has something infinitely better. He has access to new power in gate one, to new truth in gate four, and if he persists his momentum will carry him to the marvelous advantages of maturity in gate eight. The genuinely humble unbeliever who accepts Christ already possesses an affinity for the divine dynasphere. He has a foundation for virtue. As he learns the doctrine of the love complex, he recognizes this system to be the accelerator of his freedom rather than a confining maze of mandates, commandments, and prohibitions, as seen by the believer who resists authority.
A person who has grown up a rebel will have a difficult time as a Christian just as he will in any endeavor in life. He brings with him into Christianity the prejudices and reactions from his past, all of which he must overcome. But while there is life there is hope; God supplies him with the logistical grace to grow up spiritually. His environment or background is no excuse for failure to advance in the plan of God. He can develop respect for authority and truth. Under strict academic discipline and enforced humility he must persevere under the authority and doctrinal teaching of his pastor. He must interlock gates one and three with gate two, avoiding mental attitude sins when he is tempted to malign the pastor, resent his message, or criticize other believers in the congregation. He must remain constantly alert and rebound quickly when he sins.
For any believer the transition from ignorance of doctrine at salvation to cognizance at maturity is as difficult as the transition from authority in the home to freedom in adulthood. Few believers succeed. Most lack the tenacity day after day, year after year, to make the many right decisions to learn and apply Bible doctrine, to keep residing and functioning in the divine dynasphere.
Submission to Establishment Authority
The laws of divine establishment embrace all mankind. Since our Lord Jesus Christ was true humanity, He, too, was subject to these laws. Born into the organizational humility of a family, He grew up under the enforced humility of His parents. In genuine humility He was always obedient to His parents until He reached maturity (Luke 2:40, 51).
Christ as an adult was subject to the same system of humility that for us replaces the authority of the home. Our Lord’s human soul was His organizational humility, and His positive volition in resisting every temptation to sin was His enforced humility. He was always obedient to the truth. By His own self-discipline He perpetually resided inside the divine dynasphere and developed maximum capacity for life. His enforced humility merged into genuine humility.
Since our Lord lived prior to the Church Age, the local church was not yet established, but Jesus fulfilled the principle of learning doctrine under authority (Luke 2:46). So diligent was He in His studies that at age twelve, He surpassed the theologians in His understanding of Old Testament Scriptures (Luke 2:46-47).
Submission to a Unique Destiny
The prototype divine dynasphere was designed to sustain the humanity of Christ in accomplishing His unique mission, His destiny on earth. God’s plan for the First Advent called for Christ to enter Satan’s domain as a man, to remain impeccable and thus acceptable to divine righteousness, and to voluntarily go to the cross as our substitute in payment for the sins of mankind. Christ lived under this additional system of humility to which we do not and cannot adhere.
The plan of God was organizational humility for Christ. The will of God—the sovereignty of the Father, the author of the divine plan—was enforced humility. Christ’s obedience to the Father’s plan by going to the cross was genuine humility. Shortly before He was betrayed, Jesus expressed in prayer His genuine humility under divine authority.
Saying, “Father, if Thou art willing [God’s sovereignty over the humanity of Christ], remove this cup [the cross] from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done [Christ’s genuine humility].” (Luke 22:42, NASB)
Although the prospect of bearing our sins was abhorrent to Christ, He humbly submitted to divine judgment in our place.
Keep on thinking this within yourself [gate four of the divine dynasphere], which was also resident in Christ Jesus, who though He existed eternally in the essence of God [Christ is God], did not think equality with God a profit to be seized and held [unlike Satan, Jesus was not arrogant], but He deprived Himself [of the proper function of deity, voluntarily limiting Himself in order to execute God’s plan] when He had received the form of a slave, when He was born in the likeness of mankind [perfect man, like Adam before the Fall]. In fact, although He was discovered in the outward appearance as a man [without a sin nature], He humbled Himself [genuine humility] by becoming obedient to the point of death, that is, the death of the cross. (Phil. 2:5-8)36
Christ’s attitude sets the example: Equality was unimportant to Him. Although coequal with the Father and Holy Spirit, “He did not think equality with God a profit to be seized and held.” Our Lord the Creator submitted to the utter humility of becoming a creature, a man who was ignored, rejected, misrepresented, ridiculed, and ultimately crucified. Despite abuse and injustice from people and the ignominy of exposing Himself to presumptuous, arrogant attacks from Satan, whom He had created, Christ never succumbed to approbation lust or inordinate ambition. He was motivated by His personal love for God; genuine humility gave Jesus capacity to appreciate God’s faithful support (John 11:41). Far from being discouraged or bitter, our Lord’s attitude was one of constant thanksgiving, which is the essence of true worship. Yet, without humility gratitude cannot exist.
No Self-glorification, No Self-deprecation
Jesus Christ had nothing to prove. He came to pay for man’s sins, not to trumpet His own cause. Our Lord did not exalt Himself (John 8:50); the Father exalted Him (Ps. 110:1). The mission of glorifying Christ on earth was assigned to the Holy Spirit (John 16:14). The Holy Spirit empowered the apostles to spread the Gospel of Christ and to record Church Age doctrine in the New Testament: The Spirit now empowers us to glorify Christ inside the divine dynasphere.
Christ succeeded in every respect (John 15:10). He relied on the Father’s power system and was sustained by the Holy Spirit throughout His life, never once utilizing His own divine power to act independently of the Father's plan or to benefit Himself (Matt. 4:3-11).37 Christ’s submission to the plan of God resulted in the judgment at the cross; our submission results in the blessing of salvation. This complete reversal of the purpose of the divine dynasphere reveals the efficacy of Christ’s finished work and the scope of God’s impersonal love for all mankind.
Knowledge of Bible doctrine fuels in us the same mental dynamics that Christ possessed. Our genuine humility orients us to blessing, not judgment, from the love and integrity of God. Humility generates gratitude, which results in true worship and love for God. In blind arrogance some Christians falsely claim to be humble in that they follow Christ in His sufferings, failing to recognize that what Christ suffered on the cross was far beyond what any believer can experience or endure. There is no spiritual significance or merit in our pain; only the work of Christ on the cross was efficacious for our salvation. We add nothing to His finished work. There is no objectivity in the round shouldered, self-deprecating manner affected by some Christians as a supposed sign of spirituality. This is not what the Bible means by humility. Christianity is not a religion that glorifies believers for their legalism, sacrifice, and self-denial; Christianity is a life of multifaceted prosperity that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. False modesty is a subtle form of arrogance. Humility is orientation to principle, to truth, to the reality of God’s grace.
GATE FOUR: SPIRITUAL MOMENTUM
THE FOURTH GATE of the divine dynasphere is a double gate—perception and application of Bible doctrine—that opens upon the richest treasure in the universe. Bible doctrine is the thinking of God. The Bible is designated as the Word of God (Heb. 4:12), the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16), and the voice of the Holy Spirit (Heb. 3:7). Doctrine is our door to the reality of God and His marvelous plan. His Word is more reliable than anything we see, hear, smell, taste, or feel; more real than empirical knowledge (2 Pet. 1:12-21).
Bible doctrine preexisted the human race (Prov. 8) so that through the generosity of logistical grace, God makes available to us the wisdom of the ages. During the Church Age God reveals His essence and plan only through His written Word, the completed, inerrant canon of Scripture. Our attitude toward doctrine is our attitude toward God. If we pursue doctrine, we love God; if we listen to Bible teaching only at our convenience or when we are in trouble, then we ignore and insult God, despite our pious pretenses. The one form of worship that gives meaning to all other expressions of worship is the perception and application of doctrine. Without a thorough, growing knowledge of doctrine, any alleged worship of God becomes ritual without reality (Heb. 10:1-14).
I myself will worship toward the temple of Your holiness. (Ps. 138:2a)
When David wrote Psalm 138, the earthly temple did not yet exist. He was reflecting on the doctrine in his soul, which revealed God in the true Holy of Holies located in heaven.38 In the next generation David’s son, Solomon, would construct the temple in Jerusalem to exacting divine specifications. As a place of worship, the temple was designed to communicate doctrine by its very structure and furnishings.
And [I will] celebrate Your Person because of Your grace and because of Your truth [doctrine]. (Ps. 138:2b)
God’s grace enabled David to learn doctrine which gave him the capacity to appreciate and delight in the essence of God. God’s Person is who and what He is, His divine essence, the perfect coalescence of all His attributes. God has attributes, but God is a Person. Now David, looking down the corridors of time to the birth of his greater Son, Jesus Christ, makes one of the most dramatic statements in all of Scripture.
Because You [humanity of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union] have magnified Your Word [doctrinal teaching] over Your name [reputation]. (Ps. 138:2c)
Jesus Christ Himself elevates Bible doctrine above all else, above even His own Person. Doctrine is the thinking of Christ. He has “magnified” His thinking as the means of emphasizing to the believer the importance of doctrine. In no other way can we approach God, understand God, or fulfill God’s plan for our lives. Bible doctrine is more important than the food we eat or the air we breathe. Divine blessings in both time and eternity are distributed according to the believer’s understanding of doctrine (Isa. 53:12). Nations rise or fall because of doctrine (Micah 4:1-6). Jesus Christ controls history in reverence for the doctrine in the souls of believers. As we grow in knowledge of doctrine, we gain harmonious rapport with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Perception and application of Bible doctrine constitute the central gate of the divine dynasphere. The gates that precede gate four support its function; those that follow result from its function. Perception and application of God’s Word generate spiritual momentum in the Christian’s life.
MANDATES TO LEARN AND APPLY DOCTRINE
The Scriptures repeatedly mandate the intake and use of doctrine, as expressed by John in relation to several young people in his congregation in Ephesus (2 John 1-6). They were children of Lady Nympha, a noblewoman who opened her home in Laodicea to one of John’s six nonresident congregations (Col. 4:15-16; Rev. 2—3). John recognized Nympha’s magnificent work in rearing her children. Evidently she had accomplished this alone, as a widow, inculcating into them the respect of enforced humility. Several of her children had developed genuine humility and were positive toward Bible doctrine. They had moved from Laodicea to Ephesus in order to learn doctrine from John face-to-face, while their mother continued to hear his written sermons, or epistles, which were read to the congregation in her home.
I was very pleased because I discovered that some of your children continued their momentum by means of doctrine, even as we have received mandate from the Father. (2 John 4)
John explains that this divine command for “continued . . . momentum by means of doctrine” is obeyed only inside the divine dynasphere.
And now, great lady, I make a request of you, not as writing to you a new mandate but a command which you have heard from the beginning [of the Church Age], that we might love one another [with impersonal love], and the love [love complex] is this, that we should keep walking in compliance with His commands [learning doctrine depends on the other gates of the system]. And this is the mandate just as you heard from the beginning, that you should keep walking in it [residence and function in the love complex]. (2 John 5-6)
The divine mandate to learn and apply doctrine is implied in Paul’s dissertation on the pastor’s professional objectives.
And He [glorified Christ, the initial giver of spiritual gifts] gave some [certain members of the royal family] . . . [to be] pastor-teachers for the purpose of training and equipping the saints for spiritual combat, for the purpose of the occupation of the ministry [each pastor’s congregation will include future pastors], for the purpose of the edification [the edification complex of the soul, completed upon reaching gate eight of the divine dynasphere] of the body of Christ [the royal family on earth], because of the consistency of doctrinal teaching and the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature status, to the standard of maturity that belongs to the fullness of Christ [in the prototype divine dynasphere]. (Eph. 4:11-13)
Spiritual maturity comes through knowledge and application of the mind of Christ, which results in emulating the integrity and capacity for life He acquired in the original love complex. “Full knowledge” or ἐπίγνωσις (epignosis) in the Greek is doctrine that the Christian understands and believes, doctrine available in his soul for immediate, accurate application to life.39 The development of epignosis in those who listen to his teaching, in contrast to γνῶσις (gnosis), which is purely academic knowledge, is the professional objective of the pastor.
Paul continues with the pastor’s job description. The pastor must study and teach doctrine in the power of the Holy Spirit inside the love complex.
In order that we no longer be immature, but by the teaching of doctrine in the sphere of love [the love complex], you [pastors] might cause them [believers in the congregation] to grow up by the all things [of Bible doctrine] with respect to Him who is the absolute, even Christ. (Eph. 4:14-15)
Writing to the Thessalonians, Paul reiterates the divine mandate, but this time the command is related to the congregation. Those who listen to the pastor must also reside in the love complex in order to benefit from the spiritual truth they hear.
But we request you, brethren [members of the royal family], that you appreciate those [pastors] who diligently labor among you and have charge over you [enforced humility] and give you instruction [doctrinal teaching], that you esteem them very highly in the sphere of love [the love complex] because of their work. (1 Thess. 5:12-13a).
A pastor should be respected for his sound knowledge and conscientiousness in teaching. His “diligent labor” consists of long hours every day in disciplined, concentrated study, complemented by an appropriately full teaching schedule. He is an authority on doctrine; he has authority in the local church. Members of the congregation demonstrate their appreciation for the pastor by submitting to his authority and concentrating on his teaching—gates three and four of the divine dynasphere.
Believers appreciate their pastor by allowing his work to produce its intended results in their lives. Any other expression of gratitude comes in a distant second place. The honest, humble pastor considers himself a voice, a spokesman who communicates God’s Word (Matt. 3:3). He does not promote himself. He is impressed with God’s wisdom, not his own. He is most gratified by those who receive his doctrinal teaching as from the Lord and use that doctrine in their own lives as they advance to maturity.
DOCTRINE AND LOVE AS A WAY OF LIFE
All virtue love and genuine humility are found only inside the divine dynasphere. Now gate four represents the principle that all truth is found only in the divine dynasphere. The unbeliever can comprehend the truth of divine establishment, but the believer alone has access to the doctrines of the Word of God. In gate four he advances beyond any strength, integrity, humility, wisdom, or happiness that the unbeliever can achieve.
Love cannot exist without truth. Truth makes love possible, because genuine love is rational, never absurd, always dependent on thought, not emotion. As the pattern for the love complex, divine love is rational because it is always linked with God’s absolute integrity. Consistency of thought is rationality, and by virtue of His immutability, omniscience, and veracity, God is perfectly rational, totally logical. God is truth and God is love; they are inseparable.
Nor can truth and love be separated in the believer. The Christian’s capacity for impersonal and personal love is increased by his consistent function in gate four. Understanding of doctrine creates capacity for love. At gate four the believer fulfills the ultimate purpose of the divine dynasphere: God’s objective for us is that we understand and live by His Word. God reveals Himself in the Scriptures, and a believer’s daily attitude toward Bible doctrine is the index of his love for God.
Learning Bible doctrine requires academic discipline, but God’s Word surpasses any subject that might be taught in a school or college classroom. Doctrine is supernatural information. God’s revelation extends beyond the range of human intellect or concentration and beyond man’s empirical powers to observe his environment. More than mastering and reciting an academic subject, learning and applying doctrine constitute a way of life, the Christian way of life in the divine dynasphere.
But He [Christ] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matt. 4:4, NASB)
The Christian life both depends on doctrine and supports the intake of doctrine. Learning God’s Word is not an isolated activity; it is part of the complete, interlocking system. The first three gates of the divine game plan operate in concert to motivate faithfulness to doctrine, which in turn strengthens all the gates.
THE INTERLOCK OF THE FIRST THREE GATES
Spiritual momentum from gate four of the divine dynasphere depends on the first three gates. Gates one, two, and three furnish the power, objectivity, teachability, and motivation needed to transfer doctrine from the written pages of Scripture into the believer’s soul and then out again as application to life.
We possess no capacity to assimilate doctrine apart from the unseen power of the Holy Spirit.
I [Jesus Christ, speaking to His disciples prior to the Church Age] have many more things to teach you, but you cannot carry them [in your minds] now. But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes [when the divine dynasphere is given], He [the Holy Spirit] will guide you into all doctrine. . . . He shall glorify Me, for He shall take of Mine [Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ], and He shall communicate it to you. (John 16:12, 14)
We are able to understand spiritual truth only when filled with the Spirit. As doctrine accumulates in our souls, the Holy Spirit uses that doctrine to increase our capacity to understand more doctrine. The more you learn, the more you can learn. Doctrine builds on doctrine.
You must be objective to avoid misinterpreting or misapplying doctrine. This objectivity derives primarily from gate two. In gate two reliance on divine promises and the exercise of impersonal love secure freedom from mental attitude sins, eliminating the subjectivity of arrogance, jealousy, self-pity, bitterness, or a guilt complex. By exercising basic impersonal love, and rebounding when necessary, you maintain your orientation to the essentials of life, even when people or circumstances challenge you to lose your perspective and turn your eyes on self or on others. The two primary techniques for applying doctrine in gate four are extensions of gate two: claiming promises and implementing basic impersonal love. Stage one of the faith-rest drill, claiming promises, establishes the relaxed mental attitude needed to rationally think doctrine, and to switch from personal love or hatred to impersonal love maintains objectivity.
Gate three of the divine dynasphere also contributes to objectivity. Humility is obedience to authority, and authority-orientation is orientation to reality. Reality is objective, not subjective. The genuinely humble believer understands his significance in the overall scheme of God’s plan in human history; he recognizes that he is dependent on doctrine for his integrity and that the source of his happiness is the divine dynasphere. The humble believer possesses a personal sense of destiny as he witnesses the glorification of Jesus Christ in his life. Objectivity in gate three makes him receptive and teachable; he is motivated to learn the truth rather than prove how much he knows or how superior he is. The more doctrine he learns in gate four, the stronger becomes his objectivity in gates two and three, which, barring the intrusion of arrogance, motivates him to learn and apply still more doctrine.
Obedience And Motivational Virtue
Motivation is a major issue in the Christian life. When we study virtue, we will discover that motivational virtues exist inside the divine dynasphere. A motivational virtue is the invisible counterpart for each visible, functional virtue. For example, the virtue of confidence toward God motivates the functional virtue of courage toward man and circumstances.40 All functional virtues stem from motivational virtues, and all motivational virtues originate from your freewill decisions to obey God’s mandates.
God’s power system is perfect in that it not only leads to spiritual maturity, but also motivates its own momentum (Phil. 2:13). Motivation for the perception and application of doctrine is created by obedience to the mandates related to gates one, two, and three. But even in God’s complete, self-energized system, human volition remains the key. You can choose to reside in the divine dynasphere or reject God’s plan and live in one of Satan’s counterfeit systems.
No one can reach into another person’s soul and switch on motivation like a light in the dark. Nor can God force you to have the correct motivation toward His plan. He will never coerce your free will. Although God’s game plan is designed for your maximum benefit and His eternal glory, you are free to ignore His mandates. If you assume that your own plans are better than God’s design, you oppose yourself and Him, create your own misery, and incur divine discipline. But fear of punishment is not the proper motive for adhering to divine policy. If you are objective, you obey initially out of respect for God and eventually from personal love for God as you come to know and appreciate Him through His Word. This motivation—this positive volition—must emanate from your own soul, not from any external source.
Establishing Priorities, Organizing A Routine
Among believers or unbelievers the most admirable and successful people are self-motivated. In the conscience of the soul, where the norms and standards and scale of values reside, these individuals have established true priorities and make decisions consistent with those priorities. The self-motivated believer has identified his primary objective in life: spiritual maturity, which glorifies Christ. This objective becomes the criterion for interpreting any situation that may arise. Every decision and every course of action support this chosen objective; Bible doctrine takes first priority. This lucid self-motivation places him in a position of strength. He understands what is most valuable and will not be deceived or cajoled into opposing himself. Good decisions can be made only from a position of strength, inside the divine dynasphere. Only bad decisions can be made from a position of weakness, outside the divine dynasphere.
A self-motivated believer operating from a position of strength builds his life on the principle of virtue first, doctrine first. He establishes a routine: Each day he decides what he wishes to accomplish that day. He sets aside time for doctrine, time for work, time for family, time for eating and sleeping, time for entertainment and social life. Routine must be built on priorities, ranked according to importance. Routine organizes a person’s life each day so that he accomplishes his objectives, fulfills his own principles. A routine is not a negative concept for dull, humorless people. Only through a routine can anyone harness his own time and energy and achieve anything in life either spiritually or temporally. Organization is good routine. Routine should be broken only by unusual events, like disasters or celebrations, not by illegitimate distractions. Routine and organization are professionalism in every area of life. A disorganized person is a loser.
Some noble person may positively influence you to learn God’s Word, but that external impetus will not carry you. There is no substitute for self-motivation. You must give doctrine first priority, make your own decisions, establish and maintain your own integrity. We all face distractions, opposition, and influences that would prevent us from consistently learning and applying Bible doctrine. We must be motivated from within if we hope to fulfill God’s game plan over the course of our lives. Self-motivation is a synonym for one’s own positive volition. Even the best influence, the wisest advice, the most positive encouragement cannot keep you in the divine dynasphere and sustain your spiritual momentum.
Immature And Mature Motives
Self-motivation, like teachability, is an offshoot of humility. A humble person is receptive to truth and motivated to learn. Self-motivation can be developed by a believer in gate three or an unbeliever under the laws of divine establishment. When a young person becomes an adult, he assumes responsibility for his own motivation, his own thoughts, decisions, and actions. From genuine humility he begins to make his own decisions rather than depend on his parents, although humility does not exclude seeking good advice when necessary.
Unlike the youth who eventually leaves behind parental authority, a believer never outgrows his need for Bible teaching and the authority of his pastor. But, as in the home, the believer’s motivation changes as he grows up spiritually. A new believer is not motivated by love for God. He may have a new lease on life, knowing that his sins are forgiven; he may be grateful for the cross; he may inordinately fear divine retribution; he may be caught up in emotional zeal; he may be currying divine favor or striving to please the person who presented the Gospel to him. Some of his motives may be legitimate, others may not, but even his best motivation will not carry him far. The realization that he is forgiven and going to heaven is a feeble flame. The divine mandates connected with gate four of God’s power system demand that he take up the challenge of the Christian life to grow in the full knowledge of God.
Initially you must execute God’s game plan from enforced humility. God commands perception of doctrine; you simply obey. As you learn doctrine, you realize that God has a purpose for your life. You discover that you possess God’s righteousness, that He supports you with logistical grace, that rebound is instantly available, that God has adopted you as spiritual royalty forever. You learn that you already possess tremendous blessings for which to be grateful, with greater blessings yet to come, and you begin to appreciate the source. You begin to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Within your soul your motivation changes from enforced humility to genuine humility, to love for God, to occupation with Christ. Doctrine becomes supremely important to you. Although you are never impervious to distractions, you are not as vulnerable as when a new believer. You have learned to maintain your own priorities. You have learned to say no to people and decline “opportunities” when necessary. You have learned to center your life on the treasure of highest value, the Word of God.
