Class Notes: 6/20/2010

Virtue Love removes fear and is the basis of all relationships that work

In our study of how the resurrection, ascension and session of our Lord has impacted the spiritual life of believers in the Church Age we are discussing the two opposite systems, the arrogance of the Cosmos empowered by the OSN and the Grace of the Royal Law that is empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

Last time we were discussing 1Pet 3:1-6; where Peter teaches the application of the royal law to Christian marriage. We have seen that marriage is the first corporate relationship within Divine Establishment and it therefore becomes the reference for the use of authority within relationships.

We left off in verse 6 where Peter gives us the Old Testament illustration of inner beauty.

1Pet 3:6; "like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him lord, you have become her daughters, when you do what is intrinsic good, and are not intimidated."

Intimidation or fear always sees the problem; faith always sees the solution. If you go through life in a state of fear, you are intimidated by life. If you are intimidated by life, you will never have any inner beauty.

David's response to fear is found in Psa 56:3, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in You."

Everyone is intimidated at some point but the response is to put your trust in the Lord and refuse to be intimidated. Great believers are those do not live by fear, and therefore, cannot be intimidated by fear.

All of us have to pass the intimidation test a number of times.

The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. The extent to which you surrender to fear, the greater your capacity for fear. The greater your capacity for fear, the more you increase the power of fear in your life.

The more you increase the power of fear in your life, the more you focus on the problems of life rather than the divine solutions of life; therefore, you ignore or reject the Divine solutions that are the only solutions.

Fear is preoccupation with the problems of life that leads to intimidation and produces fear, worry, and anxiety in the soul.

Remember adversity is what circumstances do to you; stress is what you do to yourself.

When stress overruns the command post of the soul, the believer is under the control of the OSN and fulfills the principle that believers who live by fear are intimidated by fear.

If we are fearful or intimidated, we will never execute the spiritual life, and we will be under divine discipline as long as we have fear.

Fear is preoccupation with the problem but faith concentrates on the divine solution to the problem.

Paul's conclusion in 2Cor 12:9-10; is that the divine solution is the only solution; the human solution is no solution.

Fear is an emotional sin and therefore is irrational. Fear is a major distraction to the deployment of the ten problem solving devices in the soul's stream of consciousness.

Fear is also a sin of arrogance resulting in the function of the arrogance skills of self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption.

Fear in the soul is controlled, resolved, and eliminated by the advance into the use of problem solving devices related to virtue-love because fear and virtue-love are mutually exclusive.

2Tim 1:7; "God has not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power (the two power options of the filling of the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine in the soul) and of virtue-love and of good judgment."

1John 4:18; "Fear does not exist in virtue-love, but virtue-love drives out fear because fear has its own force of punishment. And the person who fears has not been matured in virtue-love."

We are told that Sarah had great overt beauty, Gen 12:10-16; Her original name was Sarai, that means "to be contentious" or "to lord it over". This means that she did not respect or obey her husband. She was like this until she grew up spiritually, and as a result God changed her name to "Sarah" which means princess. Gen 17:15;

Previously she had been argumentative, always had to be right, always involved in controversy and having her own way and she got away with it because of her overt beauty.

Her advance in the spiritual life resulted in her receiving inner beauty that was characterized by authority orientation as a result; she respected Abraham and called him `lord.'

Her soul had become adorned with Bible doctrine, a beauty that was far greater than her overt beauty and far more lasting.

We see in the passage that at the same time Abram's had also advanced and his name was changed to Abraham because Bible Doctrine had also changed him. When the husband's soul is adorned with Bible Doctrine it makes it easier for the wife to respond properly to his authority.

Peter addresses this in 1Pet 3:7; "Likewise you husbands, live with your wives on the basis of knowledge, sharing honor to the woman as a weaker vessel, as also joint-heirs of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered."

Living with your wife on the basis of knowledge means having knowledge that is objective, thoughtful and sensitive as because it is based in virtue love.

A man who does not understand women does not have any virtue love. He has no soul love. He only has the appreciation the woman's overt beauty or sexual desire, and that is not virtue love.

This passage includes a command for the husband to stay with his wife even when there are problems. He is not to run off every time there is a problem in the marriage.

Virtue love in the soul of the woman gives her inner beauty. Virtue-love in the soul of the man gives him objectivity.

The husband is the delegated authority in the marriage but is never to rise above the law by the abuse of his authority. Every husband has the potential for being a leader in marriage.

The husband must have an intensive love, an understanding, and a lack of self-centeredness. An arrogant husband can never fulfill the spiritual life.

It is difficult for the wife to respect her husband when he violates the Royal Law by having by abusing his authority or having sex outside of marriage.

A woman was designed to respond, and when she cannot respond, she will react. That is the weakness of the woman. Her weakness is that she has a higher emotional sensitivity level than the man, which results in her become subjective more rapidly than the man, unless he becomes arrogant, and then he becomes just as emotional and subjective as the woman.

Jesus Christ created the woman as a responder to one man in marriage. A woman, as a responder, is arrogant when she seeks the approbation of other men after marriage.

When anything goes wrong in marriage and she compensates by seeking the approbation of other men, this approbation lust is a system of arrogance that brings weakness into the life and destroys the spiritual life.

With this weakness comes the tendency of becoming bitter, and bitterness leads to the arrogance skills of self- deception, self-justification and self-absorption.

A woman has true love in her soul when she seeks the approbation of one man only, and she is totally and completely giving honor to him. Her thoughtfulness and sensitivity are directed toward him alone.

If she truly loves the man she marries, then she will center and focus on this fact, and it will result in a wonderful responding love. But if she does not, then she will not have capacity from virtue love and will not be able to execute the spiritual life.

No woman should ever marry a man unless she can set aside her desire to be recognized and approved by the other men in her periphery. The man she should marry is the one man to whom she is totally and completely giving honor.

If she is not married yet, then God has not yet revealed to her a man toward whom she can direct this type of exclusive honor. This means that she has not yet met her right man and she should wait on God's timing for marriage.

As the husband, the man is to love her and give her all the honor she will ever need. If he cannot do that, she is not his right woman and he should also wait on God's timing.

The husband shows honor to his wife because of his soul love. He shows honor to her by being the leader in the home. He has an intensive initiating love for her and takes care of all of her needs. This is how he shows honor to her and she responds by respecting and honoring him.

Although he is the delegated authority within the marriage, he recognizes their equality because as members of the Royal family of God, both the husband and wife are royal priests and have equal privilege and opportunity to execute the spiritual life.

He leads by living his spiritual life and encouraging her in her spiritual life, so that they will have reciprocal honor. Living with the woman on the basis of honor is the recognition that you owe your wife honor by enduring devotion to her. Eph 5:25;

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