The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 9 – 7
I’ve always hated the word paradigm, because it’s one of those unnecessarily fancy words people use to show off how smart they are, like “behooved” and “misogynist”. And yet here, it really is the right word, the only word that says this.
Cambridge dictionary defines paradigm as “a set of theories that explain the way a particular subject is understood at a particular time”. We interpret everything we see within the paradigm we’ve accepted; because the paradigm is the lens through which we view and explain our world.
It is, in a way, the sum of our spirit; the paradigm is the way the spirit expects to see things, and therefore the way it forces us to see them. All paradigms, good or bad, cover up the things in front of your eyes before you even see them.
Now this is, as always, a good thing; because it saves a lot of mental processing to ignore things you already understand. A baby can spend hours playing with his toes or a keychain; because his spirit doesn’t really grasp them, so they require processing and thought.
Yet you haven’t thought about the “why” of your toes or your keychain in years, freeing your mind to understand bigger things. So this ability to ignore things you already understand is a tremendous asset; provided you actually do understand them!
But what if you only think you know the answer? Your spirit will still gloss right over anything that doesn’t fit the paradigm, because it’s always easier to dismiss a few oddities as coincidences or observational errors than to reexamine your entire belief system every time.
Most new facts and experiences can be fit into the paradigm we already have – because when an atheist sees a fossil, he says “look! Proof of evolution”. That’s what he expects to see, so that’s what he sees. Because there is no God in his paradigm, and without God, evolution is the simplest explanation.
Likewise, when we see a fossil, we say “look! Proof of a flood”. Because if we begin with the assumption that God does exist, this is the easiest explanation – far less difficult to swallow than quadrillions of accidents converting atoms into Shakespeare.
And yet both of these make absolute sense only because we started from an unproven assumption: God does/does not exist. The scientist cannot disprove the existence of God, any more than we can experimentally prove His existence to them.
And once either paradigm’s fundamental assumption is accepted, all of the other conclusions within it follow. And, by and large, Christians and scientists alike accept this foundational premise on faith; faith in those who told us God did/didn’t exist.
Both of these make absolute sense, within their own belief system. But the evidence, in this case fossils, simply fit into our paradigm; they do not confirm that the paradigm itself is true! Both paradigms explain most of the observed evidence. But only one can be the truth.
And to find that truth, you must compare the paradigms to one another; find which one, if any, explains all the facts, and best explains the universe. And then edit your paradigm, break your spirit, to match. And then keep it meek enough to hear all the facts next time.
I have spent upwards of 40 lessons now showing you the three fractions in every verse. This is a paradigm, a lens you hold over each scripture to explain what’s hidden within it; and it fits the observed facts very well. And yet, what if I’m wrong?
What if there is another completely different reason why there are three things? Or what if those three divisions aren’t really there at all, just arbitrary things that we’re projecting onto those verses; what if we only see three because we expected to see three? And ignored the fourth or fifth thing?
The fact is, I’m quite sure I’ve done this; I probably hammered the fractions into a verse that God never intended to be about the fractions. But the strength of our paradigm will make that verse hard to find. And that’s a problem. Because we must go to the Bible with open eyes, not closed paradigms.
THE CHURCH PARADIGM
I stress this point because I’m about to challenge the strongest paradigm in history. I think I can say, without exaggeration, that the largest paradigm, built on the most flawed assumption, which wreaks the most havoc on would-be sons of God, is Church. Not the false Church; Church, period, is the problem.
I’ve proved to you, I hope quite satisfactorily, that the paradigm you’ve known was wrong. And yet to this day, when you read about the church in the NT, you subconsciously arrange and interpret the facts in that verse into the paradigm of a capital-C-Church. I know you do, because I still catch myself doing it.
And while you may have accepted in principle that the ekklesia does not mean a Church, the nagging question must still be in the back of your mind…. “People did gather into groups; they did assemble together in eerily Church-like ways. So if “church” doesn’t mean “Church”, what were they doing? And what should *I* be doing?”
Without the Church paradigm to arrange these ideas in your mind, what is a bishop? Why is there baptism, and who does it and when? What’s the point of excommunication, ordination, elders, and anointing if there is no Church gathering, no sermon, no singing, no public prayers every week?
Every one of these concepts is interpreted by the world within the paradigm of Church; without that paradigm, what do they mean? What new belief system can explain them all? What are they really saying, if you listen to them without your ear-filters on?
We have always fit these into the paradigm of the idea of Church we inherited from the world; is there another completely radical way of looking at all these verses? One which explains all the facts just as well, but which is as different as evolution and creation?
The shift in perspective will be hard for some of you, because the world’s paradigm is so, so wrong – and yet so, so well established. But it can be easy, if you let it be, because the true paradigm is, as always, a simple, obvious thing you’ve always known…
It is, in a word, the family of God. I’m going to give you the one verse for this lesson, nay, this series, right up front; 1 Timothy 3:4-5. Think about that verse, think it through, and you’ll find everything I’m about to say fits into that paradigm – and that, in a way, you’ve always known it.
THE HOUSE OF FAITH
At its heart, what is the ekklesia? Ephesians 3:15. Think about that; we are the family of God. Entitled to call him Father (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6). The NT is stuffed with verses that talk about us being the sons of God (1 John 3:1-2 for instance). So why does no one believe Him?
This time, I don’t mean that question as I did when I asked it in Lesson 1-16; you surely have wrapped your head around the idea of becoming exactly like God in every way… some day. But what I’m saying now is, why does no one realize that the ekklesia is a family today? In every sense of the word.
In what family does a father train his children by having the two-year-olds attend a lecture by his six-year-olds once a week? Yet that is what Church does; and that’s assuming it’s a church with true doctrines!
In what family does a father have a baby, then abandon him without leaving at least a legal guardian to be with him daily? If that were done in any family in the world today, everyone would decry it as blatant neglect and child abuse; because we know that there is NO HOPE of such a child growing up happy and healthy!
In what family does a father raise his children in absentia using books and vague subliminal suggestion? Because we all know that you need an actual person to raise a child, because no child will receive the love, instruction, and correction he needs without visible, present parent-figures in his life all day, every day!
This is why Paul called Timothy his “son in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2). Because, like everyone, Timothy needed a father-figure and God wasn’t there! And the only believers in Timothy’s family, apparently, were his mother and grandmother (2 Timothy 1:5).
So Paul was made the head of that branch of the ekklesia family, a father to many in the church (Philemon 1:9-12), and grandfather to many more. And because the ekklesia was managed exactly like a family, Timothy fully knew Paul’s doctrine and manner of life (2 Timothy 3:10).
Can you say that about the preachers you’ve known? In what Church is it possible to fully know the manner of life of a preacher you watched, through heavy eyelids, recite what (if anything) he learned about God that week?
For that matter, can you say that about me? Is it possible to learn that about someone through thousands of pages of written lessons such as these, full of frozen spirit, even if they were the truest words ever inspired (which they aren’t)? No, because children are not raised by email.
Is it possible to learn that about someone in Church, with only 2 hours of group lecturing a week? Or even a FULL day once a week? Maybe with a Bible study Wednesday night? Would you train YOUR own children that way? Then once again, consider yourself #GoldenRuled!
Going to Church is like being raised by your toddler brothers and sisters, perhaps with visits from a teenage babysitter once a week… and then being expected to grow up like your father. So OF COURSE it doesn’t work! Because sons taught by strangers grow up like the strangers… not like their Father (Matthew 23:15).
At the end of the day, you are not your minister’s child, you’re a sheep to be fleeced… (Philippians 2:19-23). And however sincere his intentions, at the end of the day, he will give your life for his, because he is a hireling, not a father (John 10:7-15). And that’s why Church doesn’t work, and can’t ever work.
Which is why there is a better way.
THE HOUSE OF FAITH
As I’ve said so many times, you already know all these things, if you’d only thought about it. We call God our Father, and use phrases like the “house of God”, and the “house of faith”, without realizing what they mean. But read Acts 8:3 carefully. What does it really say?
To most people, viewing this through the paradigm of Church, this says “Paul entered into the Churches and even pursued the members into their own houses”. But break that paradigm; throw it away, and open your eyes and ears to read these words (Luke 9:44). What does it really say?
If we already accepted the assumption that God had Churches like we see around us today, patterned after the pagan temples of Babylon, then yes, this verse would indeed make sense within that paradigm; but if we know that is not true, then the much simpler reading of this verse would be “Paul persecuted all of the called out ones, and entered into every one of their houses!”
So rather than persecuting different Churches, Paul persecuted the CHURCH of God… and each of the HOUSES within that church! Because the NT authority structure was not divided into Churches, but into houses!
Think about that; imagine a literal family, with several generations of living people. They are all of the same house and yet each generation has a separate family unit. They all share a common last name, and yet each man is the head of his own house; subject in broad matters to his own father/head, who in turn is subject to his own father/head, and so on (1 Corinthians 11:12).
Which means that the ideal house of God would be a group of disciples living in a worthy man’s house! The disciples would be apprentices, servants, symbolic sons of a man of God; whose head is Jesus, whose head, in turn, is God!
This is not a church, not in any sense of the word; it’s a household with called-out ones being raised in it! Which resolves the conflict of 2 Timothy 3:10, for you never truly know someone the way your children know you – not just the face you put on for Church, but the face you wear at home.
This verse cannot be reconciled with the paradigm of Church; but it fits perfectly with the paradigm of house; for isn’t that what God commanded the Israelites to do in their houses, with their children? Deuteronomy 6:7. You can only teach them “by the way”, if they are WITH you in the way!
Remember back in Lesson 7-1, I told you the parable of the “narrow way”, and I said “Does that mean you’re destined to walk alone? Absolutely not. Let’s say you’re walking along this narrow trail along the edge of a cliff; you can’t fit a Church there, but you can, maybe, fit a couple of people there…”
“…In particular, you can see the person in front of you, and the person behind you”. And this is what I meant. You aren’t walking alone, if you can see your parents in front of you, and your children behind you! Talking with you of these things when you lie down and rise up, when you walk by the way… and when you rest with your house on the Sabbath!
You have known since the earliest lessons that God was building a family; and that we are of the house of God, the house of faith, the house of Abraham. Literally every authority structure God has ever established has been patterned after the human family (patriarchs, judges, kings, apostles, etc.), which itself was patterned after the family of God, the Father (Ephesians 3:14-15).
So how could the ekklesia NOT be structured like a house in every possible sense of the word??
Which gives us a very new way to look at Galatians 6:10, doesn’t it? Millions of Churchians use this verse all the time, never realizing that the existence of this verse disproves everything their religion is. Note carefully, I said what the religion is.
Not what it believes, or what it teaches, or what it practices; their religion itself is wrong. Because their religion is built around the paradigm of Church. And there is nothing about Church that is true.
THE NEW PARADIGM
Knowing that the ekklesia were organized into families or houses, verses like Matthew 10:11-14 make tons more sense than they ever did with the old paradigm. When they arrived in a city, they were to inquire and find a worthy man. And then they would go stay in his house, and salute the house!
Consider verses like Romans 16:5, 10-11. Why did Paul salute these houses? Houses named after righteous men in that region? Because these houses were full of disciples who were learning FROM THOSE MEN!
He was obviously not saluting the physical building, nor just a man’s literal children, but the entire household… the group of people in his house who, in the old paradigm, we would have thought looked like a Church.
Now that you know this, you’ll start to realize this was always what the Bible said, but we were too blinded by our paradigm to see it. For example, Colossians 4:15; this was a church that was IN HIS HOUSE.
Not a Church that meets weekly in their house… but rather a church that lives in the house! This was the house of a worthy man, who gathered disciples unto him, as Jesus did, to live with him and fully know his doctrine and manner of life; so that he could spiritually obey the command of Deuteronomy 11:19!
This paradigm lends a whole new light to 1 Corinthians 4:14-15. Paul raised up the church “as a father doth his children” (1 Thessalonians 2:11), and considered them his children “in the faith” (1 Timothy 1:2), and himself their father.
And while they may have many instructors, they only had one father; just like every house may have many tutors, relatives, and friends whom the children learn from; but at the end of the day, only one man is their father.
We tend to read these things as light metaphors, but this was a very big deal. Paul was their spiritual father. Which means they, in turn, belonged to the house of Paul! Now obviously, Paul’s house was part of the house of Jesus, which in turn was of the house of God; a fact Paul repeatedly reminded them of (1 Corinthians 3:4-5).
And yet the fact that your grandson is your grandson doesn’t make your son’s house any less your son’s house. Does it diminish you in any way that your grandson calls your son “daddy”? Are you less of a father, just because he is one too? #GoldenRuled.
Paul repeatedly spoke of the house of people like Chloe, Stephanus, and so on; even though they, themselves, were part of his own house! Just as the house of David was part of the house of Judah, himself of the house of Israel, Isaac, Abraham, and God!
And so to speak of the “house of Paul” is not disrespectful to the house of God, for Paul built this house with God’s last name on it! (Philippians 2:9-11). Because, like in every family, within God’s house are many other houses! (John 14:2).
Does it diminish the Father’s glory that every knee bows to Jesus? Does it diminish Jesus’ glory, that Timothy treated Paul as a father? Why would it, when every generation that bears children increases the glory of the heads of every house above it?? (Proverbs 14:28).
THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL
If you can really grasp these things, nothing in the Bible will ever look the same again. In Series 8, you learned about apostles; they are men God sends to do a job. People who are not part of another house, but whom God called to build their own house in His name (Galatians 1:6-12).
But what you’re realizing now is that these apostles are founders of houses in the name of God. They act, as sons of God, to bring Him grandchildren. And among those children, they choose out elders to rule houses within their own houses. And so on.
Every single thing you need to know about the ekklesia stems from that metaphor. As, obviously, it should; for the whole reason God chose Abraham to be the father of the faithful was that he ruled well his own house! And we are to work the works of Abraham! (John 8:39).
And yet, if you’re thinking critically here, as you should be, you’ll wonder how this squares with 1 Corinthians 1-9,13. Identifying ourselves with men instead of God is wrong, right? I’m glad you asked!
The body of people within the house Paul built was symbolically a woman, as all spiritual groups are; since he had begotten and raised them (1 Corinthians 4:15), they were therefore, collectively, his daughter. The individual members of that body were, of course, of both genders, but the sum of them was female.
Now within that house, the wiser individuals were appointed as elders; Paul’s spiritual sons, like Timothy, who would continue building on his house in his name (Psalms 115:12), adding branches to it as all trees do.
Meanwhile his individual, spiritual daughters would add stones to the house – new literal heirs who should, in theory, become spiritual heirs as well. Thus the sons would form spiritual family trees and the daughters would be the stones that build the family and hold the house together.
But collectively, the house of faith that Paul built was his daughter. Not his bride! It was his daughter, whom Paul was raising to present her as a bride to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). This is why John the Baptist said his role, too, was as friend of the bridegroom; preparer of the bride (John 3:28-29).
John the Baptist came to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Paul came to do the same basic job, to prepare a carnal people to hear the spirit of God. Which is the role of every human father: to raise a daughter capable of being a good wife.
And when that daughter was married to Christ, she would cease to bear Paul’s name, and forget her brethren and her father’s house!! (Psalms 45:10-11). But that won’t happen until Jesus’ return; until then, while she remains in Paul’s house, she remains in his house, part of his name (Leviticus 22:12-13).
The houses we raise are our houses. They endure or fall based on our choices (Ecclesiastes 10:18, Proverbs 24:3-4) – with God’s blessing (Psalms 127:1), and subject to His veto of course (Proverbs 15:25). Just like every human son who ever started a house.
Each of our spiritual houses are only one member of the true body of Christ, and the names of all our houses will be swallowed up in the one name they all share: the bride of Christ. When she marries Jesus, it will be as a single woman, made up of thousands of cells from all the houses in history.
But though the stones in that house, the actual Christians of whom she is made, are from every kindred, nation, and tongue… the individual cells of her spiritually body will no longer be Jew nor Greek, Paulitian or Peterian, male or female… all will be alike, as cells of a single woman married to Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26-28).
LOSING A DAUGHTER
If we bear only daughters, our name will not continue for eternity; as it shouldn’t! For we are not worthy to put our spirits into the church of God; only to put our spirit upon the church of God; externally as Moses did, rather than internally, as Jesus will.
The job of the head of a NC house of God is to humble the beasts and break the spirits of the members of his daughter (1 Corinthians 4:21), so that she is CAPABLE of receiving her Husband’s spirit! Because without a humble heart and a meek spirit and an awake soul, no one can obey God.
None of us can see ourselves as we truly are (Jeremiah 17:9). You read the lessons, you hear the things in them, and then you go your way and forget (James 1:22-24). And a father, physical or spiritual, is there to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Paul’s job was to remind the Corinthians, forcefully and physically if necessary, that they were indeed yet carnal. Because every father’s job is to create meekness, humility, and wisdom in his daughter; so that her husband (or Husband) can fill her with His spirit and make her in all ways like Him.
The biological purpose of a woman is to create the body of a child out of her husband’s “living water” – his spirit (think about John 7:37-39, and ask yourself what “living water” he’s talking about). Their children will be made by her, but made like him.
So in general, her OC purpose is to bear fruit in her husband’s name, which is of course… also the name of his father. Likewise, the NC purpose of the metaphorical woman is to bear fruit in her Husband’s name, which is the name of His Father.
Which is why her long-term goal is not to bring honor to the name of her human father, in this case Paul or John or Apollos; but to be a worthy bride for Jesus, prepared to be the mother of His children and raise them with His words – not her own, her brethren’s, or her father’s.
FATHER OF THE BRIDE
So why would these fathers of the houses of God bother to work so hard, knowing our names will disappear? Knowing that nothing we do will make our houses last? Because as in most of history, young men give great sums to the house of a worthy bride! (1 Samuel 18:22-25, Genesis 34:11-12, Deuteronomy 22:29, etc.).
And the hotter the bride, the greater her fame, the more powerful family she comes from, the better the price (Genesis 24:15-16, 22, 50-53). And why not? The elders of these houses are laboring to create a bride for Jesus; if they do well, they deserve more (1 Timothy 5:17).
Every person who believes the truth, rules their fractions, and follows God will be in the first resurrection, even if you never convince a single other person of the truth. But you will only be earning your life, just the penny you were promised (Matthew 20:8-14).
What we do in this life, beyond ourselves, may endure or not (1 Corinthians 3:1-13); but the more people we turn to righteousness (Daniel 12:3), and the better we make them, the greater our reward in heaven beyond mere survival.
Which is why God has promised the heads of houses greater rewards than He promised the members themselves… for they made His bride better, and the laborer is worthy of his hire! Because as you learned about gleaning… anyone’s worth, even today, is equal to the value that they can produce.
If you produce no value beyond your own life, then that’s all the reward you’ll have; but if you labor in the word and doctrine, build a great house in God’s name, and deck His bride in jewels, you’ll deserve to have jewels in in your own crown (Isaiah 61:10).
You created value for God, which is exactly the measure of your value to Him – and thus, of your reward (Hebrews 6:10). And we’ve always known this; for He gives to every man, specifically, according to his works (Matthew 16:27). And what is that work? John 17:4-6.
The work God gave Jesus to do was to “manifest God’s name unto the men which God gave Him out of the world”. To conceive, if you will, a daughter… to be raised by the sons of God (John 20:21-23).
IN GOD’S STEAD
If you’re paying attention – and you should be – you’ll be wondering how this squares with Matthew 23:8-11. If Paul was indeed the master to Timothy’s disciple, the lord to Titus’ servant (Matthew 10:24), surely this violated Jesus’ clear command to the twelve?
I’m glad you asked! We are certain that the ekklesia was meant to be organized like a family. The Bible is absolutely overflowing with variations of that metaphor. So as always, go back to the golden rule:
If your parents died or left when you were a teenager, leaving behind younger children, would you not effectively become a parent to your brethren? All of the roles of a parent – providing food, shelter, education, approval and validation – would be yours to provide.
But you can be like their parent without pretending to be their parent! When they’re old enough to understand, you would certainly tell your younger siblings that you were only standing in for an absent mutual parent.
And even though you were only playing the part of father, all the verses about fathers would apply equally well to you – as they also do to apostles, elders, judges, kings, heads, princes, and so on! Because that’s all that the heads of God’s houses did: 2 Corinthians 5:20.
They spoke to their children, spiritual or otherwise, in God’s stead. And if God was their true Father, then Paul was acting as a type of that Father, acting in His place! And thus, for the purposes of that metaphor, Paul was their father… at least, by proxy.
All of the men in these jobs built houses, and naturally the houses were named after them, to distinguish them from the houses other men were trying to build. But the righteous ones knew they were only surrogate fathers of those houses! 1 Peter 5:3.
Moses built a house, and was faithful in it (Hebrews 3:1-7). But Moses knew it wasn’t his house (Numbers 11:11-12). And Moses’ people were his disciples (John 9:28). They heard his words and learned about God through him. But Moses knew he was just filling in until the real Head of the house came (John 5:46).
They were proud to be Moses’ disciples, Moses’ foster sons; and Jesus told them Moses was His own son (Exodus 3:6), so if they treated Moses as a father, they should treat Him as a grandfather! Because Moses had already told them to do so! (Deuteronomy 18:15-19).
In the same way, Paul was faithful in his house, but it was not ultimately to be his house, for it was a daughter he had promised in marriage to Jesus (Colossians 1:28), just as Moses married off his own daughter, the church in the wilderness, to God (Jeremiah 3:20, Isaiah 54:5).
Likewise, John came to prepare a people for God, and trained disciples (John 1:35), who called him master (Luke 3:12). And like Moses, John sent his disciples to Jesus, the TRUE master, as soon as they were ready (John 1:36-39).
Because his job was to teach them how to repent and make sure they did it (Matthew 3:11). To make ready a people PREPARED for the Lord. But note that John had many other disciples, and many of them did not follow Jesus; why? Luke 16:29.
Meat belongs to grownups; if you choke on milk, you’re not ready to be Jesus’ disciple. If you won’t keep the Sabbath when the SDAs told you to do so, you aren’t ready to learn from me. And if you won’t learn from me, you certainly aren’t ready to learn from Jesus on your own (verses 30-31).
PROXY FATHER
Yet while I might play the role of your father, or master, or lord, I am not. God is your Father, Jesus your Master and your Lord; but I may still act in Their place, doing the things They would do in Their name, without actually being those things.
God delegated Moses to speak to Pharoah on His behalf; as far as Pharoah and Aaron were concerned, Moses was God (Exodus 7:1). Does that mean Moses WAS the one true God? Obviously not. Yet for all practical purposes Moses dealt with Egypt and led Israel in God’s place, as His proxy.
And the things he said to them might as well have been said by God Himself (2 Corinthians 2:10). And the things they did to Moses, might as well have been done to God Himself (Numbers 12, particularly verse 14). And if they rejected Moses, they might as well have rejected God Himself (1 Samuel 8:7).
Remember what the “name” of Christ means; it means to act in His place, with His authority. So if you are baptized in the name of Christ, it means baptized by someone in Christ’s place, someone delegated to act with Christ’s “power of attorney”.
Moses never pretended that he was more than God’s proxy, and subject to recall at any time (Numbers 16:3-5). Likewise, people like Paul and David knew they could act as your masters only because they were delegated to do so by our mutual Master.
But that doesn’t diminish their authority; for if you become the disciple of Jesus’ ambassador, are you the disciple of the ambassador, or of Jesus? Obviously, you’re a disciple of Jesus, for anything the ambassador does is done in His name.
Yet also, in a down-to-Earth way, you’re a disciple of that ambassador. For it is his house you live in for now, him you see day in and day out, him you actually hear yelling at you for not ruling your beast. And it is by learning to humble yourself under him, that you can learn what it’s like to humble yourself under God.
And so if you are the disciple of Jesus’ apostle; or of an elder like Timothy whom that apostle appointed; or of the disciple of that elder; you’re still a disciple of Jesus, even as you are also part of the house of Paul, and of Timothy, and of that elder, and so on. Because that’s how families work!
MAKING THE BRIDE READY
Read 1 Corinthians 4:1-2. Paul said he was a steward of God (Titus 1:7), whom we might call the business manager of God’s house, the foreman of his work crew. But also, potentially, God’s son and heir (Luke 12:42-44).
And as Paul was God’s steward, not the Corinthian’s minister, he worked for God, not the people (something churches have never understood) – 1 Corinthians 4:3-4. Thus, God judged his results, not them, nor even Paul (Romans 14:4).
And his job as the head of a house of God is to make sure his daughter is capable of receiving her husband’s spirit. It is very difficult, sometimes impossible, for a young man to convert the woman in Proverbs 21:19 or Proverbs 27:15-16 into the Proverbs 31 woman – nor is it worth trying, when there are plenty of fish in the sea.
You cannot take a devout feminist and make her into the wife in 1 Corinthians 7:34. She is neither willing, nor even capable of submitting her will to her husband’s in anything. Her father might have been able to break her spirit, when she was younger; but once she’s set in her ways… Proverbs 29:1. Which is why a wise young man just marries someone else – or no one at all (Proverbs 25:24).
And so Paul as the father of the stiff-necked, Church-centric – and thus, metaphorically feminist – Corinthians, was undertaking the enormous task of breaking their spirits so that they could receive the spirit of Jesus (Acts 7:49-51, note the word “house”).
Of course, this is a job meant for the spirit of Jesus and of the Father; but the whole POINT of a foreskin is to prevent God from accessing your heart! The whole POINT of a stiff neck is to resist the words of Jesus’ spirit! To make it easy to ignore His prompting, easy to dismiss His correction!
Which is why God almost always breaks such spirits and hearts first by using the rod of other men! (2 Samuel 7:14). Just as Paul was doing to the Corinthians! Making ready a people prepared to receive the Lord’s spirit.
This is why houses exist! Psalms 78:1-8. They exist so that fathers can prevent their spiritual children’s spirits from being stubborn, and their hearts from being rebellious, so that they could espouse them as a chaste, humble, meek virgin to Christ! One who has no other spirits within her, including her father’s… but who is prepared to receive His.
So back in 1 Corinthians 4, Paul explained that in order to do this, he had, in a symbol, transferred the job of bringing to light the hidden darkness in their own spirits and the selfish thoughts of their heart to himself and Apollos.
Their jobs, as their spiritual father and his minister Apollos (1 Corinthians 3:6), was to break their spirits and rule their beasts so that God wouldn’t have to judge them later (1 Corinthians 11:31-32). Teach them to judge themselves, so that no one else would have to; just like every father figure, ever, has done for his children!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
It is becoming increasingly hard to choose one verse for these lessons; not because there are too few, but because there are too many. The whole point of the “one verse” concept is that had you studied this one verse, you could have reasoned out everything in this lesson.
And on this topic, 1 Timothy 3:4-5 would do the job well; but then so would Psalms 78:1-8; or Genesis 18:17-19; or Deuteronomy 6:1-9; or for that matter, the ever popular Genesis 1:26-28. Any of these, fully understood, tells you all of the things in this lesson, indeed, in this series.
Still, I’ve got to choose just one so I’m going with 1 Chronicles 29:16-18. We are building a house for God; yet this house is built of people whom God brings to us (Acts 2:47). We building the house with our own labor, yet without God building it, we labor in vain (Psalms 127:1-5) – oh look, yet another “one verse”!
The house is ours, and called after our name, and the children in it are our inheritance, their quality and number corresponding to our reward. And yet we can build this house in our name only because we ourselves bear the name of God, because we are acting in His place, building it as if He were building it.
And our job is to prepare the hearts of the people God sends to us, help them to mortify their flesh and crucify the lusts thereof, so that they can “speak with the enemies in the gate”, defending our house against the barbarians of Babel.
The Bible is written with this paradigm in mind – and if you’re using the wrong paradigm, if you’re looking for a Church, then you can’t see a house. But the ekklesia IS a house, and if you’re a child; nay, a fetus; nay, an egg in that house, you need parents… at least guardians.
Obviously, if you saw yourself as you truly were, you wouldn’t need a man to do it for you; but is that realistic? Romans 10:13-15. Which is why Paul said, on numerous occasions, that his children should follow him (1 Thessalonians 1:6), which, as that verse shows, is not in contradiction with following God.
Read 1 Corinthians 11:1. This commonly interpreted to mean Paul was asking them to follow him if, as, and when he followed Christ; which is fine, but wasn’t his point at all. Always pay close attention to the word “as”.
That’s a big word in the Bible, because it means this is a metaphor, a pattern. Words like “as” and “like” are essentially grammatical equals signs, and just like with math, it means all information on the left must equal all the information on the right.
So here, Paul asked the Corinthians to follow him as he followed Christ. Which means he wanted them to follow him just like he followed Christ, in precisely the same way he followed Christ! Now when someone followed Christ, they became His disciple, and His minister (Matthew 16:24). And that made them part of Jesus’ house!
So if someone followed Paul the same way Paul followed Jesus, then they would be Paul’s disciples. And if Paul was Jesus’ disciple, that made them grand-disciples of Jesus, if you will. Which is what Jesus has been saying all along, but we were too blinded by the old paradigm to see it. Read John 20:21. Remember that word “as”!
As His Father sent Him, in exactly that way, He sent us. Remember: “sent” is the Greek word “apostle”. These men had been disciples in John 20:19; but now Jesus was making them apostles, exactly as His Father had made Him an apostle over His OWN house (Hebrews 3:1, 6).
When Jesus came, as an apostle of the Father, what did He do? He gathered disciples to train; first training them as apprentices and servants (John 15:15), then as friends and brothers (Romans 8:29), preparing them to be the sons of His own Father (Hebrews 2:10-12), by first treating them as His own step-children ( Hebrews 2:13, Mark 10:24).
So OF COURSE that’s what He expected Paul and the other apostles, and all the true Christians since, to do! To foster children and raise them up in our dead brother’s name! (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), baptizing them in the name of Jesus, in His place, since Jesus Himself baptized no one! (John 4:2, Acts 19:5).
If Jesus baptized no one with water, then He built no house. Thus, He died without seed, but with brethren; and according to the law, the disciples were commanded to raise up a house in His name after His death!
Which is why the very last words Jesus told the disciples…
…His final command, summing up everything He expected from them in a single phrase…
…(and oh, look, an even better “one verse” for this lesson!), was…
Matthew 28:19 (BBE) Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
They were commanded to make all nations their disciples, in the name which the Father, the Son, and all those with the holy spirit share… the name of Elohim; literally, they were to baptize them into the Gods; apprenticing all nations in Jesus’ stead.
In other words…
Disciple them into the house of God.
So why doesn’t anyone do that?