MARRIAGE GRACE

PHASES OF THE

RIGHT MAN - RIGHT WOMAN RELATIONSHIP

Overview of the Phases

 

RIGHT MAN - RIGHT  WOMAN RELATIONSHIP

PHASE
RELATIONSHIP
PURPOSE
Attraction Physical Physical identification
Compatibility Soul Soul compatibility
Spiritual Rapport Spirit Spiritual compatibility (harmony)

Marriage is a test.  Every phase of the Right Man - Right Woman relationship is designed to achieve compatibility with the will of God - not with each other.  When the will of God becomes the standard, the relationship is launched into grace.  Under grace, God does the work and Right Man - Right Woman (RM-RW) receive the blessings.

All three phases of the Right Man - Right Woman love relationship are compatibility tests - not with each other, but with the will of God.  The compatibility tests are God's method of verification testing of the Integrity Envelope prior to pouring love into the cup in the soul and giving spiritual blessing.  The three types of tests are designed to verify the integrity of the soul by testing the Integrity Envelope for compatibility with the Plan of God.

  1. Physical compatibility means that RM-RW are designed to fit physically and sexually.
  2. Soulish compatibility means that RM and RW have a cup in the soul to receive divine love for each other.
  3. Spiritual compatibility means that the RM-RW relationship fulfills a spiritual purpose, a destiny,  in resolving the Prehistoric Angelic Conflict.

What about Romance?

Romance is the closest word in the English to describe love between a man and a woman, but it falls short of the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.  Romance is a human term.  The Right Man - Right Woman relationship is divine.  Romance is a human relationship; Right Man - Right Woman is a divine relationship.

Romance will not sustain a marriage.  That is why the average marriage goes downhill from the honeymoon.  There is nothing to sustain the romantic love.  God won't do it; and the couple soon get tired of conjuring it up.  The RM-RW relationship is nothing like the romance novel with emotion, human good, lust, intrigue, fornication, and adultery.  The RM-RW relationship is right and true and and divine.  It is compatible with the grace of God, the integrity of God, the Righteousness and Justice of God.

Romance is a fantasy.  It is based on illusions and fed by emotion.  Illusions are lies and emotions are irrational (without thought content).  In contrast, love in the RM-RW relationship is true.  The love of RM and RW is poured from God into the cup in the soul.  It is real.  It is the expression of virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope.  The RM-RW relationship is sustained by divine power - not human ability.

Romance is part of our culture.  It is everywhere.  Almost everyone believes in true love.  Ask anyone, believer, unbeliever, apostate, criminal, boy, girl, old person.  The only ones who don't believe it are legalistic, religious types, who have been deceived by Satan.  Everyone else believes it.  They all believe the grace of God.  Why?  Because God's grace gift is for everyone.  Marriage is not a Christian Institution.  It is a Divine Institution.  It is for the entire human race.

Marriage

Marriage is a Divine Institution.  It is a grace gift from God to provide a wonderful, love relationship for mankind in the midst of the Angelic Conflict.  Of course the devil is opposed to marriage.  He attacks it on three fronts as taught in Revelation through the example of the unholy trinity and the judgment of the city of Babylon. The city of Babylon was split into three parts by the judgment of God under the power of the Holy Spirit (Rev. 16:19).  The three parts were Ecumenical, Political, and Cosmic Babylon. The members of the unholy trinity are:
  1. The Dragon - Satan - Cosmic Babylon (Rev. 12:7-9; 2 Thess. 2:3-4).
  2. The Beast  - dictator of the Revived Roman Empire who comes out of the sea (Rev. 13:1) - Political Babylon (Rev. 13:1, 2; 17:3; Dan. 2:41-43; 7:7-8, 23-24; 10:13).
  3. False Prophet - dictator of Palestine who comes out of the land (Dan. 11:37) - Ecumenical Babylon (Rev. 16:13; Dan. 11:36-39).
The False Prophet will form an alliance with Rome early in the Tribulation for protection.  In the middle of the Tribulation the Roman Dictator will break his treaty; eliminate Jewish sacrifices in the Temple (Dan. 12:11); and demand that he be worshipped as God.  This will precipitate the Battle of Armageddon.

God's judgment of the Cosmic System splits it into three parts just as the judgment of the city of Babylon (Rev. 16:19).  Satan's attack upon marriage will, then, come from three fronts:

  1. Ecumenical Religion               Ecumenical Babylon
  2. Romance and human love      Political Babylon
  3. Fornication and adultery        Cosmic Babylon
Marriage is for mature adults - not children.  Marriage is a problem manufacturing device - not a Problem Solving Device.  Only mature adults can handle marriage.  The apostle Paul maintained this viewpoint.  He did not prohibit marriage, but taught that the spiritual life should always have priority.  His teaching on marriage is the most advanced in the Word of God.  The young people who run to the altar full of romantic illusions don't have a clue about what lies ahead.

As with all Divine Institutions, the rules for marriage are in the Bible.  When these rules are followed, marriage will receive divine blessing.  The couple will be able to go back to the Garden and receive the greatest love relationship in the human race.  However, this is only possible through experiential sanctification.  The will of God must be obeyed.  The Plan of God must be executed.  The spiritual life must be the means of fulfilling the marriage relationship.  Otherwise, true love will not be renewed, and the marriage will wither and die.

Marriage in the Church Age is part of full time Christian service.  It is the highest form of testing.  The Right Man and Right Woman in marriage become witnesses in the Appeal Trial of Satan.  Marriage is a proof of the validity of God's grace solution.  Right Man and Right Woman will be called upon to testify as witnesses for the prosecution in Satan's Appeal Trial.  Satan may also be allowed to cross examine them under Evidence Testing.

Counseling

The Christian should not need a counselor because God the Holy Spirit is the personal counselor of every believer.  Only God has complete knowledge about another person.  Human beings are too complex to counsel.  Psychologists (derived from the Greek word for soul psuche) are generally full of human viewpoint and arrogance.  Psychiatrists study medicine but are in the dark about the spiritual life.  In general, counseling is a violation of the privacy of the priesthood.  The Holy Spirit is the counselor for the believer-priest.

There are two exceptions to counseling.  Parents have a right to counsel their own children.  And there is a special spiritual gift that is given only to some women so older women can teach younger women how to love their husbands and their children (Titus 2:4).

ATTRACTION PHASE

Note:  The Attraction Phase is taught in the Ruth series.

COMPATIBILITY PHASE

Overview
Description of the Compatibility Test
The Woman
The Man
The Grace Solution
Abraham's Compatibility Test
Personal and Impersonal Love
The Soul Model
Spiritual Dynamics
Compatibility Phase Summary

Overview

 After the testing of the Attraction Phase, the Compatibility Phase is entered.  In the Compatibility Phase, the souls of Right Man and Right Woman are tested separately by the Lord.  The testing is designed to prove the integrity of the Integrity Envelope in the RM - RW relationship.  When all the verification tests are passed, the Lord will pour divine love into the cup in the Integrity Envelope; there will be coalescence of souls; and the RM-RW relationship will stabilize.

Compatibility testing will not occur until the required doctrine has been metabolized and is available for faith application in the heart (right lobe of the soul).  Compatibility Testing is a trial run for marriage.  The Man must use faith application to pass the tests related to his role as the leader in marriage.  He must obey divine authority; love his wife per Ephesians 5:25-26; and possess the true sensitivity toward her (Ephesians 5:28).  The woman must use faith application to recognize the authority of the Right Man in her life; respect him from her own Integrity Envelope; and respond to him.

After the Attraction Phase, the Compatibility Phase will test Right Man and Right Woman separately to determine their fitness for marriage.  They will face pressures in the relationship of all kinds.  Only when the pressures are handled by the Problem Solving Devices will there be grace promotion.  Application of doctrine to experience will produce experiential sanctification.  For those who are willing to stick it out through the compatibility tests, the Lord will provide grace promotion up the isosceles triangle back to the Garden.  Only by sticking it out through the tests can the Right Man and Right Woman's capacity for love be demonstrated.  The Lord will not pour the special divine love for RM - RW into the cup in the soul until the Integrity Envelope is verified by the suffering of Stress Testing.

After the compatibility tests have been passed, the Lord will pour divine love into the souls of RM - RW; will stabilize the relationship; and unite the souls of RM and RW.  Compatibility testing is a type of suffering.  It is not designed for pleasure.  However, the Problem Solving Devices can make it possible to ride out the suffering and minimize the discomfort.  The Compatibility Phase is not a good time to get married.  It is best to wait until this suffering is over.
 

Description of the Compatibility Test

Some of the Compatibility Tests are: The list is quite extensive.  Compatibility Testing is probably worse suffering than the Suffering Stage of qualification for Spiritual Maturity.  Nothing in this life can hurt like the suffering due to Right Man - Right Woman problems.  The Right Man or Right Woman has the power to hurt the other partner in ways that nothing in this life can even approach.  So long as the pain of this suffering gnaws away at the soul, the test as not been passed.  The one in pain usually has a soul flaw that needs to be corrected.  In most cases the pain is caused by failure to recognize the problem and consequent failure to deploy the Problem Solving Devices.

On the bright side, with all this suffering, there must be a good reason for it all; and there is.  The Lord has designed something better for the Church Age believer than in any other time in history.  The Church Age believer is afforded the unique opportunity to return to the Garden.  With the Filling of the Holy Spirit in the encapsulated environment of the divine dynasphere it is possible in the Intensified Stage of the Angelic Conflict to have what the perfect man and the perfect woman had before sin entered the world.  The Christian Marriage can take back what was lost at the Fall.  Christian Marriage brings blessings never experienced in human history in the midst of the worst adversity.  Marriage is a test.  Church Age believers in marriage are in full time Christian service.  When Christians pass the test of marriage, they will emerge as the super heroes of history.  Although their testimony will not be seen in this life, they will pass a spiritual heritage of blessing to their children and receive eternal rewards.

The Woman

The woman is different from the man in soul and body and spiritual purpose.  Women's souls are different that men's souls.  The Bible teaches this, and some scientists are even beginning to recognized it.  It is important to first understand the woman before trying to define her role in marriage.  Men often shake their heads and say, "I just don't understand women."  But the Bible holds the key to their capricious personalities that change as many as 31 times a month.

First, the woman is a responder.  She was built to respond to her Right Man.  If she is not responding to the Right Man, she is reacting to him.  Her soul matches the Right Man's and responds or reacts to him.

The woman is called "the glory of the Right Man."  She is his reflected glory.  Just as one looks into a mirror and sees his image.  The Right Woman is a mirror that reveals the image of her Right Man.  Unfortunately, until the mirror is properly aligned and polished, it often distorts the image.  Just as mirror that is not flat but convex or concave reveals a distorted image, the Right Woman who is not aligned with authority and polished by compatibility testing will reflect a distorted image of her Right Man.  Such distortions appear as personality flaws in the woman, since she is the mirror.  If the man is a jackass, she will most likely reflect him not as the Democrat that he thinks he is but as a distorted donkey.  When the distorted man is reflected by a distorted mirror, the Right Man - Right Woman relationship is likely to be stressed.

The "glory of the Right Man" means that the Right Woman has spiritual light that reflects her Right Man.  Light corresponds to life, or spiritual production.  A person with capacity for life is a human entity with a calling who produces something.  The production is called light.  The light originates with God, is delivered by the Holy Spirit, and stimulates the human soul to produce.  If the man sins and enters the Cosmic System, his light will become the production of darkness, and his Right Woman will reflect the darkness.  If the Right Woman rejects the authority of the Right Man and enters the Cosmic System, she will reflect darkness.  If, on the other hand, the Right Man enters darkness and the Right Woman handles it with the Problem Solving Devices from her priesthood, then she may neutralize the darkness and salvage the relationship through experiential sanctification.

The woman has another characteristic:  She is made for love.  The man represents life and the woman represents love.  She is a right lobe thinker.  The right lobe is the heart, the seat of love.  Her thinking is, therefore, more relaxed and conceptual than the man.  She may, therefore, avoid confusion that may stymie the man; but she tends to substitute hardness of the heart and arrogance.  So as the Right Man - Right Woman relationship deteriorates, the arrogant woman appears stronger and the worried man appears weaker.  The woman gains power and the man loses power.  This is the opposite of God's will, which is for the man to have authority and for the woman to submit to him.  Thus, the woman in sin is characterized by an authority problem.

Looking at life through the eyes of love makes a big difference; and the woman often excels her male counterpart in many ways.  She tends to outthink men (though not always her right man), handle stress better, and live longer.  And, of course, her beauty exceeds that of any creature that God made.  When the fallen angels recognized this (Genesis 6), it caused the biggest calamity that the world has ever experienced, the Flood.  The woman was personally built by the Lord Jesus Christ to symbolize the love and beauty of His creation.

The Man

The man symbolizes life.  He was designed to have dominion over all God's creation.  Unfortunately, he lost his power when Satan became the ruler of the world at the Fall.  The role of the man was established in the Adamic Covenant.  The man was given authority over his Right Woman; he would be the head of the family; and he would have to earn his bread by the sweat of the brow.  The man is designed to be a leader and a protector of his family.

The man is the "image and glory of God" (1 Corinthians 11:7).  The "image" of God means that he has immaterial essence, a soul and spirit.  Adam was created trichotomous, body, soul, and human spirit.  He lost his human spirit when he sinned.  At the moment of salvation, man receives a human spirit.  His spiritual essence makes the man like God, who is a spirit.  Because he is spiritual, man can communicate with God.  The man is also the "glory of God," which means that he receives his light from God.  The man who submits to the authority of God, reflects the light of God just as the Right Woman reflects the light of her Right Man.  So the man cannot dish out to the woman what has not been given to him from God.

The commands in the New Covenant to the Church raise the standards for the man higher than any other time in history.  He is commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25-26).  He must cherish her as he would care for his own body (Ephesians 5:28).  When men fall into sin, they exhibit the characteristics of animals.  They become wild and uncivilized.  When this happens, women are among those who suffer the most.

The Grace Solution

The Compatibility Test is God's way of verifying the quality of the Integrity Envelope prior to providing blessing in the marriage.  The test precedes coalescence of souls.  It is a spiritual test with a spiritual solution.  It is suffering.  It is for mature believers.  Marriage is not for children.  Marriage is not a game. It is a very demanding test.  It demands the highest standards of the Royal Family honor code.  It is part of full time Christian service.  It is a witness in the Appeal Trial of Satan.  It is a witness to angels.  It is the greatest blessing in this life or the biggest curse.

In the Compatibility Test, God tests the man and the woman separately.  They don't have to see each other, and they don't have to talk to each other during this test.  God administers the tests to both the man and the woman.  God handles the Justice, and God promotes.  In the Compatibility Test, God is demonstrating His grace.  He made the woman for the man.  He introduced them in the Attraction Phase.  Then, in the Compatibility Test, He tests them to qualify them for greater blessing in time and eternity.

During the Compatibility Test, the man and the woman do not work out their problems with each other.  It is not a problem of communication, or showing the other that you care, or entertaining, or dating, or visiting.  The Compatibility Test is between the individual and God.  It is a spiritual test that demands a spiritual solution.  The human solution is no solution; the divine solution is the only solution.  The Compatibility Test can only be passed by understanding the test and applying the divine solution.  The divine solution will always be one of the Problem Solving Devices.

Through the Compatibility Test the Right Man and Right Woman use faith application for experiential sanctification.  They both use their priesthood to execute the Plan of God.  Experiential sanctification qualifies them for promotion.  When they pass each test, God promotes them up the sides of the isosceles triangle back to the Garden.  They are separated in terms of their testing, but inseparable in the RM - RW relationship.  When one is overcome during the testing, the other suffers.  Through the suffering they learn of their power to hurt each other.  They learn that their thoughts and actions affect their partner as well themselves.

The Compatibility Test will culminate in the man demonstrating his love for his Right Woman "as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself as a substitute for her" (Ephesians 5:25) and the woman demonstrating respect for her Right Man (Ephesians 5:33).

Eclipse of ManThe man's love for his Right Woman is compared to the love of Christ, which is a divine love.  The man can only fulfill this command with Impersonal Virtue-Love from the Integrity Envelope.  This love must be poured into the cup in the soul from God.  This impersonal love is one of the Problem Solving Devices, but the object is the man's special Right Woman.  The man's love for the woman will be tested to the point of death.  This test is the Eclipse Test in which the man's lights are put out by rejection from his Right Woman.  When the woman rejects her Right Man, the pressure on him is analogous to the pressure on Adam when the woman sinned and the pressure on Jesus Christ on the cross.  Although the pressure of Adam and Christ far exceeded by far the pressure the man will experience.

When the man handles the Compatibility Test with faith-application, he receives experiential sanctification.  The man's sanctification also sanctifies the relationship with his Right Woman.  So the woman receives sanctification when her Right Man executes the Plan of God.  The Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross to provide sanctification for the Church, which is called His Bride.  He provided purification for her sins on the Cross so that she might be sanctified "by the washing of water (Baptism of the Holy Spirit) by the communicated Word (gospel)."  At Salvation the Holy Spirit sets the believer apart from the world and enters him into union with Christ in Heaven.  This is called current Positional Truth, which includes Eternal Life and Positional Sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:2, 30).  Positional Sanctification occurs in an instant at Salvation and lasts forever.

Positional Sanctification is the greatest example of Sanctification.  In Positional Sanctification, the believer Bride of Christ is set apart and sanctified forever.  Now, the Right Woman symbolizes the Church Age Believer in union with Christ with Positional Sanctification.   This is the "great mystery" (Ephesians 5:32).  The Right Man - Right Woman relationship symbolizes Christ and the Church.  The Right Man is a type of Christ, and his Right Woman symbolizes the Church.  Marriage sets Right Man and Right Woman apart in a holy (sanctified) relationship.  The problem which prevents sanctification  in Marriage is sin, and sin was handled at the Cross.  Thus, the explanation of how a man should love his wife (Ephesians 5:25) goes back to the Cross and Sanctification at Salvation (Ephesians 5:26).
Love, Sanctification of
          God
The Love of Christ (verse 25) and Sanctification (verse 26) are linked together as shown in the illustration.  Both satisfy the Integrity (Holiness) of God.  Anything outside the Integrity of God must face the Justice of God as illustrated by the color purple.  Sin, which is incompatible with the Love of God, leads to death.  Therefore, sin must be judged by an efficacious sacrifice to redeem the sinner.  The substitutionary spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the Cross provided redemption.  God must separate from sin, as illustrated by the color orange.  Eternal Life can be provided when sins are blotted out.  The person with Eternal Life can share the Happiness of God.  God can impute His Righteousness to the one whose sins are forgiven.  God's solution covered the sin problem as illustrated by the color Indigo.  God's Justice is satisfied by the solution, and the believer is pronounced Justified.  Satisfaction of all of these aspects of the Integrity of God results in Sanctification, which is compatible with the Love of God.

Teeter Totter ModelNow, Salvation provides Positional Sanctification, which is analogous to holy (sanctified) matrimony.  The tacit conclusion is that experiential sanctification in Marriage should follow the example of Positional Sanctification.  The Right Man and Right Woman should live in light of their Salvation and execute the Spiritual Life.  Only by executing the Plan of God can the man be sanctified and deliver his Right Woman.  When the man lays down his life for the woman, she is sanctified.  When the man and the woman are sanctified, God can promote them one step closer to the Garden up the isosceles triangle.

The woman who does not abide under the authority of her Right Man will be the victim of the Cosmic System.  She must learn to endure the tests of her roots in Stress Testing just as the man.  The ultimate test for the woman is also the Eclipse Test.  However, the woman's eclipse is analogous to the eclipse of  the moon; whereas, the man's is like the eclipse of the sun.  The woman can have her lights turned out by her Right Man.  When he has no light, she will have none, since she is his reflected glory.

The woman in darkness is a dead soul just like the reacting woman (1 Timothy 5:6).

The woman is either responding to her Right Man or reacting to him.  When she succumbs to the pressure of suffering and reacts to her Right Man, she will be carnal.   Her state of carnality will be characterized by living in wanton pleasure and by soul death.  The soul that is carnal is spiritually dead.  When the woman reacts to her Right Man, she responds to the Cosmic System.  In the Cosmic System she will reflect it's darkness, which is described as "wanton pleasure."

What makes women promiscuous?  Answer:  Reacting to the Right Man.  To emphasize further, the woman's problem is not sin; it is a problem with her Right Man.  The symptom is promiscuity, but the problem is reacting to Right Man.  When the woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, He forgave her the sin.  The Mosaic Law treated adultery as a crime punishable by death.  The Lord changed the crime to a sin and paid for the sin on the cross.

The woman in compatibility testing may suffer and fail in many ways.  Hosea's wife was a prostitute and an adulteress because she reflected the darkness of Client Nation Israel.  In compatibility testing, the woman will want to react.  She will be tempted to pursue a Frantic Search for Happiness and go into the Cosmic System.  During these times, she must exercise her priesthood.  In the Church Age, the woman is also a priest.  She has equal opportunity to grow spiritually and reach maturity.  This is the only place of equality between male and female.  When the woman Rebounds and applies faith to her problems, she will be experientially sanctified.  The woman with virtue from the Integrity Envelope can turn the downward trend in the RM-RW relationship around just as the man.

The woman of virtue who covers her loins with the Integrity Envelope is worth more than rare and expensive pearls.  Virtue in the soul of Right Woman means that she will be faithful to her Right Man no matter what the pressure.  She will obey him and respect his authority (Ephesians 5:22, 33) no matter what the test.  She will be faithful to him because the Lord chose him to be her Right Man.  She will be faithful to him and serve him through every problem and trial of life without complaining and without reacting.  She will obey him and serve him as to the Lord.  She will deploy the Problem Solving Devices to meet the exigencies of life. PRAYER

Prayer was never intended to be a Problem Solving Device.  Problems are solved by the grace of God because the solutions already exist as part of the Plan of God.  Such is the case with the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.  The relationship was God's idea, a grace gift.  When the pressures of testing in the RM - RW relationship arise, prayer will not solve the problems.  Furthermore, since there are problems in the RM - RW relationship, the believer's private prayers in the priesthood are also hindered.  When anything is wrong with the RM - RW relationship, prayers are hindered (1 Peter 3:7).

The Right Man and Right Woman can pray for each other.  Intercessory prayer for the forgiveness of sins is still operational; and the prayer for wisdom is still operational.  However, submitting the problems of the RM - RW relationship to God in prayer is tantamount to rejecting the grace solution and requesting special treatment or a miracle.  Those who insist on demanding help from God through prayer will become the victim of emotionalism and enter the apostasy of Holy Rollers and Pentecostals. LOVE

The Corinthian Church was full of problems with the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.  Paul covered the divine solutions to their problems in 1 Corinthians.  Chapter thirteen is about virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope, which is what the Compatibility Test is all about.  In this chapter Paul discusses many of the Compatibility Tests and relates them to the four-dimensional Integrity Envelope.

VIRTUE-LOVE

The Corinthians had become infatuated with speaking in tongues, a gift which is no longer extant.  Paul wrote them the blazing epistle of 1 Corinthians to excoriate them for their Holy Roller activities.  This first verse of 1 Corinthians 13 is a ringing, bombastic oratory equivalent to a blast of trumpets, kettle drums, and cymbals at triple fortissimo as only Beethoven and the Apostle Paul could deliver.  He is taking the gloves off and standing up against their brazen arrogance.  This is cauterizing sarcasm aimed at the tongues crowd.  He says, "If I speak with the tongues of men and angels," which means if he spoke like an angelic herald.  The Corinthians have been intrigued with speaking in tongues; so Paul is using debaters technique to present the premise that even if he spoke as an angelic herald, which would obviously exceed the most gifted of the tongues crowd.  If this were true, but he did not have love, is the premise.  This is the virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope.  It is Greek, ajgavph (agape), the word for divine love, or virtue-love, from God and poured into the cup in the Integrity Envelope.

Even if he were an angelic herald but did not have virtue-love, then, he concludes, "I have become a noisy gong or a clashing cymbal."  The word for "gong" is the Greek calkov" (chalkos), which means a piece of brass such as a pot or kettle used by peddlers to call attention to their wares.  As the peddlers made their rounds selling vegetables, they would beat on a pot or pan to attract attention.  This was before doorbells. This was noisy and quite a contrast from the soprano of the angelic herald.  It is the contrast between beautiful music (which comes from the right lobe of the soul) and the noise of a brass object for percussion, a gong with noisy echo.  But Paul doesn't stop here.  No percussion is ever hit just once; so he throws a combination punch and hits them again.  "Or a clashing cymbal":  The term for cymbal is the Greek kuvmbalon (kumbalon), which was a cymbal, a metal basin struck against another to produce a clashing, ringing sound used by professional mourners to get attention.  Everyone knew professional mourners were full of hypocrisy.  Now the Greeks of Corinth who prided themselves in their oratory understood this.  Paul had just taken them up to the fifth floor balcony and pushed them off.  This is Round One.

Note that Round One was addressed to the orators, the dynamic speakers with titillating tongues, the professional mourners full of hypocrisy, the prissy braggarts full of emotional claptrap.  There are other words to describe these types in the Bible.  They are the politicians from Political Babylon who are symbolized by frogs  (Revelation 16:13).  The politicians are forever posturing and croaking like frogs.

This verse does to the intellectual crowd what the first verse did to the politicians.  The Greeks also prided themselves on their intellectual achievement.  Paul also mixes in great faith that could remove mountains.  But without virtue-love, he says, "I am nothing."  The word "nothing" in the Greek oujqeiv" (outheis) means nothing, invalid, and meaningless.  Without virtue-love even the highest intellectual achievement and faith are meaningless.  This is a death blow to intellectual arrogance.

Thus ends Round Two.  Round Two was aimed at Ecumenical Babylon, the counterattack of the Faith axis (X axis) in the Space-Time Coordinate System.  Anything that knocks out the Integrity Envelope destroys virtue-love.  Virtue-love only comes from the Integrity Envelope.

In this verse is the epitome of martyrdom.  A martyr gives up his earthly possessions and even his life in obedience to noble principles.   There was a practice in Roman times of people trying to be martyrs by burning themselves alive to purge their guilt.  Such practices of delivering the body over to martyrdom in order to boast represented inordinate ambition and failure to Rebound.   If the person were without love, his martyrdom would accomplish nothing.  Such a martyr would be dying for a lost cause.  He would not be under the authority of God, but under the power of the man of lawlessness, the murderer from the beginning, Satan, the ruler of the Cosmic System.  So, Round Three covers the counterattack of Cosmic Babylon, which opposes the Hope axis (Z axis) in the Space-Time Coordinate System. "Love" is agape, the virtue-love from the Integrity Envelope.  This virtue love is "patient," Greek makroqumevw (makrothumeo), which is the first word in the Hope group of Galatians 5:22.  It means patience that endures.  Love is also "gracious," Greek crhsteuvomai (chresteuomai), which is similar in meaning to the next word in the Hope group of Galatians 5:22, chrestotes. It is a higher form of integrity and emphasizes the virtue from within the Integrity Envelope.  Chresteuomai means gracious, virtuous, or merciful.  It is a word for enduring ill treatment without the slightest hint of being ungracious, unmerciful, or reacting.  It is a word for virtue-grace.

Love is "not jealous," Greek zhlovw (zeloo), which means jealousy or envy.  Jealousy is a sin which has many variations.  In this context, it is failure to endure Stress Testing of the roots, or foundation, of the Integrity Envelope.  Jealousy is the beginning of a Frantic Search for Happiness that seeks an alternative rather than endure suffering.  Jealousy is a problem with the Time axis that seeks to slow it down (holding back in selfishness or vindictiveness) or speed it up (ambition).  However, jealousy may begin as impatience under Stress Testing and manifest itself as unwillingness to abide under authority during the test.  Jealousy is the arch enemy of love.  Jealousy is the sin that knocks out love.  It is the cruel enemy of every lover.  Those who have never had a problem with jealousy will encounter it in the Right Man - Right Woman relationship, especially in Compatibility Testing.

"Love does not brag," Greek perpereuvomai (perpereuomai), which means to brag or to boast.  Bragging or boasting is a sin of the tongue from pride.  "Love...is not arrogant," Greek fusiovw (phusioo), which means to be arrogant.  Arrogance is another word for the mental attitude sin of pride.  Arrogance occurs when a person believes a lie and projects himself over the top of his Integrity Envelope.  Bragging and arrogance are counterattacks of the top of the Hope axis (Z axis).

Thus, all of verse 4 is related to the Hope axis, bottom and top.  The beginning of the explanation of virtue-love here deals with authority.  It is imperative that the Hope (Z) axis be aligned with authority.  Virtue-love only exists under authority.  Submission to authority begins with Rebound.  When a person is not submitted to God's authority (Z axis alignment), there will be no virtue-love.  Verse 4 is the first step in passing the Compatibility Test.  The Z axis must be aligned under authority.  For the man this means submission to the authority of God by Rebound and obedience to the mandates of Bible Doctrine.  For the woman it means submission to the authority of God by Rebound and submission to the authority of her Right Man as to the Lord.  Virtue-love, the coalescence of souls, begins with recognition of authority.  Compatibility Testing begins with the Hope axis.

The word for acting unbecomingly is the Greek ajschmonevw (aschemoneo), which means disgraceful or dishonorable behavior.  "Does not seek its own" refers to the politicians who need others to pay attention to them, or give them a vote of confidence.  Virtue-love "is not provoked."  This is the Greek paroxuvnw (paroxuno), which means to irritate or provoke to anger.  Virtue-love is not hypersensitive.  It will endure provocation without being irritated.  "Does not take into account" is an accounting term, Greek logivzomai (logizomai), which means noticing a wrong or being vindictive.  Becoming vindictive will mean operating from jealousy, which will knock out love.

Verse 5 describes the virtue-love of the Love axis (Y axis) of the Space Time Coordinate System.  Virtue-love must overcome all of the counterattacks of verse 5, or the Integrity Envelope will break and love will be lost.  So, verse 5 is about another set of tests that can be expected in Compatibility Testing. When there is provocation or irritability in the life or any kind of frustration, then love is missing.  Love for God is missing, but love for Right Man or Right Woman is missing also.  Without this love, life is miserable.

"Virtue-love...does not rejoice in unrighteousness":  This means that the soul with an Integrity Envelope has values that bring happiness, and these values are not happy with unrighteousness.  "Unrighteousness" refers to anything that violates God's absolute Righteousness.  Unrighteousness includes the production of the Old Sin Nature with its sin, lust, human good, and evil.  "But (virtue-love) rejoices with the truth."  The "truth" refers to Bible Doctrine, the truth of the Word.  The truth is synonymous with the word, faith.  The believer with virtue-love appreciates Bible Doctrine.

Verse 6 sets up a contrast between two alternatives.  A person can appreciate unrighteousness, which refers to everything outside the Plan of God, or a person can appreciate Bible Doctrine.  There are many distractions from the Plan of God, but the hallmark of the person that is in it is the love for Bible Doctrine.  When a person loves the Lord, he loves Bible Doctrine.

Verse 6 is all about the function of the Faith (X) axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.  The believer with an Integrity Envelope has values that appreciate Bible Doctrine, i.e. faith.  The values do not appreciate unrighteousness, which is the counterattack of Ecumenical Babylon.  Faith application is required to pass the Compatibility Test. The word for "bears" is the Greek stevgw (stego), which means to pass over in silence.  It is a love test which lets a matter alone rather than making it an issue.  It includes protecting the privacy of others.  The test of Iconoclastic Arrogance which seeks to expose the feet of clay of another is an example of a test which requires passing over the issue in silence.  "Passing over all things in silence" (which is closer to the meaning) refers to withstanding all of the attacks upon the face of the Integrity Envelope.  This is the Love (Y) axis.

"Believes all things" means believing all things of Bible Doctrine.  The word "believes" is the Greek pisteuvw (pisteuo), which means to believe or to have faith in.  The noun form of the word is faith.  Thus, "believes all things" means that the Integrity Envelope only functions on the basis of faith.  This refers to the Faith (X) axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.

The next phrase, "hopes all things," has the verb in the Greek ejlpivzw (elpizo), which means to have confident expectation.  It is not like the English word for hope.  A better translation would be:  "Has confident expectation in all things."  This means to bear up under all of the Stress Tests of the Hope (Z) axis.  This is the way God tests the Integrity Envelope in the Compatibility Phase.

"Endures all things" contains the verb in the Greek uJpomevnw (hupomeno), which means to endure under pressure and refers to abiding under the authority of the Lord during testing.  This is the verb form of noun used in Romans 5:3-4 for endurance, i.e. the Greek uJpomonhv (hupomone).  Enduring all things refers to withstanding all the Stress Tests not only on the Hope axis but also the entire Integrity Envelope.  When all things are endured with the Integrity Envelope, the Compatibility Test is passed.

Verse 8 is a conclusion of the explanation of spiritual gifts which was begun in 1 Corinthians 12:1.  In this verse Paul is performing an historical reality check per the Time axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.  This verse says that the spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all cease. These gifts, though sensational, were temporary and had all ceased by 96 AD when John wrote Revelation and the canon of scripture was thereby completed.  Prophecy was a spiritual gift for pointing out future events in the Plan of God.  The last prophecy was the book of Revelation.  Tongues was a temporary spiritual gift for evangelism of the Jews, which ceased by 70 AD with the fall of the last Jewish Client Nation.  The gift of knowledge was a special spiritual gift for the explanation of new doctrines that had not yet become part of the canon of scripture.  This gift also ended with the completion of the canon of scripture. "But now" introduces the conclusion, which is all of the triple fortissimo of the conclusion of a great symphony.  This is Greek oratory.  The last sentence is an ellipsis, which leaves out the verb for emphasis:  "But the greater of these - VIRTUE-LOVE!"  He ends with a shout.

Space-Time Coordinate
          SystemThe phrase, "but now," refers to the Time axis.  Paul is very conscious of where he is in history.  It was this knowledge that brought the explanation of the cancellation of the temporary spiritual gifts.  "There remains in place" is the Greek mevnw (meno), which is one of the words in the compound words, hupomeno (to endure under pressure) and hupomone(endurance).  This refers to the Integrity Envelope aligned under divine authority inside the divine dynasphere.  It is the same as the analogy of the vine and the branches (John 15:5) used by the Lord Jesus Christ.  However, Paul very clearly portrays the Integrity Envelope as a three-dimensional cube in time (fourth dimension).  The Integrity Envelope remains in place with the Z axis perfectly aligned with divine authority and all the other axes aligned.

What remains?  "Faith, hope, virtue-love!"  These are three rim shots, three accented blasts.  There are only three words here in the Greek, which is unusual since nouns usually have a definite article.  However, nouns without the definite article call attention to the quality of the noun.  For instance, this is not just the word for faith.  It is the concept of faith on the X axis in the Integrity Envelope, which produces virtue.  And hope is the whole concept of confident expectation that endures suffering and is the foundation, roots, of the Integrity Envelope.  And virtue-love is the divine love from God that is poured into the cup in the Integrity Envelope.  It is the front of the Integrity Envelope on the Love (Y) axis of the Space Time Coordinate System.

Virtue-love only comes from the Integrity Envelope when it is intact.  The believer who has an Integrity Envelope will abide in faith, hope (confident expectation), and virtue-love under the authority of God.  He will move along the Time axis in concert with the Plan of God to fulfill his destiny.  The purpose of the Christian life is to grow to maturity by erecting the Integrity Envelope.  This is the grace solution.  The believer in Spiritual Maturity will express personal and impersonal love, virtue-love, from the Integrity Envelope.  This virtue-love will remain in place through every trial and exigency of life.

The last phrase, "but the greater of these is virtue-love," is the main point of the chapter.  When anything goes wrong with the Integrity Envelope, then the love, including Marriage Intimacy Love, of Right Man or Right Woman is lost.  Marriage Intimacy Love is a wonderfully fulfilling virtue-love for Right Man or Right Woman in the soul of the mature believer.  When this love is missing in the soul, then there is a problem with the Integrity Envelope.  Even when Right Man and Right Woman are not together, Marriage Intimacy Love should exist due to the Intimacy Connection with the Plan of God Server.  Intimacy is not achieved by talking or touching another person, it is achieved by the Intimacy Connection.  Unless the Intimacy Connection is operational, the soul has no capacity for love, and the Marriage Intimacy Love of Right Man and Right Woman will be missing.

During Compatibility Testing, the Integrity Envelope will be tested per 1 Corinthians 13.  The believer who passes the tests will have virtue-love, which is the basis for a mature love relationship with Right Man or Right Woman.  The person without the intimate love of Right Man or Right Woman thriving in the soul is what Paul calls "nothing."  Life without the love of Right Man or Right Woman in the soul is miserable.  The Compatibility Tests are God's tests.  The solutions must be God's solutions.  This is grace.  He gives the solution; He gives the test. The tests are only passed by the spiritual solution from the grace of God.  Compatibility of Right Man and Right Woman is the work of God in His infinite, matchless grace!  Marriage Intimacy Love for Right Man or Right Woman in the soul is evidence of having passed the test.

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AUTHOR  Larry Wood
COMMENTS

Revised Nov. 26, 2024