15. Respect Dispels Contempt

© Daniel Yordy – 2020
 

Respect: The complete and joyous receiving of other believers as the Lord Jesus Himself; the expression of lifting others up in honor and esteem; the demonstration of little acts of kindness and gentle words of encouragement as the expressions of God.

Contempt: The lens through which aggrieved superiority views all other humans; that which places self “up” by viewing others as “inferior”; includes contempt for self as it comes out from the same sensation that “I ought to be better”; the cause of all war, theft, and murder.

This is the door of pattern, motive, or purpose; that is, Door 2 is Purpose.

And this is why God placed the most important verse in the Bible as the ruling verse.

Those who are called according to His set-forth Purpose.

Two patterns or purposes – to lift up and to carry from beneath, even through weakness, all the way into life – or – to command by rules as from “above” and to punish all infractions – to a world of good and evil forever.

What is our purpose? What is God’s motive? It is easy to see how purpose comes out from likeness and why Adam chose the law in order to rule over his wife; whereas Jesus chose life in order to set His wife free.

The Door of Purpose closed is contempt; but the Door of Purpose flung wide open is Respect, receiving one another as Jesus Himself. Indeed, this Door of Purpose is discovered only underneath, with a God who carries all inside His stumbling Son.

What does that Door of Purpose wide open to God mean in our lives? And what is God free to be inside of and through us as He enters as that Door?

Consider the many purposes of life that rule and have ruled inside of humans. Some live primarily to fulfill their fleshy desires, others to become “wise” in this world, and others to be superior in the eyes of others or over others, that is, the ‘pride of life.” For most, of course, it’s a combination of all three.

Christians have not been exempt from these three pursuits in the moment, but have also added various “Christian” purposes. For some it’s a desire to secure a future of escape from hell and bliss in heaven. For others, life-purpose is about taking as many with you as possible, or maintaining a good-standing in the eyes of other Christians. Even “I want to hear ‘well-done’” can sometimes be inside this category.

But what do all these things share in common?

Indeed every one of these can be reduced down to the same one human purpose. That one purpose is – “I must escape my present lowly estate to become better.” The ONLY difference between these many purposes is the definition, for each one, of “better.” But the only actual result of every one of these purposes is to see other humans as beneath.

We have known a different purpose for our lives, and that is, to know the Lord. Yet even though this purpose is at least going in the right direction, there is still a sifting within it. You see, even here, the purpose can be the same as all the other purposes, that is, to become “better,” and looking down upon others can remain the same solitary result.

But when we find Father’s Heart, and when we turn around inside of His Love, we find purpose that we never knew existed.

Our purpose now is Father’s desire, and Father’s desire has two expressions, first, that Christ might be made known in us, and second that Father might be made known through us.

And suddenly, “escaping our lowly estate” not only ceases as any sort of meaningful purpose, but, in fact, becomes repugnant to us. For we are looking out through the eyes of a Man who said, in His lowly estate, “He who sees Me, sees the Father.” – He humbled Himself.

I realize only now that this is the real change inside of me, a change of epic proportions, and the ONLY source of any slight adjustments that might yet come in any outward appearance.

Defining the Open Door:
Virtue #2: The proof of Christ through me, first, that I accept that, since Jesus lives as me, then He lives also as my fellow believers in Jesus regardless of anything outward. Second is my acceptance that God is meek and lowly of heart and that He sees others as better. Third is my acceptance that, since Jesus lives in my heart, His passion for His Church also lives there. This Door is an acceptance that I live only inside of God-Love and that I begin to allow Jesus to be Himself through me towards others as the One who carries all.

Virtue #2: Allowing the passion and desire of Jesus to become the purpose of your life, to share His purpose with you.

We can see the central role of receiving, allowing, and acceptance on our part. In regards to Purpose, we are passive receivers in response to an active Jesus. Think about these words. –  Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone should hear My voice and open the door, I will go in towards him and will dine with him and he with Me (Revelation 3:20).

“I will go in towards him.” – The first thing faith does is to allow a pro-active Savior to be what He is inside of us. We no longer adhere to or allow an unreal Jesus in our mental imaginations.

God-in for Us:
Because of my years in Christian community, learning to get along, learning how to walk together, learning to value and respect one another in the highest regard, the very moment I entered into knowing my precious union with Christ, I also knew that I had to take my brethren into that same place in my understanding, regardless. The very first exercises in this new way of thinking and living that God placed in my path were dealing with Jesus living as these who were saying and doing things I knew were contrary to God.  

You see, I was teaching in a Christian school at the time, Spirit-filled, yes, but typical in that it was part of the dark cult of “God Bless America” and the worship of the U.S. military. More than that, the underlying thinking in that church was very similar to the move fellowship, which means Calvin’s definitions of the total depravity of the Christian. And so we were admonished with that absurd Sisyphean statement, “Get out of the way so that Christ can be seen in your classroom and not you.”

Receive one another in exactly the same way that Christ received you (Romans 15:7).

I was and still am a mess, yet Jesus receives all that I am into Himself. Yet I know that if I do not receive my brothers and sisters in the same way, I block myself from knowing His receiving of me. That’s an absolute reality.

You can see how this second Door, the Door of Purpose, is the real test, much more than the first Door of receiving Christ as our only life. And so it was with Adam. He was intrigued with the image of the super-Christ of outward lights and perfections, but the deciding factor for him was his determination to control his wife. And so the law is always at hand for any who wish to force compliance upon other Christians.

God-in for us, however, is a reaching for life, as Jesus did, for the sake of others, even if it’s, at first, for our own sake, that we might not be excluded from knowing Jesus Sent into us. This is a necessary place to start.

Nonetheless, God-Through the Door of Purpose grows and grows until we find that everything is about sharing Hheart with Father for the sake of others, each one of whom we hold in full respect. Yet we know this first by accepting Jesus as the Blueprint of God and of ourselves.

Defining the Door Closed
In complete contrast, holding that door tightly closed and locked is a simple thing. All one has to do is to refuse to see that the Lord Jesus would be living as these despicable “so-called” Christians. “Those Christians are deceived and fleshy.” – Except that argument is deceptive in being simple, for it is contempt and it serves only to exalt self.

And so the second thing, and actually the primary thing, that blocks people from accepting union with Christ is that they have to accept all other Christians as the same. “You are a sinner,” becomes a smokescreen, then, for rejecting God.

But this is the Door of Purpose, and so the purpose of closing this Door is to raise one’s self “up” in the imagination of one’s mind by the devious practice of putting others down. And the very best device to enable this exercise in perceived self-rightness is the law.

Keeping God Out
The disgust for other “so-called Christians,” held fiercely inside of self-exaltation, then, is the simple and effective way to refuse the Lord Jesus, to keep God far away “where He belongs.” With the first Door, it’s actually, “Christ is perfect and I am not.” With the second Door, it’s “Christ is perfect and YOU other Christians are not.”

A reader of these letters was on the phone with someone who was aware of his confession that Christ is his only life. This someone was railing against him with the accusation that, since he could not walk through walls, then Christ was clearly NOT his life.

The image of the super-Christ always results immediately in driving an absolute wedge between Christ and another person in whom He dwells, this time in the envy of the heart.

Now this is interesting. You see, Door 1, Being, (you are NOT like God) has to come first since it is the definition of all that follows, but Door 2, Purpose, is the actual bottom-line. And thus we see that the arrogant super-Christ is nothing more than a figment of human mental imagination, whereas contempt for others IS the driving core of one’s heart.

Contempt for other Christians is always nothing more than a smokescreen for a deep, visceral contempt for God.

The False Call
What, then, is the “God” who is called falsely through an otherwise closed Door 2 into the knowledge of Christians?

 Calling God in falsely through a closed Door 2 is the Christian practice of the exaltation of the flesh, placing “the flesh” on a pillar as if it rules over Christ. And there is no better device for exalting the flesh of other Christians than the law or the Christian mis-use of “hear and obey.”

It is an easy thing to disrespect “fleshy” Christians, those who fail to “line-up,” or to look like “Jesus.”

Paul made it very clear in Galatians, by his graphicly expressed sarcasm, that those who promote the law do so for one reason only, so that they can gloat over their “control” over the flesh of other believers. And so the “God” coming through this closed door is a God with an inflexible “will” who requires us to line up with that will and rejects us if we do not.

I have made this statement, coming out from years of experience with Christian sects, that if a group of people begins with 95% Christ in you and 5% flesh in you, thirty or forty years later, the percentage will be reversed, always. By the time I left the move fellowship, the focus was on finding anti-Christ in yourself; Christ was no longer relevant.

Then we see the building of great hierarchies in the Church, beginning with the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, taking the place, here in the earth, of an ABSENT Jesus. These hierarchies serve one purpose, and that is to keep all these wayward Christians under some sort of control. In fact, we will see in my life story that this is the primary and bottom-line reason why I left the move fellowship.

The “God” called through this false purpose is a “God” who holds human weakness in contempt. But it is also a “God” who is distant and small, needing human intervention before Jesus could ever be Lord. It is contempt that truly makes Satan into “God.”

In fact, we can see that the definitions of “eternal damnation” proceed out from a deep and ruinous heart-contempt for others.

The True Call
But look at the true calling of Purpose. EVERYTHING begins with Father – what does God want? But how can we know what God wants except we know Father as He is? And how do we know Father as He is except by seeing a Man stumbling under a cross He cannot carry – He who sees Me, sees the Father.

The Son of Man is come to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). – ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ (Luke 15:6).

We are not using these verses as a call to “evangelism,” but as how we see other people, and, specifically, our purpose towards other people.

And so the true call of God-In through the Door of Purpose is to speak honor and goodness into other people, especially into those who are offending us. (And this IS what the reader of these letters spoke into the person railing against him with contempt.)

In fact, by calling and seeing others as good, we are calling and seeing God as good.

Yet we know that God is not unjust, that God cannot withhold justice, that what is stolen must be repaid double. – Yet we must not leave the understanding that this Door is ACCEPTANCE, that is, a receiving of Jesus into us. And so the opening of this Door of Purpose, and calling God in to receive the Desire of His Heart, is a first acceptance that the One who carries all lives inside our hearts.

This is not yet a call of doing, but of accepting, accepting a God of Purpose and Intent.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” (Matthew 23:37-39).

Wow, this whole passage fits more than I had thought when I went looking for the last part.

Here is the layout. Contempt to the point of murder – accept My gathering of all into Myself – but you are not willing – therefore, no knowledge of God (desolate) – Until you say, “My dear brother, my dear sister, you are as Jesus to me.”

“My dear brother, my dear sister, you are as Jesus to me” IS the true call of God-Through the Door of Purpose.

Comparing False with True
Picture Jesus going around using a Taser on every individual who is not lining up with God, every time they fail to do so. Is there such a Blueprint?

And so calling God in falsely through Door 2 is to call God by Satan, that “God” throws all these despicable humans into torture forever in screaming wails of unending hopelessness, the essence and triumph of human CONTEMPT and the complete refusal of justice.

Two types of calling God-IN. Good and evil are at war inside of you and are opposed forever; try to be more “with” God than other Christians  – or – God carries you inside Himself all the way from life into life; carry your brethren in your own heart as well.

To a false prophet of Door 2, believers in Jesus are always falling short of God, and it is their fault. They need to “get with the program,” whatever is being used to pretend to be “godly.” This allows the false prophet to appear to be a “man” or “woman” of God.

To a true prophet of Door 2, these precious believers in Jesus are as the Lord Jesus. The true prophet sees the congregation as better and counts it the highest honor to serve them, whether with Word or with Spirit or even just a cup of coffee.

To a false prophet of Door 2, all those loathsome sinners are destined to burn in hell forever. Since God despises them, that same tone of contempt comes through, though typically, the false prophet’s congregation is inside the pale but “those other Christians out there” are lost forever.

To a true prophet of Door 2, the joy of God’s Salvation is always found together with a bearing of the cost of forgiveness. The knowledge that this is not God’s season for all, however, does not prevent the true prophet of Door 2 from treating each one as if they are the firstfruits of God in all honor and respect.

To a false prophet of Door 2, each individual is held in suspicion until such time as they “prove” that they have whatever that particular prophet requires. The hearts of others are disrespected and silenced. Each is “put into their place.” This is the finest sensation sought by the false prophet of Door 2, to see self as the go-between the congregation and God.

To a true prophet of Door 2, each individual is received as Jesus receives us, with all respect and regard, knowing that it is Christ Jesus alone who proves all that God requires. To such a prophet, being sure that each individual knows how special they are to God and to His Church is of paramount importance. This is the reward of the true prophet, to see each one encased utterly in the knowledge of God with them.

The True Dispels the False
How, then, does the true calling of God into ourselves through Door 2 dispel as a meaningless vapor that false calling of a “God” of contempt?

This Door is the costliest Door, for to reject contempt and to choose respect of others requires a surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ and a going under with Father. Of course, once that choice is made, the realization that we have just found all the treasure of God soon proves to us that what we “paid” had no value and what we gained, these others as our friends forever, is of inestimable value.

At the same time, however, the severe place “eternal damnation” holds in the hearts of Christians is a formidable barrier to God. The root is a fierce love of contempt and the worship of a “God” of contempt.

Let’s place the true beneath the false.

Hating God by hating others; hating others by hating God.

Dispelled by – loving God by respecting others; loving others by respecting God.

There is something about respecting the person who is disrespecting you, respecting them as the Lord Jesus, that disarms anger and envy, as Paul quoted Solomon, heaping coals of fire on their head.

There is something about a Man stumbling under a cross He cannot carry, carrying us, carried by Father all the way through death and into life that simply wins our hearts.

Let us Pray
“Lord Jesus, I receive my brothers and sisters in just the same way that You receive me, with all regard and joy. Lord Jesus, I know that You fill my heart with Your overwhelming passion towards and tender regard for each individual person. I don’t have to “feel” that to know it is true. And so, Lord Jesus, I am willing to allow You to receive others through me. I am willing, Lord Jesus, to take all my fellow Christians with me into union with Christ, to see them as You, to see them complete and whole, with no consciousness of offense.

 “Lord Jesus, I see and speak that, just as I enjoy union with You, so do all my brothers and sisters, that just as I know that You are living as me, so I know that You are living as them. I am aware of their ignorance of God, yes, and of their continued faltering, but it makes no difference, for I know that You are their life and You do all things well.”

The Meaning of God-Through
What does this wide open Door 2, the Door of Purpose, mean, then, for God’s entrance into His creation through and then beyond us.

I just noticed a pattern. The first Door is a calling of God into ourselves through Jesus that we might know and live by our union with Christ. This is a Door of God for self, the place all Salvation must begin. Then, the second Door is a calling of God through Jesus for others, that we might see all others as the Lord Jesus. We will see, then, that the third Door, the Door of Completion is a calling of God through Jesus for God, that we might be utterly connected with Father for His sake.

We open the Door of Being and Likeness for ourselves; we open the Door of Purpose for others; and we open the Door of Completion for God. This is the true and necessary progression.

In fact, it is in Door 3 that Jesus takes our hand and Father’s hand, puts them together, and whispers to us, “Know Father. I am and I do for one reason only, that you and Father might be always together.”

But our connection with Father cannot take place until our hearts are fully the Lord Jesus towards all other believers.

This, then, is the same pattern out through us into the Church and into all creation.

The ultimate meaning of God-Through the Door of Purpose is an entire creation restored into life and joy, that is, into the knowledge of God. We call God through this Door by seeing it to be already the only thing true. And thus we see and call each individual human, regardless of any outward appearance by the full respect given to the King of Creation.