10. As He Is, So Are We
Inside of this love that has been brought to full completion fused together with us, we together might have boldness to speak [Christ our life] inside the [to]day of judgment, that just exactly as He is, so also are we in this present world-cosmos.
I have not included this verse substantially in my teaching, just referencing it on occasion. For that reason, I have not actually looked closely at it in its context. As I look at it now, I see that it is not speaking of the “Christ as me” aspect of union with Christ, but rather, of “we together,” that is, the Bride.
Christ Together. John does go back and forth between Christ personal and Christ together. This short passage is entirely us together.
Now, whatever John means by the primary verse, which we quoted, the rest of the passage gives us the qualifications of that verse. Those qualifications are – walk in the light, that is, in full honesty, walk in love, recognize that you come out from the same begetting God as your brothers and sisters, and love one another.
Before we talk about how we together speak boldly, lets bring in the enflowing of Word.
The Enflowing of Word. Inside of the full completion of love shared together, I boldly speak Christ our only life together with my brothers and sisters in the today of judgment. Just as Jesus is right now, the Church, His body, so are we in this world, Jesus filling all that we are with all that He is. Out from God, I love without torment. I fear God; therefore, I am never afraid of Him. I love God and others because God first loves me. I love God; therefore I never hold onto any contemptuous feelings towards others. I love God, though I have never seen Him, even as I love my brethren whom I see. I love Jesus, the One Seed-Kind of God; I love all who are conceived out from Him. I share all with God.
No Torment. There is no fear inside of love, but completed love casts out fear; because fear has torment; moreover, the one who fears [in torment] has not been made complete inside of love.
It is evident that John is not speaking of the fear of God, for his very next statement forces every hearer into open honesty. – “if not, then you are fake and dishonest.” More than that, the fear of God contains no torment at all. Jesus feared God and asked God fundamentally to save Him from death. The response, then, of one who fears God, when they are called to account is, “Here am I; I and all the children whom You have given to me.”
The True Fear of God. Consider my life story. In every chapter, I am saying, “Here am I, God. I, and all these precious brethren whom You have given to me.”
When one who fears God is called to give an account, that one places him or herself immediately into the light, into the presence of God, “God I belong to You, do with me as You desire, and show Your love to all these dear ones whom You have brought into my life.” The central human emotion found inside the fear of God is SAFETY. “I am safe.” And the emotions coming out from that safety are completion and belonging.
Being Afraid. The fear of which John is speaking is being “afraid of God,” which is more than absurd, it is hating God without a cause. Here is the best example in the Bible of such hatred.
…They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And …Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Then the man said (paraphrased), “It’s not my fault, it’s this woman’s fault, and it’s YOUR fault, God, because You put her in my life.”
The Progression of Torment. If anyone …contemptuously despises his brother, he is fake and dishonest.
All torment is found in hiding from God. David did as wickedly as anyone might do, yet when confronted with the light, he ran into God immediately and placed himself entirely and only upon God, blaming no one. David accepted his fault, but he did not condemn himself or others; that is the fear of God.
Here is the progression of torment, (1) tree trunks – I didn’t do it. (2) fig leaves – I’ll do better, look at me perform, (3) blaming someone else, and (4) shaming self/shaming God - torment.
Hatred of God. All of this nonsense is open rebellion against God, that is, OPEN REBELLION AGAINST - We love because He first actively loves us. All rebellion is a rebellion against being loved by God and then turning and loving your neighbor with that same Love.
Contempt is the center of evil; arrogance is its face. They hated Me without a cause, – that is – torment. This is how I say that those who fear God are not afraid of Him at all, and those who are afraid of God do not fear Him at all, but, rather, hate Him. Living in torment is hatred of God.
I Fear God. I fear God; that means that I am never afraid of Him. When I do something foolish that hurts my brother, I place myself entirely into God, justifying Him and asking forgiveness of my brother. I never lie to my brother, I never “try” to do better, I never blame others, I never shame myself or my God. Rather, I place myself utterly into God, that He alone is Love through me, and I give Him thanks. I never know torment, for I am always safe. We together belong only with God; we are complete inside of Love.
A Piercing Word. I just changed the title of this lesson from “So Am I” to “So Are We.” There is no entrance into God without taking our brother and sister with us. God's entrance into our world is always “we.”
My life story, Prepare a Path, is a testimony and an example of this passage in 1 John. 1 John is a piercing book. It puts us utterly into God and into His love, but it does so by separating us from every bit of nonsense we used to live in inside our imagination. – The word of God is living and energeoing, piercing through, and dividing asunder…
Love inside of Truth. The next box should be “Honesty,” honesty towards others, honesty towards God, and honesty toward self. When I hear someone say to another, “I love you, my brother,” I don’t believe a word of it. When I see the two of them with deep scratch marks on their faces and each other’s blood and skin under their fingernails, sitting down together and placing God as love between them, together, in spite of all the human turmoil, then I know something real is showing itself.
Little children, we should not love in word [only], but [also] inside of action and truth.
The Ark of the Covenant. I believe in the fantastic, AND I require real.
I just listened to an audio of the first seven chapters of Joshua, the crossing of the Jordan and the defeat of Jericho, for the Lord wanted to speak to me out from this account. I want to bring in three things here. First, it is the Ark of the Covenant that breaks the waters of death and opens the passage into Christ Community.
By this you shall know [that God shares life with you and that Jesus alone removes what is contrary and joins God with you], the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.
Breaking the Story of Death. Then we apply these words to that picture of the Ark: – As He is, so also are we in this present world. – And we also!
Second, this is not a passage into “death.” Quite the contrary, this is a passage into LIFE through the breaking and cutting off of death, of the story and words of death.
The third thing is shown in several different ways, but God’s command regarding the things belonging to Jericho (the death story) is the picture I will translate here. Do not take ANYTHING of yourself, good or bad, valuable or worthless, and call it your own. Everything you are belongs to God alone; call it to be so. – HONESTY – place it all into the Light.
Honesty. Everything I am and do belongs to God alone; I place myself always into the light. Everything my brother or sister is belongs to God; I treat them with open and genuine humility. When I do or say something foolish that hurts my brother, which is often, I never call it my own, but I place my foolishness and my brother entirely into God. In doing so, I break the story of death and I open the path of life for me and for my brother. Love out from God loves in word, yes, but even more so, I love my brother in action and in truth.
Judgment Today. Now we are ready for “the judgment.” No judgment will ever happen “tomorrow.” Judgment is always today, whatever today it might be.
This is the judgment of Christ, however, the judgment of BOLD speaking, that is, parrhesia, the judgment of the completion of Love. Consider these words: Inside of this love that has been brought to full completion fused together with us. And so the next box will be “Judging the Completion of Love.” The final and largest box on the page will be “As He Is, so Are We.” That will not be of any solitary “Christ.”
A Many-Membered Man. The judgment of Christ is the completion of Love. – Christ is a many-membered man (1 Corinthians 12). – Brethren dwelling together in unity – is – Life forevermore! (Psalm 133).
A personal relationship with Jesus comes first, but it MUST proceed immediately to the same relationship with all those who belong to Him. Here is the rule. – Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been conceived out from God, and everyone loving the One conceiving [Seed] also loves all others who are being conceived out from Him.
Bold Speaking. When we talk about Completion, and about receiving an experience of Completion from God, we are talking about this – Inside of this love that has been brought to full completion fused together with us. This is a love together, real and true.
And this is the judgment, this is the bold speaking, this is the measurement of Christ, this is giving an account in the presence of God. It is with bold speaking in my life story that I draw every individual person with whom I interacted throughout my life into the LOVE OF GOD, together with me.
Judging the Completion of Love. I want to love God, but God is always placing my brothers and sisters all around me. They offend me, and I offend them; that is, we are human. I know that I cannot “love” God as a self-emotion. I know that I must embrace my brothers and sisters, regardless. I know that God shares my every moment with me. I know that God is always moving through me. I know that God is always Love among us together. I judge our love complete, for Christ is complete through us. I speak boldly in the day of judgment that just as Jesus is, so also are my brothers and sisters. I love them as God Loves through me.
Smoking out Fakery. I was more right than I realized in seeing John’s letters as the bridge between a gospel of Life as the Source and a vision of the revelation of Life as the Completion. These letters smoke out all fakery and REQUIRE us to be real, regardless of the cost. Yet this judgment is always taking place inside the Love of God in which we dwell. Judgment is always SAFE.
In the study coming up, “The Real Apocalypse,” I have the confessions of faith continue as “I” through Chapter 7 with “I have the seal of God.” But the next lesson is “At the Heart of the Church.” From then on, it’s all “WE.”
The Bridge to Church. This lesson is that bridge from “I” to “We.” When we get to “At the Heart of the Church,” I hope that I will remember to draw directly from the remainder of this lesson. When we say, “We,” and when we say, “At the Heart of the Church,” we are speaking of the firstfruits of Christ.
The moment when union with Christ becomes the revelation of Christ for you is that moment when you take your brothers and sisters into your heart together with Jesus. It is the moment when you turn around. You abandoned “going to” heaven long ago; you are no longer “going into” God. Rather, you are going to Church inside of a God who shares your life with you.
What Is He? When we think about, “As He is, so are we,” we don’t want to waste time with the esoteric – well if Jesus is “all here now,” that means that I must be “all here now.” Believing in the fantastic is not the same as believing in the ridiculous. I require real. And we also want to strike down the “super-Christ” as the demonic image it is. The “above you” Christ, the, “Hey, dude, look at me, I walk through walls,” Christ. The pretending “Christ.”
Here is the one we are looking at. – The Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all.
The Church His Body. As He is – the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all, so are we together – the Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Christ who fills all inside of all.
I know that this is a disappointment to those who are eager to learn how we are just like superman, I mean, “Christ right now.” But considering Jesus’ words, “This is My full completion, that you love one another reciprocally in just the same way that I love you,” hammered into us by John over and over, that Love be REAL, how can it be any other than the Church as Community.
We Are Christ Community. As Jesus is Christ Community, so also are we.
I am content in God, but I am not happy with long-distance “church.” I have laid my Isaac down upon the altar, but with Abraham, I am also assertively CONFIDENT that God will raise up again the Community of my heart for real. The moment that Door swings open, I am IN.
We know God through knowing Jesus Sent into us. Jesus Sent is Christ Community. Jesus Sent is the Church. We know God together inside of knowing one another for real. – Symmorphy V: Life.
Speaking Boldly TOGETHER. We together boldly speak [Christ our life] inside every today, that just exactly as He is, Christ Community, a many-membered man, so also are we in this present world-cosmos.
Jesus is not esoteric; He is not solitary; He is not super. Jesus is life together, a bunch of bumbling and foolish humans sharing daily life together, BOLDLY speaking Christ Jesus as all their connections together, that is, loving one another with pure hearts fervently. You explore the depths of Christian Community, and you have explored the depths of Christ as He is.
As He Is, so Are We. What is the heart of what Jesus is? How are we to see Him that we might be like Him?
Jesus is in love with the Church. This is an extraordinary love, for not only has He given His life for the sake of each one and for the Church as a whole, but He dwells inside the heart of each and fills each with all that He is. Jesus is a many-membered Man, and we, His Church, are His body. Yet Jesus also lives for Father’s sake, for Father made known. Jesus is the entrance of God.
As Jesus is, so are we. We love one another; we give our lives for one another’s sake. We walk together daily. We are in love with the gathering of the Church, our precious brothers and sisters in Christ. We live in their fellowship, and the fellowship of all lives in each one of us. We are members of one another. We see each one as the Lord Jesus to us. Yet just as Jesus lives for Father’s sake, so also do we. We together are the entrance of God into our world. Through our shared love, God our Father is known by all.
The Testimony of Christ. If Abraham had walked down that mountain with a dead Isaac left on top, we would not have heard of Abraham and we would not have heard of God. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ Community are the same thing, for the LIFE of the first is made known as the LIFE of the second. If there is not a testimony of Christ in the earth in these last days, then Jesus did not rise from the dead.
I will walk with a people who know God, on this earth and in this age. I will be a member of Christ Community again, and I will not allow God to rest until I am.
Reading for Next Time. The next lesson is titled “I Overcome the World.” We are going to Church; therefore, we are going to war. It is the Church, Christ Community, for which we FIGHT.
For all who have been conceived out from God overcome the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. (Read 1 John 5:2-17 several times.)
I am going to weigh this word. I think maybe that when it’s intransitive, ‘overcome’ is best, but when it’s transitive, the action to the object, it should be “I DEFEAT the World.” The gloves are coming off; the fight is going global, and they have no idea what is about to HIT.
Let’s Pray Together. “God our Father, we are Your entrance into our world, for You come through our love shared together in genuine honesty and respect. For this reason, Father, we know that we cannot know the true meaning of ‘as He is, so are we’ apart from Christ Community, apart from walking in the light together daily.
“Father, we would know Jesus as He is, we would know the One who has fallen in love with the Church. We would know the One who shares life with each person whom the Father has given to Him. Father, we would be the revelation and proof of Christ.
“God, our Father, we ask of You that, just as You raised up Isaac to walk with his father, and just as You raised up Jesus to become us, His Bride, so You would raise up a Community of Christ all around each one of us that we might be members of Your entrance into our world. God, we ask that You would raise up the people, the property and the provision that You have set forth for each one of us that we might be part of the revelation of Jesus Christ in these last days.
“God, our Father, we would know Christ Community. We would walk together daily with those brothers and sisters whose hearts you have given to us and ours to them. Father, be glorified in Your Church as our shared Love.”