3.2 Keeping a Pure Word
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words… (John 14:23-24).
We have already established that “keeping His word” in the way most define it is something we cannot ever do. On that topic we close our mouth in full agreement with God that we are toast. At this point we are no longer concerned with that former way of thinking. God does not know “good and evil”; God is incapable of death, of any “splitting apart.”
What is God? Until we know the answer to that question all through our beings, we cannot keep His word.
To One Another. And so, we must KNOW what “Keep My word” really means, and we must know it inside a God who is and knows only Life.
So, if God CANNOT know what evil is, or sin and death, then what does “Keep My word” mean inside such a God? God is life. And it is LIFE God wants to bring forth through our mouths to one another. We see pure, we think pure, we speak pure – filled with all the fullness of God.
At the same time, we no longer see ourselves as isolated individuals, but as members of one another. Thus I would posit that knowing “Keep My word” is found inside of knowing the full meaning of reciprocity – one another.
To Keep. Let’s start with the simple definition of the word “keep.”
Téreó (keep): to watch over, to guard. I keep, I guard, I observe, I watch over.
Father at Home in me is my only option; therefore “Keep My word” is something I must do in all perfection and entirely because I love Jesus. Yet I cannot do such a thing EXCEPT I be filled with all the fullness of God. So yes, from Bible verses we see that God will not make us His Home unless we keep His Word and we cannot keep His Word unless God makes us His Home. And Jesus having become me is the entire solution.
In Earthen Vessels. Now this conundrum, this circular argument, is not God playing games with us, but rather the narrow way through which we are pressed into knowing all the fullness of God.
Two verses cannot ever be separated in our knowing and in our experience. To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19). Fused together with – But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Corinthians 4:7).
The law, “hear and obey,” turns us from God to ourselves, filling us with the power of our own failed self-righteousness. For us, everything meant by “earthen vessel” rests inside the love of Christ as we know God Himself passing through us.
Reciprocity. Yet this is only one half of our picture, the other half is reciprocity, allélón – one another. We could say “Paul’s gospel” in this way, four HUGE little words, syn/sym – en/eis – pas – allélón; in English, together with – in – all – one another.
Soon after Jesus said, “Keep My word,” He also said, “Love one another as I have loved you.” Now, nowhere does God ever say that I, as an individual, am the body of Christ. Therefore, I cannot say such a thing. Jesus lives in my heart, yes. I am filled with all the fullness of God, yes, although I have NO idea what that means. But I, by myself, am not the Body of Christ, I cannot be any isolated channel through which God “shows Himself.”
See One Another. Now, our purpose in this course is not to ground ourselves once again into love, into being filled with God. We are there, utterly. Yet out from that absolute rest, we understand ourselves as being weak and earthen vessels through which another Person intends to show Himself to all.
Our purpose in this lesson is to know the full meaning of “Keep My word,” and not just to know it, but to be it. Yet, in order to know and to be “Keep My word,” we must look away from ourselves, resting in the love of God, and know the meaning of “one another.”
God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us… made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:4-6 – condensed)
Sitting Together. Look at the Mercy Seat. It’s not very big, is it? If you are sitting there, and if I am sitting there, and if many others are sitting there, we must be sitting together – even inside each other – even members of one another.
Every “together with” in Ephesians 2:5-6 is not you and I as individuals together with Jesus, but rather, you and I together with each other and all who belong to Jesus INSIDE of Christ.
Suzóopoieó – you and I were made alive together as members of one another – inside of Jesus.
Sunegeiró – you and I were raised into the heavens together as members of one another.
Sugkathizó – you and I are seated together as the very Heart of Father and as members of one another.
A Miracle. Now, I am building towards a very specific point, but, as a master craftsman, I want all the pieces in place first.
I have stated that the wondrous outpouring of God that will be the fulfillment of the First Day of the Feast of Tabernacles in the life of the Church will be God Himself in Person flowing from one to the other as ALL our connections together. When I look at my present relationships with people, it is evident to me that such a thing will be a MIRACLE. And yet the moment we are caught into such a reality, it is ours forever.
Consider the fulfillment of Pentecost in the birthing of the Church; the First Day of Tabernacles will be similar, only far more so.
God Among Us. When those who do not know the immersion of the Holy Spirit attempt to write the story of Peter, they define him like themselves, filled with doubt and unbelief. They present Peter, years later, agonizing over his momentary denial of Jesus. They have zero knowledge of the transformational power of Pentecost in an individual or in the Church.
The same is true of the First Day of Tabernacles. We look at our present relationships as members of Christ and those relationships look very human to us, and filled with human frailty. We have no present knowledge of GOD AMONG us.
Now, for me, story continues to be the best way for me to see and to understand reality. I love good stories; I see God in good stories.
From One through Many. Think of the Death Star in Star Wars. Most have seen that specific picture. The Death Star is the size of a small planet or moon; it draws its energy from the nearby star. If science were not inside the curse, the movie makers would have known that the energy is electricity and that electricity moving through space is always binary.
So we have POWER, coming from ONE, in the form of TWO, always together, Spirit and Word. (Keep My Word!)
But then, when the power comes out from the Death Star it is many separate beams. These beams focus on one point, so that the power coming through MANY becomes, again, ONE. That now transformed beam of power then zaps the target planet.
A Life Star. There is, of course, one large difference in our picture. We are a Life Star, and our task is the power of God flowing through us together to zap this earth with LIFE. I do like the pictures of story.
Of truth, let me explain my purpose a bit more. From Session 6 on, I hope to limit myself to specific and concrete practicality regarding walking together as a local church. In these four sessions, 2. Father – 3. Christ – 4. Spirit – 5. Church, I hope to place us together into a seeing and a knowing of what the Body of Christ really is. And central to that seeing is the knowing that another Person, Father God, is moving through our reciprocity together to show Himself as He IS and in Person to all creation.
Jesus IS Word. Life flowing out is our purpose, but life among is how it happens. Life together IS the witness of Christ. For that reason, reciprocity, members of one another, is a concept we must fully develop before we ever arrive at the practicality of community.
Let’s return, now, to “Keep My word.” We must know one thing about this Jesus whose word we keep – Jesus IS, first and foremost, every Word God speaks. And thus, in our action of “Keep My word,” we are spun completely around. For Jesus – as every Word God speaks merged with us in all ways – is God speaking all things. “Keep My word” is the passage of Word through us.
Turned Around. “Keep My word” happens in and through those who live turned around upon and as the Mercy Seat of God, and that keeping is something flowing out from them into the hearts of others. Let’s reduce this down to its simplest essence. Jesus, Himself in Person, living in all of His glory inside your heart, says to you, “Keep guard over My Word. Watch Me as I do what I am through you.”
And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made complete in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:22-23).
A Different Universe. “Keep My word” exists in an entirely different universe than the universe of separation and dishonor. I in them and You (Father) in Me, that they may be made complete in one.
We live inside a God filling us with all that He is, a God of LIFE who does not know “fallen short,” a God who loves MANY and sees each one of those many as better than Himself, a God who wants to be part of creation, yet as Himself. And so our action of “keep My word” is our joyous participation in the outflow of that word into others making Father known in every heart who receives Him. Yet we know that nothing can “go out” from us that is not first reciprocal among us.
I Keep His Word. Jesus is in my mouth. I keep His word. – When I speak to you, I am speaking God Almighty into the knowing of your heart. – The river flows out from the Garden of Eden bearing in it whichever tree we speak. We speak only life, and out from our words there flows an entire universe of LIFE.
Yet, God first grounds us in the Word, Christ Jesus, having become each of us as individuals (Symmorphy I: Purpose), before He shows us that same Word as us together as one Body. For the exact same reason, before we will know in actuality that Word flowing out from us together to all creation, we must KNOW the full meaning of the reciprocity of that Word among us as members of one another.
Three Expressions of Word. In the review of Symmorphy IV: Covenant, in “Giving an Account,” we looked at the three powerful New Testament words that are our expression of logon, our giving of an account to God. Those three words are homologia (speaking the same word), parrhesia (the freedom to speak bold statements), and prophéteia (calling forth the knowledge of God).
For the purposes of this course we are using these words for more than our own entrance into or place inside of God. Rather, we are now focused on these words fulfilled in our mouth carrying the knowledge of God out from us into the hearts of all those who are receiving Him, and in particular, inside the House of God, that is, into one another.
Speaking into One Another. We are no longer just speaking ourselves into our own knowledge of God; now we are speaking that knowledge of God into one another’s hearts in full reciprocity.
We have to have this picture clear. FIRST – Word (homologia, speaking the same word of Christ as my only life, parrhesia, speaking that word with all boldness, and prophetia, calling forth Christ as all that I am) MUST begin with me, personally. SECOND – Word then must become reciprocal, one to the other, BEFORE – Third – Jesus speaking as one voice through our voices together, flowing out as Words of life setting creation free. And His voice as the sound of many waters (Revelation 1:15b).
Love Is Reciprocal. Here is a practice that is not actually Biblical, that is, defining agape, God-love, as “unconditional” love. The picture, then, is a solitary individual, going around, dispensing “love” as superior to other individuals who decidedly do NOT “deserve” that love. I don’t find that definition in any Bible context.
Love is entirely reciprocal, whether it be love among us together or love between God and each of us in particular. What if I “loved” my wife, “even though she does not deserve it” – hello? What arrogance. Love one another is 100% reciprocity, a continual flow of giving and receiving at fully equal levels.
A Pure Word. We see, then, that “Keep My word,” in our present consideration, is entirely in the flow of that word as a fully equal back and forth, between two of us together, as well among us together in the local church. And this is a pure word we are keeping, seeing one another and speaking into one another entirely and only inside of full union with Christ.
More than that, as we speak Christ into one another, we are not “making something happen”; rather, we are causing one another to KNOW what is already true. Before such a Word could ever set creation free, it must first be all that it is AMONG us together. The First Day of Tabernacles and “dwelling together” come before the final Great Day of rivers pouring out.
Into One Another. By faith, energeoing through Love, that is, Father, we speak Jesus into one another. As we see one another, we KNOW Jesus in each other in Person, filling each other with all that He is, and thus we KNOW that the other IS this same Love coming back to us. And that flow of reciprocal Love flowing from me to you and from you to me IS Father showing Himself as He is.
As we saw in the last lesson, the purity of this Love and this Word flowing among us is found in the seeing of our eyes. Someone, reading the specifics of our life together, might think, “Oh, that’s separation, they’re trying to “get God to show up” by their actions.” Sadly, the only impurity is in that person’s eyes.
Our Focus. We know Father, and to know Father is to share His Heart, to love one another in full reciprocity, to see one another as Jesus Himself. To know Father is to bear all for – one another, to believe all for – one another, to hope all for – one another, and to endure all for – one another. Walking together inside of Love.
Our focus, now, is three things. First, you and me together, seeing and speaking with one another as Jesus to us. Second, you and me together speaking this Christ into the lives of those who join with us as the local Community of Christ. And third, this same Word of Love that is Jesus as the fabric of every particular inside of life together. – Together, we keep His Word.