3.1 To the Pure
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
To the pure all things are pure (Titus 1:15a).
We are bound with great purpose, now, in our consideration of everything. We are not seeking to understand the great issues of life and death. More than that, we are not developing a further knowing of Christ living as us. Those things are grounded and complete. Our purpose is to know the Heart of Father expressed through the lives of those who are that Hheart revealed inside of His Jerusalem, inside of each local Community of Christ. Christ as us is completed for us; now we would know us as Christ in His Church.
Our Goal. Our goal is to know how we are one together inside the fellowship of Christ expressed through us into His Church.
Now let’s position this goal carefully. As we have seen in the Covenant, the reality of Father seen and known through many together as one passes through stages. That is, it begins with Jesus, “He who has seen Me has seen Father,” then proceeds to the firstfruits who show this same revelation of Father to the Church, and then through the Church to all creation. Just as Jesus shows us Father revealed through each one of us, so we, as the firstfruits of the many-membered Christ, show Father revealed through many to the Church.
We are committed to being as Christ in His Church.
Seeing No Offense. Now, the huge problem for us in walking together as well as in calling forth Christ in His Church as the revelation of Father is that Christians are “impure” by all outward appearance. The Bride and the Harlot are one and the same. Yet Christ through us now towards His Church sees NO impurity or offense, but sees only what Father sees. This quality in no way means that we are unobservant or uncaring when people hurt people, nor that we would withhold just consequence or restitution.
Let me place here the operative word Paul gives us, the verb that rules all of our interaction with Christians knocking heads with Christians. We will interweave this verb through many upcoming lessons.
Restore. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any offense, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:1-2). The ruling verb is “restore.”
Katartizó: to complete, prepare. (a) I fit or join together; I meet the parts together, (b) I prepare and perfect, for its full destination or use, I bring into its proper condition.
Restore such a one to the knowledge of Christ living now as them, utterly complete in Him, with no need to pretend or to hide. Restore such a one into seeing as Father sees by seeing them as Father sees them.
The Opposite of Purity. Now this session is titled “That They May Be One.” And our purpose is to consider Christ through us as Word into His Church – speaking the same Word.
Our problem is that Paul, in expressing this quality of seeing all things pure that is the essence of God, then does not develop its meaning, but rather, the opposite of such purity. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and consciousness are defiled. They speak the same word as seeing and comprehending God; however in works they repudiate (their words), being a moral horror, unpersuaded (by Christ) and producing counterfeit “good works” (Titus 1:15-16 – modified from the Greek).
Christ Must Be All First. And thus Christians everywhere run down the track of judging all things by outward performance, leaving Paul’s “to the pure” for some future achievement or state of existence.
Yet here Paul uses this word that has become so incredible to us, homologia, speaking the same word. And he indicates that the practice of speaking Christ in an awareness of God can be empty and without any fruit to God. Yet this purity is clearly a present quality of our eyeballs. And when we “see” nothing as pure, then all the thoughts of our self-story are defiled and false and all our Christian works are counterfeit. Here is what Paul means. CHRIST MUST BE ALL FIRST, before anything not Christ could ever vanish away.
Christ Through Us. We want to know this God and this Christ who have inside the entire vastness of Their infinite Being ZERO knowledge of the law of sin and death or the contention of good and evil. The Calvinists want to say that “God is too pure to look upon sin.” What they mean is that God SEES sin and runs far away. What God means is that He never sees sin at all.
But knowing Jesus in this way is just the first step, what we want is the purity of eyes of this same Christ now through us. From the time I left the move of God fellowship in 1998 until now I have rejected all thought of “fixing” myself. But resting utterly in Christ as me and practicing the mercy seat has brought me into such certain freedom that I am freely able to consider changes in what I do and why.
Present Purity. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:3). Our purpose is not for ourselves “to be pure”; in Christ we are. Our purpose, however, is the purity of our eyes, our thoughts, and our words towards others.
There is no greater miracle performed in the human experience than if God transforms Daniel Yordy’s seeing into seeing every individual as the Lord Jesus Himself, his thinking into only kindness towards those who offend him, and his words inside of every pressing face-to-face difficulty only into the acknowledgement of Christ in the offending person. Such a miracle would have to be the purest symmorphy of God.
That They All May Be One. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 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 perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:21-23).
We studied these words in Kingdom, but their profound depths we have hardly touched. Let’s re-word Titus 1:15-16. To the pure all things are pure out from the consciousness of Christ living as them. They speak the good speaking of Christ into others through the eyes of Father as He is in them, and all the fruit of their works is life bringing forth life.
In One Another. Let me try to place in front of us what I am really after. I want to know what it means to speak the pure words of Christ into other believers in Jesus – AS Christ Himself now through us, making Father known as He is.
Speak good things into the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who speaks good things into us with every spiritual good-speaking in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3 – modified from the Greek). – That the fellowship of your faith may become energeoed by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in (one another) in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:6). We have turned this acknowledgement, now, from ourselves to one another and to all who belong to Jesus.
As We Are One. Only those who are pure as the good-speaking of Christ inside the Heart and the seeing of Father could ever restore anyone to the knowledge of Christ living as them.
That they may be one as We are One. The “as We are One” is infinite, having no end of discovery. Here we want to narrow it down to a smaller infinite topic – speaking the same word, that is, Christ Jesus. And the first thing we see regarding this “oneness” is that it is utterly Personal. Two Persons entwined together in the pure fellowship of knowing one another. As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.
God is Word; Jesus is that same Word by His place inside of Father, and we are that same Word by our place inside of Jesus.
When I Speak to You. Therefore, when we speak into one another, it is Father speaking out from our mouths and entering into the heart of the one into whom we are speaking. And this is why the issue of purity is so front and central.
He that has this hope in Him (the hope of being just like Jesus, that is, the same Word sent out from Father), purifies himself in exactly the same way that Jesus is pure (1 John 3:3). This is the mind of Christ, then, the mind in which we think all of our thinking – when I speak to you, I am speaking God Almighty into the knowing of your heart.
And THAT is the very statement I have been searching for, not seeing it until now.
Without Father. I stated recently that I do not love you, or sometimes even “like” you. You would have recognized that I was speaking of “I” in myself. My purpose was that we must NEVER pretend.
Let’s paraphrase the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13. Though I speak the same words that Jesus speaks, but am not filled with Father, I have become only an empty, clanging noise. Though I call forth Christ in all the mysteries of His knowledge and my faith in God causes mighty things to happen, but I am not filled with Father, I am nothing. And though I give away everything I have and do through my entire life, even laying down my life daily for others, and am not filled with Father, it is all a useless waste of time.
It’s all about this communion of Father personally with each one of us taking place inside our hearts every moment.
My Father’s Business. It’s not a question of me loving you; it’s a question of Father making Himself known through our reciprocal love. And only when that reality of Father in us is the sum totality of our knowing will we see the speaking of the same word that is Jesus as utterly pure in our own lips. And the fruit is always Father made known in every heart that hears Him speaking into them.
And that brings us to the verse that must be the center of our action inside of being the expression of every Word that is Jesus in and towards His Church. I must be about My Father’s business (Luke 2:49b). We must develop fully this understanding.
The Doing of Father. Jesus was twelve, young in the knowledge of God through Him, just as we are. He had been in the temple speaking the wisdom of His Father to those found there. His reply to His parents was “In the (house) of My Father, it is necessary for me to be.” The word “house” is not actually there; the blank requires it to be filled in from the context. Father’s “house” does fit that context. More than that, the word “business” does fit what the Spirit is implying to us through these words.
Let’s paraphrase Jesus’ reply in this way. I must be the doing of My Father inside all the sphere of His House. – This is Christ in us.
See as Father Sees. The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does (John 5:19-20). – And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26).
To the pure all things are pure; that is, those who are filled with Father see all things as Father sees them. And so the “doing” of the Son, that is, Christ in us, is to move in perfect harmony with what the Father sees and does, that is, the Father’s business. And this INSIDE God’s House, the Church.
Joined with Father. Those who are working “for” God are not; they are working only to build their own kingdom inside Father’s House. Those who are always falling short of God are useless to His purposes, for they refuse to believe in Jesus.
You and I rest utterly inside of Father’s love inside of us, that He is directing our every step by that Love, just as He did with Jesus. Thus we know, by the CONFIDENCE of our faith that we are always seeing what Father sees. And thus, in every circumstance, knowing that we are seeing what Father is seeing, we join our faith together with Father in full working harmony and speak Christ together into the knowledge of all.
Reckless Determination. What is the Father’s business? The Father’s business is that God might be known through the “swarm” of His Body.
I think I have captured for us through these Symmorphy courses, an inkling of understanding of the intense and overwhelming Passion of our Father to be KNOWN by His creation as well as how “impossible” such a Desire is. Our present knowing of the path of the Atonement, Jesus’ every step from Gethsemane to the Resurrection, gives us the slightest indication of the reckless intensity of Father’s burning Determination to be KNOWN, to be seen visibly and heard.
And we have the descriptions of Father being known – Father bears all for all; Father believes all for all… – He humbled Himself.
Inside His House. God is known, however, only through His Church. So if the Church does not know Father, what hope is there for Father to be known by the world and all creation?
Right now, we are not concerned about the world or about all creation. Right now, Father’s business is INSIDE His House, the Church, millions of Spirit-filled believers in Jesus who do not KNOW Father in Person through them together. You and I are Father’s entrance into being known by His House. Thus we must know Christ through us now.
– When I speak to you, I am speaking God Almighty into the knowing of your heart. – When I speak to you, I am speaking God Almighty into the knowing of your heart. –
To Be Known. I now understand PURITY. All through the writing of these Symmorphy courses, I have had a glimpse of coming into complete harmony with every Word that is Christ, our singing in perfect vibration with His singing. And I have wanted to explore what I was seeing. But God kept closing off that exploration – until now.
We are not in the business of being happy forever or of dancing in fields of flowers or of doing cartwheels on heavenly cherubs. We are in the business of the most passionate Determination of a God who is NOT known DESIRING with all the intensity of His Being to be known – through us together – whatever the cost might be to Him or to us.