The Passionate Pattern! 2007/14 09/23/07
Pattern yourselves after me [follow my example], as I imitate and follow Christ (the Messiah). [1 Cor 11:1]
The Lord brought this verse to my attention one morning and I thought on it for a moment, and I asked the Lord what, in particular He wanted me to see. As I thought about it, I mentioned to Alma, that I had become overwhelmed while reading a portion of Phil. 3, at the passion that I heard in Paul’s words, he was on fire to learn and know more intimately the Lord Jesus in all His ways, and I know that Jesus was passionately after the will of the Father, that you have to see, since He was obedient even unto death on the cross. God said, that Paul had the passion, that He is seeking a people to walk in, even in this day, a passion to gain a passionate knowledge of His ways and His word.
Philippians 3:7-16 (with some comment)
But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [one combined] loss for Christ’s sake.
Note: This is a more powerful verse than first meets the eye. Paul was saying, that everything he had laid claim to; his citizenship in Rome, his birthright as one of the tribe of Benjamin, which was Hebrew aristocracy, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and whatever his skills as a communicator may have been, he put all in the loss column, for they all fell into oblivion, when compared to the joy that he had received from Christ. He put away and abandoned all his human achievements, and reached out for the grace that could only be received from Christ Jesus and His Anointing.
Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and the supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One).
Note: Paul has now put his passion in the fervent heat column. What he has considered only loss in the former statement, he now says, is nothing more than that fit for the rubbish heap, dung. His point is that he had tried the Law to find some relationship with God, and that was a waste of time, except to learn that it did not work. He has gotten to the place that he knows that he cannot create any goodness of his own, so he has to turn full circle to God in humble faith, and receive of the riches of grace. His path of passion is now going full bore, and I must ask myself; is mine? That is what it means to follow him as he follows Christ.
And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law’s demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith.
Note: Paul here says, in a very simple way. Your efforts will not gain you any ground in relationship with God. Only by taking Jesus Christ at His word and accepting all God has, in His word, offered you in Christ.
[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly],and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
Note:
You surely feel the passion in Paul’s heart, expressed in even these few verses. He has left all behind, and all that would distract him from gaining the intimate knowledge that he is yearning for, and his determination is not just to have some speaking acquaintance with Him. He is after the heart of God in Christ Jesus, an intimate, personal knowledge, to birth and fuel obedience, even to death on the cross. The obedience learned through multitudes of trials and temptations, and his desire is that he may personally experience those as well, in order to maintain the “continually transformed” walk that he is committed too. He also, in the first portion, speaks of that same resurrection power that he prayed the Ephesians would come to know.
Note: I think it is important to understand that our growth [continually transformed experience], is most often born in tests and trials and temptations that we walk through, where we learn by deliverance, that the only way out, is through our relationship with the Lord Jesus.
That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body].
Note:
Paul is not after an experience in the ‘there and then’, he wants the experience in the ‘here and now’ [even while in the body, a personally known and felt experience]. Paul had a knowing that the salvation experience, is largely for our earth walk. It includes our health and healing, our provision and our deliverance from all oppression. Redemption by the blood, is the main power of this, but, it is by His blood that this is accomplished. Our working out our own salvation [Phil 2:12-13] is in the ‘now’; our walk here.
Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but, I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own.
Note:
Paul declares his own lack of perfection or maturity, but he is sure that when Christ Jesus laid hold of him on the Damascus road, He had a vision for him to fulfill and he is sure that his only purpose is to press on to lay hold the purpose that Christ laid hold of him for.
I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.
Note:
Paul never loses the passion, and here vows to let go of all that lies behind, never glorying in any achievement, nor using them for any gain. We must forget all we have done, and go forward to all we have to be and do. He then adds a more stringent phrase, when he says he is reaching out for the things that lie ahead. The way he uses the words [straining forward] is the way a racer would describe his stretch for the finish line. Every muscle screaming in pain, but the racer has his eye and his fervency only on one thing, and that is the goal he set himself to reach.
I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.
Note:
There is little to be explained here. Paul is saying that the Christian life, is a progressive going forward, because the goal and the prize are so glorious, that it is worth everything we can give to reach it, and that requires the passion that Paul exhibited all through his life, but remember, he was following Jesus way and life.
So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.
Lets stop here for a moment. If you will remember that Paul, in 2:5, wrote; “Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus; [Let Him be your example in humility:]”
In Vine’s, this word, ‘mind’ is from the greek word phroneo. It means to think, and be minded in a certain way. It implies moral interest or reflection, not mere unreasoning opinion. It involves not just our thinking, but our mental disposition. It means that we, with His mind within us, at our rebirth, are to be agreed with Him and that means that we have to allow the mind of Christ to override our carnal mind, or, to allow the mind of Christ, in you, to take direction of your thought life. As God was saying in Isa 55, “My thoughts are higher than yours, so align your thinking to My heart”.Read this week Romans 8:1-7
Paul wrote much concerning the mind, and gave great emphasis to this in Romans 12:2 Amp; “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for your-selves]-what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].”
Paul was exhorting us to truly “renew” our minds, to diminish the old, carnal mind. By the way, the prefix “Re” means “again”. You cannot renew anything that you did not have before! As one brother wrote;
We had His mind and heard His mind “in the beginning.”
We lost our mind - His mind - in the fall.
We reclaimed our mind – His mind – at the cross!
Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that.
Note:
One short note that Paul added here, and that is, that as we walk the walk and talk the talk, let us not ever lose any ground that we have taken, but that we hold fast that point and order our lives by that and go forward. It is like the little gear in the clock that allows the clock to progress, but prevents the spring from going in
reverse.
Brethren, together follow my example and observe those who live after the pattern we have set for you.
That takes us back to the first verse used in this lesson, that we took from 1 Cor. 11:1, but the difference is, that this was written in about 52 AD and in this latter case it was 61 AD and that was nearly 10 years of walking in every kind of test and trial that you could encounter, from being beaten to being lied about and arrested and put in filthy prisons, where he and Silas were in the prison, singing hymns and praying , and the earth quaked and the prison doors opened and many were saved. This is a pattern, to follow, praise and worship in the midst of stormy days and see the deliverance and majesty of God first hand and let that pattern be a guide. This is the depth of passion that Paul walked in daily.
The next two verses [18-19] which I will not read here, (show the passion in a different light). Paul speaks, with tears, of those who are enemies of the cross. He tells that there are many, and they are doomed, with a fate of eternal misery, that their god is their stomach [appetites and sensuality], and they glory in their shame, siding with earthly things and being of their party.
Note:
Now lets hear how a passionate Paul finishes this portion of his letter, in verses 20 and 21, and I will read them as one;
But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior, Who will transform anew the body of our humiliation to conform to andbe like the body of His glory and majesty, byexerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself.
Note:
“…transform anew the body of our humiliation”, directs me to the day when Jesus ascended and the two angels addressed those who witnessed that event, saying, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, Who was caught away and lifted up from among you into heaven, will return in [just] the same way in which you saw Him go into heaven.” They saw Him leave in the body of His glory, that had walked into rooms through closed doors, but had also eaten with them and talked with them. This is the body that we will receive when He takes us to be with Him where He is. Look at 1 Cor 15:51-54;
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Now, maybe we need to, just see for a moment, the possible fruit of passion in us as we go deeper and our hunger increases for a more intimate knowledge of Him and His ways, and where it had its beginning. Turn to 2 Cor 5:14 and we’ll read our way into His calling for us.
“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” Vs. 15 was to make this as one verse.
Note:
As our passion deepens, then we will be compelled to live our lives for Him…look at the word ‘compels’. [sunecho]- In every use of the word, there is a sense of constraint, a tight grip that prevents escape. The love of Christ leaves us no choice, no way out, except to live our lives for Him. This is the life and the passion Paul was writing with and about, that we just read in Philippians, but that again was some 10 years after this was written. Now let us continue in vs. 16;
“Therefore, From now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.”
Note:
This is how the love of Christ begins to change our attitudes, it compels us not to judge by the flesh, we now are compelled to let love pass all judgement, and see no one after the flesh. God so loved the world, and the world He loved was all flesh, but He loved the best in each, through the worst [1 Cor 13:7 Amp.]
How can this be? Verse 17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Note:
The old adamic nature has passed away, and the new has come into being again. The old nature, that would have hindered any growth is gone, and we have been, so to speak “re-storied”. We have gotten our mind back, the one that was replaced by the fallen mind of the soul. The Holy Spirit begins to speak to us and God is renewing and restoring our mind. The word “renewing” can only be used of something we already had before. We were complete in God’s heart before the foundation of the world. The fall came after the foundation of the world and the Holy Spirit is taking us all back, at rebirth, to the place in God, that we occupied before the fall. As one brother put it, we have to go back to all that was before, to achieve our destiny. To put one more thing into place for your consideration; When God chose us, before the foundation, we were chosen to be members of His family. At the fall we lost our membership, and now we are being re-membered. Lets go to John 14:26, and you will see something maybe in a way that you have not seen before.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
By and through the Spirit, we have begun to remember, to recall His voice and to re-collect our predestined inheritance! The verb translated as “bring..to..remembrance” in John 14:26 is hupomimnesko, (Vine’s/Strong’s 5279) and means that you will have a remembrance that only the Holy Spirit can give. He will supernaturally bring all to your remembrance. You have the mind back again, that you had before the beginning, the mind of Christ. The bottom line is that at rebirth, we moved out of the control of the adamic nature and received the power of the risen Christ to overcome and become adult sons of God.