Sermon Tone Analysis

FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE

      Heading the list in, (Gal 5:22-23) love receives top billing because it is the title of God’s game plan.

First Corinthians 13 shows that love is a /system /and states that love is the supreme Christian virtue.

/Now remain [Temporary Spiritual gifts are excluded] faith, hope, and love, these three, and the greatest of these is love./

(1Co 13:13)

      Given to only a few believers in the pre-canon period of the New Covenant Church Age, temporary Spiritual gifts are gone; only the superior Virtues remain, which are available to all.

The Virtues of faith, hope, and love are part of our permanent heritage as Spiritual aristocracy.

Translated /“faith,” /the Greek noun /pistis /has a dual connotation.

In its ob­jective sense /pistis /means “what is believed,” Truth.

Never in any previous dispensation has Bible the Mind of Christ been committed to writing in a com­pleted canon of Scripture.

/Pistis /also refers, as here, to the believer’s application of Divine Thoughts to experience, the faith-rest technique.

Just as “faith” represents an entire system of applying the Word of God, so also “hope” is a system, which is derived from knowledge of God's Word.

Hope is absolute confidence in future Divine provisions and blessings.

(Rom 8:24-25) At each stage of a person’s life, he not only can enjoy the blessings he has but also can anticipate with assurance or “hope” for the blessings that will come with the next stage of growth.

Thus, there are three hopes; together they trace an individual’s advance from being an unbeliever who anticipates Salvation, to becoming an immature believer who looks forward to super-grace blessings, to becoming a mature believer who eagerly awaits the eternal rewards of heaven.

The fulfillment of each hope lays the foundation for the next hope.

No matter how much God blesses us, we can always anticipate *more!*

Both faith-rest and hope are subordinate systems that function within the larger sphere, the bottom circle.

A believer can Think with Truth and advance from hope to hope to hope.

http:~/~/dictionaryofdoctrine.com~/files~/Three

Hopes.jpg

Faith and hope depend on the Divine system, which empowers us to learn Spiritual Thoughts and sustain our Spiritual momentum.

Virtue love is superior to either faith or hope because Virtue love is the characteristic Virtue of the entire Divine system.

We will develop the full significance of this Virtue when we study the Doctrine of Virtue love in connec­tion with gates five and six of the Spiritual life.

Even before the Church Age began, Christ encapsulated the entire Mosaic Law in two Commandments: to love God and to love man.

(Matt 22:36-40) In the Spiritual life every gate involves Virtue love.

In order to describe the basic exercise of Impersonal love in gate two, we must define the overall Concept of Virtue love.

We must understand why it is the highest Christian Virtue and the Biblical designation for the Christian way of life.

IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE

 

     In English as well as the Greek, “love” is a transitive verb; love takes both a subject and an object.

The subject is the one who loves; the object is the one loved, the recipient of love.

In the sentence /I love you, /“I” is the subject, and “you” is the object.

This distinction between subject and object explains the two basic types of genuine Virtue love that exist.

I have designated these two categories “Impersonal love” and “Personal love.”

Impersonal love emphasizes the subject; personal love emphasizes the object.

Impersonal love depends on the honor and integrity of the one who loves; personal love depends on the attractiveness, capacity, and response of the one who is loved.

By “Impersonal” I mean that this love does not require intimacy, friendliness, or even acquaintance with the object of love.

A close relationship between subject and object may exist but is not necessary; Impersonal love is simply the consistent function of your own Spiritual life toward other people.

Imper­sonal love can be directed toward friends, enemies, loved ones, strangers the attractive and or repulsive!

— in fact, toward the entire human race.

(Luk 23:34) In contrast, Personal love requires that you know the object with some degree of intimacy.

The object of Personal love must be attractive to you, share basic Divine Thoughts with you, and have capacity to love you in return.

(Amo 3:3) Only a select few people qualify as objects of your Personal Esprit de corps love, whereas all mankind can be the object of your Impersonal love.

Personal Esprit de corps love, is designed for interaction with a few; Impersonal love is designed to benefit the human race.

Personal love is highly discriminating; Impersonal love is non-discriminating.

Personal love is conditional; Impersonal love is unconditional.

(With the condition we are in fellowship) Personal */HUMAN/* love creates weaknesses.

You bring your own problems into any personal relationship, but so does the one you love.

The problems, shortcom­ings, and faults of two people are combined and multiplied by personal love.

Your vulnerability to the influence of the one you love can spawn subjectivity and the mental attitude sins of jealousy, self-pity, and bitterness.

Personal love in the human race is highly volatile, emotionally charged, and complicated with variables and unpredictables that personal love cannot control.

Often turbulent and frustrating, Personal love is never stronger than the integrity of those in­volved.

An enduring Personal Esprit de corps love depends on Impersonal love.

Impersonal Virtue love is the integrity that alone can strengthen, stabilize, and perpetuate Personal love.

The only variable in Impersonal love remains under your control: your own mental attitude.

Whereas personal */Human/* love may lead to com­promise of true norms and standards.

Impersonal love for mankind is a result of your Personal love for God; (Mark 12:30-31) Personal love is often a distraction from what is most important, God's Word.

Impersonal love is a problem-solver; Personal love can be a problem, if we use for */anyone besides /*GOD ALONE!

*/                                                             /*

| *IMPERSONAL LOVE*I LoveEmphasizes subjectDemands integrity in subjectRequires no personal acquaintanceDirected toward allUnconditionalVirtueStrongStableVariables under controlDepends on Divine Thinking and The Spiritual lifeProblem solverMandatory | *PERSONAL LOVE*You and or themEmphasizes objectDemands attractiveness in objectRequires personal acquaintanceDirected toward fewConditionalVirtue dependentVulnerableVolatileUncontrollable variablesDepends on Impersonal loveProblem makerOptional |

* *

*IMPERSONAL AND PERSONAL LOVE * 

     In, (1Co 13:13) Divine Personal and Impersonal love are proclaimed the ultimate Christian Virtue.

Impersonal love, furnishes the environment for faith and hope.

Impersonal love is mandatory; Personal love is mandatory toward God ALONE; op­tional toward others.

Certainly Personal love toward others is legitimate and potentially wonderful, but it is Virtue-dependent, hinging on the Virtue of Impersonal love, which represents the highest degree of integrity the soul can attain.

LOVE AND INDEPENDENCE

     A believer with Impersonal love does not rely on any person, circumstance, thing or self for strength and support; he is sustained by Divine Thinking in his own soul.

No variables or unpredictables are involved except those controlled by his own self-determination.

Based on his own right decisions over an extended period of time to learn and Think with the Mind of Christ, he can solve or cope with the problems of Personal Esprit de corps love toward members of the human race and maintain a marvelous relationship with another person, or he can be content alone.

He functions consistently whether faced with hostility or admira­tion, antagonism or Personal love.

His attitude of Impersonal love does not de­pend on emotional stimulation, reciprocation, or attraction.

He cannot be manipulated by flattery or approbation.

This is the genuine and honorable in­dependence of the believer who is Spiritually self-sustaining.

He does not depend on the advice of others or on a pastor’s counseling; the Word of God in his own soul gives him the strength and wisdom to live his own life before the Lord.

Although genuinely humble and teachable, he is not controlled by what anyone else thinks, says, or does.

Impersonal love, generated in the believer’s soul no matter whom he encounters, is the only category of love that can fulfill the Divine Command to love all members of the human race!

    / A new Commandment I give to you, that you [Virtue] love one another, even as I have [Virtue] loved you,  that you also love one another./

(Joh 13:34)

     Some Christians are Virtuous, but then again others are among the most ar­rogant, self-righteous, boorish, obnoxious people on the face of the earth.

Believers can have a background, personality, life-style or combination of interests that makes him utterly incompatible with you.

Accord­ing to Divine Commands you must love */ALL/* these believers and */ALL/* believers must Think with the Mind of Christ.

(1Co 1:10) Obviously your ex­clusive Personal love cannot be granted to rude, arrogant believers or to those with whom you have no rapport of Thought.

Nor should you burn up your nervous energy trying to do the /impossible — Personally /love all Christians.

The only love you can possess for most individuals is based, not on their weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, or incompatibility with you, but on the strength of your own Spiritual life.

Through Impersonal love your attitude toward everyone will be basically the same, manifested in courtesy, thoughtfulness, sensitivity to the feelings of others, tolerance, and flexibility in nonessential areas of disagree­ment or dispute.

Such attitudes can be consistently maintained toward any person, regardless of how incompatible your personalities or modus vivendi, (Way of life) may be.

Virtue love is not condescending, hypocritical, or self-righteous.

/Let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil; *cling to what is good.*

/ (Rom 12:9)

      Impersonal love is not a stoic, artificial, emotionless facade, but rather a gracious attitude consistent with the Divine Thinking in your soul.

The policy of Imper­sonal love is simply this: integrity toward all, no matter who or what they are.

Through this attitude your Spiritual aristocracy is revealed as you honorably represent Christ in the devil’s world.

Impersonal love must be directed not just toward other believers but toward unbelievers as well.

You need not determine that a person is a Christian before you exhibit Virtue love.

This explains God’s Commands that you love your neighbors — *everyone in your periphery* — *and even your enemies.*

/Jesus answered, "The foremost is, HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.

The second is this, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.

There is no other Commandment greater than these./

(Mark 12:31)

 

     /You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.