Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries

California Conference 2005. The Church at Sardis, Part 4.

Wednesday PM, September 14, 2005

Point 1. Definition and Description.
Point 2. The Application of Bible Doctrine and the Royal Family Honor Code Begins at Spiritual Self Esteem.
Point 3. Violations of the Royal Family Honor Code.

A. The law of liberty. 1Co 8:4, 8-9.
B. The law of love. 1Co 8:13.
The law of love says to refrain from your liberty as a Christian when it leads a weaker believer astray.

C. The law of expediency. 1Co 9:16-23; 10:23.
Every believer is a minister of reconciliation and must refrain from doing things, not because they are wrong, but because they prevent some unbeliever from seeing the true issue of salvation.

D. The law of supreme sacrifice.
The law of supreme sacrifice generally applies to mature believers to forsake normal living and legitimate functions in life in order to serve the Lord in some special way.

Point 4. The Royal Family Honor Code Is Related to the Laws of Divine Establishment and Impersonal Love, Rom 13:8-10.

Morality is not the Christian way of life, but if you are spiritual, you will be moral.

Under the principles of divine establishment, self-esteem, whether human or spiritual, keeps morality from becoming legalism.

Morality is necessary for the human race to fulfill the principle of live and let live.

The average born-again believer thinks that functioning under a system of morality “is” the Christian way of life.

If the unbeliever can do it, it is not a part of the Christian way of life.

1. Morality related to the laws of divine establishment.
It must be a morality without arrogance or legalism.

2. Grace orientation related to impersonal love.

No one wants to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.

3. The uniform of honor also begins with spiritual self-esteem for the believer.
4. The uniform of honor demands the filling of the Holy Spirit as the means of executing the positive and negative commands of the PPOG.

While the Christian way of life is not morality, it does not exclude morality.

Christianity uses the morality of divine establishment as a base, but it exceeds morality in the function of the honor code.

The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life and requires a supernatural means of execution: the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Morality is not rejected as per antinomianism; nor is morality accepted as per legalism.
Neither legalism nor antinomianism is the Christian way of life.

The morality of establishment and the integrity of the honor code support the believer in his advance.

The honor code demands patriotism, respect for governmental authority, military service, and respect for law and order in Christian relationship with one’s government, Rom 13:1-7.

It does not imply that love for yourself is the standard, but rather it is a human definition of impersonal love where spiritual self-esteem exists.

A. The function of impersonal love as a problem-solving device.

B. You do not lower your standards to those who are antagonistic toward you by emulating them in controversy or strife.

In spiritual self-esteem you function under impersonal love toward all, and thereby avoid revenge, holding a grudge, or bitterness.

People can change you by their antagonism, when you lower yourself to their level.

You cannot change evil, but evil can change you.
You cannot change doctrine, but doctrine can change you.

When you do not reciprocate to judging, maligning, revenge, etc., you are changed by the integrity and honor code of the Royal Family.

Reciprocation lowers you to the standard of your antagonist.

Impersonal love executes establishment principles in recognition of freedom, privacy, property, and the life of others.
Impersonal love also executes the mandates of the PPOG in human relationship.

The command to “love the brethren” can never be fulfilled until the believer understands the difference between essential and non-essential, and personal love and impersonal love.

Impersonal love emphasizes the subject while personal love emphasizes the object.
Impersonal love demands we operate on our own norms and standards.

Impersonal love is a command in which all members of the human race in your periphery are the objects.

Joh 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
Joh 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.”

Impersonal love excludes emotion, while personal love has great emotional function.

Impersonal love emphasizes the integrity of the subject, while personal love emphasizes the attractiveness of the object.

You never reduce yourself to the norms and standards of those who attack or malign you.

Impersonal love excludes carrying a grudge.
Impersonal love among believers includes respect for the imputed perfect righteousness residing in others, 2Co 5:16.

Since the perfect righteousness of God resides in every believer, impersonal love respects other believers on that basis.

Impersonal love is the relaxed mental attitude from the filling of the Holy Spirit rather than overt friendliness or gushy hypocrisy.

Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22 - both teach that the filling of the Holy Spirit produces impersonal love.

Under impersonal love the believer functions under his own standards rather than being influenced by flattery, attraction, attention, or reciprocation.

In contrast, personal love demands learning about and knowing the object for love of that object to exist, whether Jesus Christ, right man-right woman, or friends.

Point 5. The Principle of Freedom and the Royal Family Honor Code.