Lesson for January 14, 2018
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Divine Dynasphere, Lesson #4 (cont’d)
Gate 5: Personal Love for God, your Motivational Virtue
Motivational virtue is the function of personal love for God. It is a personal love which can be developed only through the principle of virtue, the system for the Christian Way of Life. Excellence is another word for virtue. We glorify God when we develop Christian virtue.Virtue is produced by believers who consistently reside and function within God’s power system. Virtue is strength of character, bravery, courage, capability, worthiness, excellence, and high moral and ethical standards. The Greek word used for virtue is “arete,” which refers to the qualities developed by consistently residing in the Divine Dynasphere over a period of time. Virtue is developed through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in positive believers as they learn, believe and apply accurate Bible doctrine. (II Peter 1:2-4; Philippians 4:8) You cannot develop divine virtue by means of human viewpoint thinking or following some human formula. Divine virtue is developed only within the system God designed. His system is perfect, unlike mankind’s “system for success.” Divine virtues are characteristics of thought and principle which are manufactured through the function of the first four gates of the Divine Dynasphere, and cannot be duplicated or counterfeited by anything else in life.
Part of motivational virtue is the development of divine integrity. The integrity of God is the sum total of His divine attributes in operation, but three are functional in relationship to believers and their spiritual life: righteousness, justice, and love. The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective “
Personal love for God includes the true concept of Christian worship. As a believer grows from consistent residence and function inside the Divine Dynasphere personal love for God results in occupation with Christ. This is the highest manifestation of integrity and virtue. God expects us to develop divine integrity first as the basis for the Christian Way of Life. This is done only by the function of GAP. Personal love for God and impersonal love for man together are called virtue-love. (I John 4:16-5:3) Virtue-love is not some system of human interaction or emotion. This is a love that exists whether there is any object or not. This is not a love based on any human attractiveness or attraction. This love is based on the divine integrity and divine virtue resident in the believer by means of application of metabolized Bible doctrine.
The virtue-love of God is described in the phrase, “God is love.” God’s virtue-love, like all His attributes, is infinite, eternal, and perfect. God does not fall in love or develop capacity for love. His love doesn’t increase or diminish. In contrast to human love, virtue-love is not sustained by physical attraction, emotional or mental attraction. Virtue-love exists with or without an object. God has no self-indulgence or self-promotion related to the function of His love. Mankind tends to superimpose his ideas of love on God. Virtue-love in man must be achieved by residence and function inside the Divine Dynasphere. You cannot have personal love for God without that love being manifested in impersonal love for man. Christ being willing to die on the Cross for all mankind demonstrated virtue-love for the entire human race.
Integrity must precede love. God’s love is perfect, and this can remain true only if He has integrity, which He does. This is also the pattern for believers in the execution of the Christian Way of Life. Integrity is developed in the Divine Dynasphere in the first four gates before a believer can have virtue-love at gates 5-6. Integrity must precede love because there is no true love without integrity.
Jesus Christ loved us when He went to the Cross and died for us. This love was impersonal love. Only because we possess divine perfect righteousness can God love us personally without compromise to His holiness. Divine righteousness gave us a system for the development of divine integrity. This is the basis of the Christian Way of Life, since Christian virtue-love cannot exist without divine integrity.
At the Cross God the Father had to set aside His eternal personal love for God the Son because His integrity (righteousness and justice) had to be satisfied. From divine impersonal love, God provided salvation for unbelievers and logistical grace for all believers. From divine personal love, God provided perfect righteousness at salvation and greater blessings both now and in eternity for spiritually mature believers. We have something that is totally and completely valuable beyond the imagination of man: we have God’s very own perfect righteousness inside of us. (Romans 3:22; II Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9)
The production of virtue-love demands that we have a divine system. The two virtue-loves of personal love for God and impersonal love for mankind always go together. The person who has personal love for God will do very well in the field of human interactions. He’ll be a friend you can always trust. If you truly love God, then you will truly have impersonal love for all mankind. (I John 4:20-21)
Divine virtue must have a foundation on which to erect its magnificent structure. This foundation is developed from humility and objectivity. Objectivity means eliminating biases, prejudices, or subjective evaluations by relying on the absolute truth of God’s Word. The opposite of objectivity is subjectivity which means reaching a conclusion based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. Reception of doctrine alone demands a tremendous amount of virtue, objectivity, character and honor. Divine virtue is the monopoly of God restricted to life inside the Divine Dynasphere. God invented virtue so that you can face every situation in life with great happiness. Divine virtue never changes with changing circumstances; it is stable. Therefore, the only way to face life and to enjoy life is to start from a base of divine virtue. It is inevitable that some people, even Christians will rub you the wrong way. Virtue-love enables you to tolerate them when necessary.
As divine virtue becomes stabilized in your soul it will produce confidence toward God, and courage toward man and circumstances. Divine virtue also produces good manners, thoughtfulness of others, and sensitivity toward the feelings of others. When you begin to accelerate in your spiritual growth, divine virtue emerges. Divine virtue is manufactured only from the perception of doctrine. The believer’s residence and function in the Divine Dynasphere inevitably produces honor, divine integrity and divine virtue. They are in many ways synonymous. Divine virtue manufactured inside the Divine Dynasphere is the source of all true love and all true happiness in life. It is what sustains such magnificent characteristics as courage and stability.
Satan’s world system offers a believer wealth without honor, success without integrity, promotion without ability, fame without virtue, authority without leadership, life without capacity, approval without happiness. Inside Satan’s world system there is a constant search for happiness, but no way to attain it. (Philippians 4:8; I Peter 2:9; II Pet 1:2-9)
There are two categories of divine virtue: 1) motivational virtue directed toward God and 2) functional virtue directed toward man. Divine virtue directed toward God motivates divine virtue directed toward man. Personal love for God motivates impersonal love for man. Confidence toward God motivates courage toward man.
Worship is the expression of the believer’s personal love for God. The only possible way to worship God is inside the Divine Dynasphere. You start with perception of doctrine under the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is eventually developed into personal love for God, which is one half of virtue-love; the other half being impersonal love for all mankind, our functional virtue.
John 4:24 teaches that the Divine Dynasphere produce the virtue of worship. There are three types of worship:
1) Respect. The believer can respect the Lord only through understanding His thinking. (I Corinthians 2:16) Respect is the beginning of virtue-love for God. You cannot instantly fall in love with God. It is a process which demands the base of virtue and integrity.
2) Reverence. This is merely a growing respect for God. The difference between respect and reverence is a matter of concentration, of recall from retention of doctrine. Respect is the worship of the immature positive believer; reverence is the worship of the positive maturing believer at gate five.
3) Honor. The highest worship you can give to God is to honor Him in every aspect of your Christian life. Honor is defined as high respect for worthiness, merit or rank. God has earned the highest position of all three. Honor for God is fully developed when a believer arrives at spiritual maturity.
In the Church Age, the object of worship is Jesus Christ. The ingredients of worship relate to personal love, capacity, and spiritual self-esteem, which are the first four gates of the Divine Dynasphere. God is perfect and worthy of our personal love, but this love must come from our own free will. God never forces us to the point of loving Him. We must appreciate God for Who He is, not for what He can do for us! There is no true personal love apart from genuine humility, which then becomes a protector against intolerance of others. (I Corinthians 2:9; Ephesians 3:14-21; I Peter 1:3-8; II Corinthians 5:4; Romans 8:28; I Corinthians 16:22; Hebrews 11:27, 12:3)
God loves you and me because He has divine integrity; you can love Him in return when you acquire divine or Christian integrity. Christian integrity is defined as a strict adherence or loyalty to the truth, soundness of moral principle, and a state of honesty and uncorrupted divine virtue as found in the Word of God. Virtue is defined as strength of character exhibited in such characteristics as stability, courage, capability, worthiness, honor, high moral standards, kindness, humility, faithfulness, and patience. Divine or Christian virtue refers to these qualities in a person as God designed him to be.
Divine virtue in the Christian life can be produced only under the control of the Holy Spirit by maximum application of the Word of God. A believer needs a power greater than himself in order to acquire and apply divine virtue. He needs the same power that our Lord Jesus Christ had while here on earth (the Holy Spirit). Remember, Jesus pioneered the Christian life for us while being tested in every way that we are tested, except He was without sin. (I John 4:9; II Peter 1:2-4)
Personal love is based on the virtue of the object, the one who is loved. Personal love for God as our motivational virtue is a function of the Royal Priesthood of the believer. Before we can love one another, we must learn to love God. We learn to love God only by getting to know Him through His attributes as revealed in His Word. As we get to know Him through His Word and obedience to His Word, we develop capacity to appreciate Him and enjoy His blessings. Our personal love for God is based upon our thinking, not our emotions. No one can be forced to love God. As with everything in the Christian Way of Life, it is a matter of personal volition. However, we are commanded to love God. (Deuteronomy 6:5) Loving God changes our human norms and standards to divine norms and standards and gives us a foundation upon which to build our Christian lives. This, of course, not only affects our relationship with God (our spiritual life), it also affects our relationship with others (our Christian life). (I Peter 1:8; Ephesians 3:19)
Paul used the word excellence for virtue in Philippians 4:8-9 and tells us that we as believers in Jesus Christ should be concentrating on the qualities from the Word of God that develop divine virtue. Divine virtue is not avoidance of a set of taboos laid down by some religious organization. Divine or Christian virtue is forming and exhibiting the character of Jesus Christ by consistent intake and application of Bible doctrine, which is the mind of Christ. (Philippians 2:5) God loves you and me because He has divine integrity and divine virtue. God loves each believer personally because we possess His righteousness, not because we merit His love. God’s love towards us is a grace gift. This same divine integrity and divine virtue is available to us and is the means whereby we are able to love God and our fellow man. (I John 4:7)