Lesson for January 28, 2018
The Doctrine of Spirituality vs. Carnality
The Divine Dynasphere, Lesson #4
Gate 6: Impersonal Love, your Functional Virtue
Impersonal love is the category of functional virtue whereby the integrity of the subject exceeds the unattractiveness of the object. Impersonal love in the Divine Dynasphere emphasizes the integrity of the subject, while personal love emphasizes the attractiveness of the object. Therefore, personal love is for a few; impersonal love is for all. Impersonal love is functional virtue motivated by love for God. Since God has no prejudice, impersonal love eliminates prejudice.
Impersonal love is not sustained by the object, but by the believer in the Divine Dynasphere with doctrine and personal love for God. Impersonal love is a relaxed mental attitude for all people and it is free from any mental attitude sins. Therefore, impersonal love cannot be corrupted by flattery, human rapport, or emotional rapport. While personal love for people is optional, impersonal love for people is commanded as a part of the Christian Way of Life. Impersonal love for all is eliminating your prejudices toward others.
The function of impersonal love more than overcomes any problems of inequalities. Impersonal love emphasizes the integrity of the subject. Personal love emphasizes the attractiveness and rapport with the object. Impersonal love is motivated by God and is therefore non-discriminating. Personal love is motivated by rapport, and is extremely discriminating. The requirements of impersonal love demand the highest virtue of the Christian Way of Life. Impersonal love is part of your Royal Ambassadorship and is not influenced by the attitude of others, but by Bible doctrine in your soul.
The Christian life is divided into two parts: invisible and visible. As a Royal Priest, a believer represents himself before God, which is invisible. As a Royal Ambassador, a believer represents God to the human race, which is visible. What happens in the invisible determines the visible. If you love God, your Christian service and your social and spiritual interaction with others will reflect your motivational virtue of love for God. You won’t become a legalistic tyrant. You will have legitimate and honorable attitudes and actions in dealing with others and circumstances.
Malfunction of personal love for God destroys true function of impersonal love for all mankind. If you hate anyone, are arrogant, or self-righteous, you don’t love God. You cannot be in the cosmic system and produce virtue-love or have control of your spiritual life. (I John 4:16-5:3) There is no motivational virtue without functional virtue; there is no functional virtue without motivational virtue. They must be coexistent or non-existent. The non-existence of virtue-love is the status quo of life in Satan’s world system.
Gates 5 and 6 were never designed to act independently of each other. You cannot have only half of virtue-love. Motivational virtue and functional virtue stand or fall together. If you have motivational love for God, you will also have functional virtue of impersonal love for people. If you hate even one person, you do not possess functional virtue. If you do not possess functional virtue, you do not possess motivational virtue. Therefore, you cannot hate anyone and at the same time also love God. If you have personal love for God, you also possess impersonal love for people. (I John 4:15-21)
Because believers possess the perfect righteousness of God, they are the object of the personal love of God. God the Son demonstrated His impersonal love toward the entire human race at the Cross by receiving the imputation of our personal sins. This was based on His perfect integrity. Christ had double integrity, both as God and as true humanity. Impersonal love as a virtue never discriminates, depending entirely on the integrity of the subject, the object being no issue. To do this, God the Father set a precedent for divine love related to the human race. While God the Father loved the Son with an eternal, infinite love, His integrity took precedence over His love. (Matthew 5:43-46)
Holiness or integrity is composed of two divine attributes: righteousness and justice. The justice of the Father imputed all our sins to Christ on the Cross, and then judged them. This was the saving work of Christ: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation and atonement. Our sins were never imputed to us, but to our Substitute. This becomes the pattern of all human relationship with God; the pattern comes from the precedence of the Cross. All human relationship with God has a point of contact: divine integrity or holiness. The same justice of God which imputed all of our sins to Christ on the Cross and judged them has imputed to everyone who believes in Christ His perfect righteousness, one-half of His integrity (justice being the other half). This sets up a grace pipeline for blessing.
Grace is the policy of the justice of God in imputing blessing to the perfect righteousness of God. This knocks all arrogance out of the Christian life, and leaves us with the virtue of humility. Our sins were imputed to Christ on the Cross, so that God’s perfect righteousness could be imputed to us who believe. So when we believe in Christ, we exchange the saving work of Christ for His righteousness (one-half of His holiness) and the grace pipeline becomes the basis of all blessing. This eliminates any possibility of anyone ever deserving or earning anything from God. This is the only way God could bless us without compromising His divine essence.
Faith is the absence of works. Therefore, there is nothing you can do to lose your salvation or to cancel the work of God. Once again, because a believer possesses the perfect righteousness of God, he is the object of personal love from God. This is the only reason God loves us. So the same God who provided our salvation also provided a system to handle our failures and our successes. Therefore, divine personal love is extended to all believers. So when you look at people from divine integrity resident in your soul, you don’t see their prejudices, failures, etc.; instead, you see those for whom Christ died. It is called “impersonal love” because it is based on the integrity of the subject, not at all on the object. God loves all believers because we all have perfect righteousness. This is not based on the integrity of the object, but the object’s possession of divine integrity: perfect righteousness.
When God gave us His perfect righteousness to justify us at salvation, He also gave us His perfect righteousness to form the basis for the Christian Way of Life. You have God’s perfect righteousness; it is your very own, and you’ll have it forever. If you’re going to love all mankind, you must possess God’s integrity. That occurs only within the Divine Dynasphere. We’re finite humans with frailties, but God’s power system sets up a pattern for the virtuous function of impersonal love in the Christian life.
The demonstration of impersonal love is when a believer has the same mental attitude Christ had, which is the meaning of the Scripture, “Take up your cross and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Christ picked up His Cross in the midst of maligning, ridicule and then received the imputation of the sins of the entire world and was judged for them. The eternal love of the Father for the Son was superseded by the justice of the Father in imputing our sins to Christ on the Cross. The justice of God is therefore our point of contact. The night before His crucifixion, Christ showed humility by submitting to the will of the Father. Christ’s demonstration of impersonal love was the greatest demonstration of impersonal love ever.
God loves believers both personally and impersonally. By way of application of impersonal love, logistical grace from God is given to all believers regardless of spiritual status. The justice of God imputes logistical support and blessing to all believers, because we all have His perfect righteousness. Therefore, there is no compromise of His essence. Impersonal love, as functional virtue means a believer possesses honor, integrity, and objectivity.
Impersonal love toward all means having divine virtue; having mental attitude sins toward no one. Impersonal love is unconditional. Divine virtue does not establish conditions regarding the object. Impersonal love is unprejudiced, tolerant, courteous toward all, considerate, thoughtful, and sensitive no matter how great the stress or antagonism from the object. Since the object is the entire human race, impersonal love must not only be virtuous, but unconditional. Impersonal love is the total sum of divine virtue expressed from a subject to an object. The object has no merit.
In the function of impersonal love and divine virtue, the love for God motivates. You can function from divine virtue because God is real, because God is the object of your personal love. In personal love for God as a virtue, remember divine virtue lies with God. It is our personal love for Him that motivates divine virtue in us. Impersonal love toward all is the manifestation of your personal love for God.
Personal love for people can be a distraction to your personal love for God. There are two sources of pressures and problems in personal love with people: (1) The pressure of human antagonism, hostility, and animosity and (2) The problem of intimate personal relationships. Impersonal love is the problem solver in both categories. Impersonal love brings divine virtue into human life and friendship. Impersonal love tolerates and extends divine virtue function to all forms of hostility. Motivated by personal love for God, impersonal love is the unconditional guarantee that all members of the human race, including believers, will be the recipients of the honor, integrity and virtue which you’ve developed through residence and function in the Divine Dynasphere.
Without impersonal love toward all, you cannot have divine virtue in personal relationships. Without divine integrity and divine virtue there is no such thing as successful romantic love or true friendship for a believer. Personal love with humans is virtue-dependent both for its existence and especially for its perpetuation. The problem is not falling in love; it is sustaining love so that it grows and progresses and becomes a marvelous, wonderful thing.
Personal love without divine virtue often causes jealousy, bitterness, hatred, implacability, self-pity, guilt, and motivates revenge and evil. Personal love without divine virtue complicates life by combining the problems of two people, which intensifies the stress in life. If a person cannot cope with his own problems, he can’t take on the problems of someone else he loves without creating stress. The only sustaining factor in human personal love is to add divine virtue. Often, people will corrupt your decision-making process, destroy your scale of values, and act as instruments of Satan to hook you in his world system. I Corinthians 15:33, “Do not be deceived, evil companions destroy good morals.” Unless you are sustained by personal love for God and impersonal love for mankind you are going to be corrupted by every romance and friendship you have. Without divine virtue in your life from the Divine Dynasphere, your friends often become “cosmic evangelists” (“ministers of Satan”) to lead you astray. (II Thessalonians 3:14-15; Proverbs 13:20)