The Expression Bible

(The Expression Bible: Most study Bibles and Commentaries are based in observation of external evidence and information, as it relates to the written word of God, from the outside looking in, as the name denotes, commenting about it, which is good as a study aid. However, this requires back and forth reading of the scripture and the notes. This new version attempts to integrate the study into the reading of the scripture, while keeping it separate from the scripture at the same time in its layout to avoid confusion. It is also designed to study from the inside looking out, in that, it does not comment about it, but expresses itself in the first person, as though the author was offering the expression themselves. Then, along with that internal expression, at times, also integrating external evidences and observations into the text of the Expression, not the actual scripture. The goal here then is to have an easier flow of the scripture text and the study text combined. This is not designed to appeal to theologians or detail oriented readers, who wants too know the source of every expression. Rather it is to give the reader the benefit of the resource of theology, in an integrated, easy to read format. In other words, it is for them, who want to take the medicine, not those trying to learn how to decipher the writing on the prescription or be able to write prescriptions. It is written for the patients, not the doctors or even the pharmacists.)

Greeting

1:1 From Paul,
> This letter is from Paul: Whose name declares me to be small or little, I am the one who is the author of it. It is my intent to relate to you what is taught to me by Jesus, in order to give answers to you, concerning our way of life in him.
called
> The reason I am a Christian in the first place, is that I was established into it, thru an initiative by an external act not of myself, I was brought into it, through an encounter with Christ himself. Where he told me point blank, that I was from that point on, going to be his servant for the sake of spreading the gospel message to the gentiles. This also means that I responded to Jesus in faith from that encounter, as he being the Lord and God of me. I am at a place with him in my mind, where he actually exists, not because I put him there. I merely became aware of who he is and what that means in my relationship with. Therefore, my call, is a response, to that which is external from myself, altering that which is internal in myself. That is how I would define the act of any calling from God to man, that who is not aware to us, altering that which is in us, to make us aware of him. Then from that, a response is necessary from you to join him, according to his instructions.
to be an apostle
> To me than, as with others, I was called specifically, in that, he was establishing me in the church, with the position of apostle. Now, knowing as it were, that I was wrong in all my prior conclusions about him, I bowed my will to his, as one repenting and realizing the grievous errors of my ways. I, at that point, abandon who I was as Saul, and became Paul, according to his instructions. A leader in the church for the sake of the gentiles, bringing them to the gospels message. To me, as with all twelve apostles, he had a unique assignment for each of us. Some, as me, were also ordained to write these letters, which will become your scripture to trust upon, in guiding you in the will of God. My goal is to bring people to the cross and expose them to the truth of it, letting God then work in them, the work he did in me.
of Christ Jesus
> My whole dedication in life now is making known who the Messiah Christ is, who is Jesus, who lived, died and was resurrected for our redemption, in service to God glory. To testify about it before a world who either, does not know of him, but mostly who will not hear of him. It is my duty to establish the truth as it is, proclaim that which it is, and let God live thru me, beyond my own abilities to do.
by the will of God,
> All of which originated, not by man, or by his choice, either in thought or deed. Rather, as creation itself was brought into existence, it began by Gods decree that it should be so. Although man resists the will of God, it cannot be successfully contested, ever. It is by Gods will that anything at all exists period, therefore, if it exists; it is by his intention that it be so by decree. The earth, can no more deviate from its rotation around the sun, than you can just jump off from the earth. It is not in his will for you to do that, so you cannot. So, everything in existence conforms to Gods will for it to be so, should God not have been interested in establishing his glory before creation or rescuing man from sin. We would not exist, therefore we exist and I am doing what I do in the church, according to his will for me to be here. I am mimicking the example of Jesus, just as did Jesus become the Christ, for the glory of God and the salvation of man, according to the will of God. Jesus was an example of the will of God for us, to follow after him in it. He did not just allude to it, in saying, "it kind of goes like this". He was the will of God in precise detail, an exact model of the will of God, and God in action, exemplified first, for Gods glory, and then, for our benefit in being redeemed.
and Sosthenes,
> Signing on with me in this is Sosthenes: Whose name declares him to be one who saves others in his strength and power. The fact that he was such a leader among the Jews there in Corinth should add weight to you receiving this letter from me, in the joint Spirit of authority that I claim myself to have over you in the church. If your own leader, there in your own synagogue, joins with me in acknowledging me in this letter. It is incumbent upon you, if you want to be a part of Gods church, to do the same.
our brother,
> His history in coming to Christ is noteworthy reading, and for future recognition by all those in the church to come to be aware of. He stood the ground even in being beaten for his faith, continued in the faith, and was eventually thrown into the sea to die for his faith. Wouldn’t you align yourself with one so faithful, if your goal was to promote Christ? Well then, get in line with us then, and serve God thru my instruction, from me, to you, in fact read instructions, as orders from me, to be obeyed and not dismissed.

1:2 to the church
> Gather the church for the reading this letter, so that they can hear and learn what I am writing to you. So that they are not in ignorance of what I have ordered, and left uninformed, as to the truth that I speak too.
of God
> As I have already stated, that which exist, is by the will of God, which means that you as a church, are his possession. The only reason for you to exist, is God, not to be a social club or some community organization. You are his possession, for his purpose only.
that is in Corinth,
> God has therefore come to your city of Corinth, to make you part of his church. In that he has called you to come out of the world and their purpose, too come into, and get on message, in existing for his purpose. That is who you are, both as a Christian community and individuals, living on message for God.
to those
> My message than is specific in nature, designed for the training of them who are in Christ already, and are intending to be so, in good standing with our Father in heaven.
who are
> You do have status with God, just from having believed in him. That is part of being united with God for the first time as an individual, and reunited with God, as a human race. That then is now what you have with God, a positive status, that is receptive with God, as opposed to a negative status, that is rejected by God.
sanctified
> He has separated you out from his judgment and into his grace, that in itself is enough, just because it is an eternal act, which removes you from death row. However, God meant that as our foundation and beginning, not the end or the whole of your experience with him. You have a labor to do along with God, not a grievous one; it will actually invigorate you when you are on message with it. Even if you are beaten, you will rejoice, not that you were beaten, but that you were relevant enough in your being on message, to elicit a response from Gods enemies. I don’t like pain, but I am glad when I am so pressing on with Gods message, that their only response they have, as their last resort against me, is to try to shut me up, by beating me up.
in Christ Jesus,
> So we are set apart in sanctification, with Christ as our foundation that will not give way. He is glorifying himself, thru us, as is his intention to do so, therefore he is seeking to do just that, in us, it is not a matter of if, but how for us to discover.
and called
> Now, as I was brought into his service, so are you, speaking in general here though, this is in reference to all of you, not individuals. I am speaking here to the church as a whole, not to specific individuals.
to be saints,
> Your overall positions in his church, deems that you be a people that have a true religious lifestyle ingrained in you. Not a false piety, where you appear as a chaste people in congregation with each other, but than go off on our own into sinful practices, as a planned lifestyle. To be a saint in Gods eyes is to earnestly desire it, because it is right, not because it is convenient for the setting to which you may in the company of. It should be practiced when it is inconvenient for the setting also, as the standard you employ. It is a call to be in league with God in his Holy practices and attributes. You already know the idea or concept to this, in that it is commonly practiced in the world, where immoral people take up with their own. They want you to conform to their image, as depraved as it is. With God though, you gain Christ and his holiness, with man, only death and loss. Sainthood must be practiced as real before God not man, man does not qualify it- God does.
with all those
> Granted, we are fewer in numbers here on earth, but we are greater in strength, because our basis is in that foundation of Christ, he is pressing forward in his power, not ours. So with him you choose the winning side, despite the fewer numbers and rejections of the masses.
in every place
> Location is also not the issue here, God is no respecter of borders, so one nation is not being given preference over another based on location. It is the people and their receptive abilities that determine Gods grace and blessing to them. God said to shake off the dust of the city, if the people will not hear the message, not if the city itself was just too different from the rest of the cities out there in your liking.
who call on
> It is for them who cry out to Jesus to save them, that Jesus will rescue, they are the chosen by God, that makes them special. In that, God is willing to hear them and forgive them, are they then chosen and special, not because they cried out. Always keep the horse before the cart, when dealing with mans relationship with God, he initiates, and we respond, as far as our position with him is concerned. In relationship though, in being his sons and daughters, he loves to hear from us, and as Isaiah told us, God invites us to come reason with him. Not that we can prove God wrong and ourselves right, but that we can discover agreement with him. God would like nothing more, than for you to approach him with the right answer.
the name
> This is the one who is the figure head of who we are, it is his identifying logo as a representative of Gods character and the attributes of him, in a single word that identifies him. Each name becomes the summary of their being, as a description of them, and in this case, his entity. It is an earned identity, not an endemic one that comes from birth alone, that is what titles are for. Your name, identifies you as who you really are, even if two have the same basic name, their character defines the meaning of their names differently. Many families have someone they refer to as, Uncle Ed, usually a derogatory meaning, but not an endemic one. Your Uncle Ed might be highly esteemed and in your family, and is someone who is heavily relied upon or looked up to.
of our
> This name though, becomes our banner in life, that which we then live under as having our primary identity in that of another. This is like unto marriage where the woman takes her husband’s name as her own, finding her new identity in him alone in wedlock. We than, in effect have done this with Jesus, without the actual name change though. Some women, who find a husband, will actually identify themselves by his name completely, such as, Mrs. John Smith, in that she chooses to be known thru him. In this frame of thinking then the "I" has become a "we" in the way that we are united with him. As I claim my identity to be known thru him, so that we in a sense are known thru our union, in the title Christian.
Lord Jesus Christ,
> He is the one in position as Lord, because he is in command. Jesus was first identified to us thru his title of Christ, which was representative of his assigned or anointed mission. It was as he began his mission as Christ, in which he was then referred to as Lord. Now Jesus was always known as Lord in heaven, it was only here on earth, that his name needed to be revealed. That is why he has titles to his name, so that those who do not know him can discover him, even in a foreign place. They are not for the benefit of him, in that he is secure in who he is. The wife knows who she is, the titles she takes as "Mrs." are for the benefit of others.
their Lord
> So, they are claiming their identity in Jesus as Lord, they are saying that he is the banner or heading that they are known by. This is right for them to do, as that is what God is calling them to do.
and ours.
> Therefore, we know first hand what they are thinking, and what they are experiencing with Jesus. In that, we have also found his identity, to be our identity. We have individually, transferred our thinking away from an "I" identity, and into that of a corporate or "we" identity. So, the message I am telling you hear, is that though we may sailing on so large a ship, that we do not see one another, we are still fixed together on that ship, seeking the same harbor as our destiny in him as ship captain, so to speak.

1:3 Grace
> Allow God to be your benefit in life, by not being resistant to his will. You have already received the benefit of eternal life from him, now start living it here on earth. Don’t find your pleasure in the old habits of sin; take pleasure in the awe-inspiring being of God. Make this a proactive statement of your life, I want you to seek it, not just sit around and wait for it to happen.
and peace
> God is at rest with himself, that is the essence of what the peace of God is. For you to have peace also, I want you to know that it exist in your understanding of this. Gods peace is passive, in that, it need not be activated for you to experience it, it is the aspect of knowing it is their, that it is your peace. It is not for you to labor over in finding it, just the opposite; it is simply to be accepted and rested upon you in your thoughts of it.
to you
> For you then to have peace as an experience in your life, what you have to do is to make your security in him, in knowing he is content. God initiates the knowledge of it to you, and you respond to that and gain rest in knowing who he is, just as he rest in who he is. Remind yourself of this throughout the day, so you do not drift away from it, and your rest in him will stay in both your feeling it, and the fact of its absolute, that you are secure.
from God
> My message and greeting has its origin in God, that is where it all begins and what it has its purpose in. Our communication itself would be pointless, if God did not author it, but it is, which is the basis from which I am able to write you.
our Father
> First from our Father in heaven, may who he is, become more real to you, as you experience him in your life. He is the first person of God, whom Jesus has reverence for and points too, as the one referred to in the trinity as the leader of God. Jesus’ equality with him as God is not based on position, but on unity in holiness. The Father is that which he is over Jesus, his Father, a position of honor, but not one based on differing standards of character or attributes of purity. Every attribute of the Fathers can be said of the son, and vise versa. Their positions of duty are actually alterable, in that the Father has turned all judgment over to Jesus, but then Jesus will in the end, return all such authority, back over to the Father, after having completely exercised that authority.
and the Lord Jesus Christ
> You see, they are united in this as God, and demonstrate it for us in this positioning of themselves. Therefore, in that they do it as God, man has no self-determining, rightful claim of injustice or maltreatment. Position is not inalienable; but character is, so we must guard our character not our position. So it is in that rest that we find in the character of God, which is an equal union between the Father and the Son, that which establishes them as one, and at being rest with that. Because of that rest then, they have among themselves peace.

Thanksgiving

1:4 I always
> My prayer life could accurately described as being preoccupied with you, you could describe me as an obsessive compulsive, when it comes to my mission. I am always seeking to do more thru it and it even gets me in trouble, as others are always having constrain me in my efforts. Nevertheless, if it is my loss, it is your gain.
thank my God
> Because I keep telling God over and over, how grateful I am that you are his and in his church. You see, I now have all my eggs in one basket, in that, my being and my future, all rest in my identity in God, he is mine and I am his, and that is all there is of me.
for you
> It is not just the two of us though, it is you also with us that is my mission on earth. God has opened your eyes to who he is and what your condition was, and you responded to him in faith. That is what I am so grateful for, when God gives you an initiative, you respond to it, you take its shape as that of yourselves.
because
> God made a distribution among you, he sent out from him, an opportunity for you to achieve a place with him. Not as a labor on you part, but as an endorsement of you, so that you could better yourself in him. God made a decree in your favor, which is why we are having this discussion.
of the grace of God
> What we call that, is undeserved favor from him, or grace. It is God, not considering your state, as far as holding it against you. He is acting out of and based on his state, and his account, to better you. God is adding to you without compensation to himself from its action or any of your actions. It is God initiating and you responding, that is what this grace is, which itself is formed out of Gods mercy. Not all grace is the same; there are many applications or manifestations of it, yet their base is Gods mercy.
that was given
> This was not a passive act of grace though in its nature, it had power behind it to effect cause and change. It could not be brushed aside as whimsical; this grace takes charge over an untenable condition that leaves you out of reach of a goal and makes it so. It’s not a kind of grace that passes over an issue, leaving it behind or ignoring it; this grace was active in you once you got it, it is designed to invoke a response from you, with the power to resolve it.
to you
> This was meant to give you the power that you desired, God sought you out from a base of mercy, and then rescued you thru an act of grace. It all began with God, remains active thru him, and has its final remedy because of him. However, you are its main benefactor because of it, it is you who are changed, God is not altered by this action of grace- you are. Mind you, his reason was to glorify himself, but that was so that we could understand the awesome state of God. His glory was increased for our benefit to us, he remains as he was even before he was glorified in Christ redemptive work, so far as his nature and character is.
in Christ Jesus.
> This also was not a passive act in Christ, but one with power and might, in that Jesus put everything he had into achieving it, every ounce of his fiber, as it were, went into the grace that was behind mans redemptive act by him. This was to allow God the judicial right to commute your death sentence due to sin, to a life-in-Christ sentence due to his power of grace. Although you were freed from death row, and your debt marked paid in full, you were not free to return to a life of sin without consequence. This grace was not a free to sin license, but a free from bondage decree from God, not by laws of enforcement from an external source; as in the Ten Commandments, but by and thru the power, of this active grace in Christ, and now in you.

1:5 For
> Let us look now, at what that grace has done for you so far, that is the premise that I want you to examine with me. I want you to see the power that God has worked among you, because it is too common for us to get accustom to our new surroundings and just take their presence among us for granted. I also want you to shake your thinking, to a "what if" consequence thought process. If this grace did not continue in you because of your attitudes, I want you to see exactly how much you have to lose in the future of your church, you could lose it.
you were
> Remember that this came to you and that you did not acquire it by good deeds in your labors. God gave you this power thru grace, for you to accomplish in labors, what was out of your reach. Now that you have power, you have responsibility to use it for what it was intended. Because if you allow it lag and grow weak, you may not remember how you got it if the first place, replacing with your own labors, attempts at grace.
made rich
> Look not just at the details of his effect on you, but the abundance in his giving it to you. God has affected you by improving what was your current state, and adding to that, what was not even available to mankind in human form. What I am saying is that he gave you the supernatural state, over and above you natural state. Therefore, God has so improved your impoverished state, to that of wealth, unavailable to those under judgement.
in every way
> It does effect all the details of your life, all the little things that you once just glossed over and took for granted, are now becoming like trinkets and jewelry to you. Why? Because before they were worthless and detrimental, but now they are in Gods use, and that makes them priceless objects, more valuable than anything that the world could price compare to them. The most priceless among them, being you relationships, once glossed over as disposable, now your cannot live without one another. God has bound you in the Spirit, who is an inseparable by the flesh, a spiritual weave that the flesh cannot separate or tear apart. Oh sure, you can avoid one another, but that does not alter the spiritual bond that God made secure.
in him,
> Because it does not rely on you, it relies on God, you didn’t put value there, because you cannot effect his action, only God can control his will, man cannot. The power of grace exist in the will of God, so to be against the will of God, is to be out of the affects of his grace. That is why it is "in him", and it is necessary to be "near him" to be "in him", and to be "near him", you must be near to on another; it is just a fact that you must get used too. You otherwise delude yourselves, that separate but equal, among yourselves is part of God. It is not, it is a wrong philosophy, which will not mature the church, because every spat, is a just-cause, to move in a divorce process against the body Christ and that is not growth. Without Gods will as that which initiates grace, to then attempt to be in his grace outside of his will, is immature, resulting in stunted growth. Though our relationship with Christ provides for personal growth, it does not provide for isolated growth. It is an outward growth towards other believers, which the Holy Spirit invokes in you. The Spirit is pressing us together, not coming between us or separating us out from one another. Christ is a shepherd, and a shepherd keeps the flock close together, so our growth is to be towards interdependency, not to self-identity. Your maturity should be marked by your dependency on others, not by thru independent strength, to remain constantly in isolation or at arms-length.
in all
> God has given you thorough access to him and his insight, what ever your circumstance, it is clear that God is in the mix with you in everything that happens, in order to help you out. God is not saying "you go there, an I’ll go here", rather he is inviting you to be where he is. It is exclusive to you as saints as a whole, but not as individuals, as it was with Moses, whom God spoke face to face with, and the rest, thru the prophets. Excluding the measure of grace required to perform at your ministry, you are included in what God is doing equally. That is because it is grace at work in you to do the labor, not you, so the greater or lesser measure of grace leaves you all equal with God, in relation of yourselves to each other.
your speech
> You have in you the ability to establish and defend your position, you are able to give an account for your beliefs, even when you do not know the answer, God speaks for you in your own voice. It did not matter if you were just talking among yourselves in sharing, prophecy, or spiritually speaking in another language that required an interpretation. The things that came out of you had their basis in the power of the Holy Spirit, speaking thru you in real time, not a delayed action. You did not have to seek out those trained in the law or mystery of the gospel to unravel it for you; you had the author of creation explaining it to you, in the person of you.
and in every kind
> On top of that, he gave you diverseness in what you take part in, God covered all the bases for you. God wants proactive followers of Christ, not reactive responders to what the world is thinking and doing. He wants you ahead of the game, not in worldly conquest, but the information on how to get it right the first time. The world calls it the game of life, but we know that this is no game. This is the most serious aspect of life.
of knowledge-
> So the things revealed, were understandable to you, you’re the ones on the inside looking out. Where the world is based on trial-and-error in life, you have been given the test answers, so to speak, not by thievery; God gave them to you. He gave you the answers and then asked the questions, and all you have to do is fill in the blank with your lifestyle accordingly. I know I am simplifying it a bit, life is not so smooth and easy, but then, God does not want it complicated for you to understand it either.

1:6 just as
> What I am saying, at this point is not new to you. I am only stating the obvious things that you have been a part of. The record reads for itself, God has done according to his word that was given to you. You have been existing in a supernatural state, one that does not have man as it source, because it is beyond him to cause this effect.
the testimony
> You heard the gospel message originally from myself, and then those who came after me in my teachings. When I left, the power did not leave with me, it stayed with you to express in you, the power of Gods will, to demonstrate his grace in you. If Gods power were not inclusive to all of you, it would have remained with me. However, it is alive in you as we speak, making you into living testimonies of what I proclaimed to you at the first. You are now evidence to the glory of Gods grace to those in his church, and this by way of Jesus, in his life, death and resurrection. We are complete; having all we need to be called the friends of God, just as was Moses.
about Christ
> The story as you first heard it, is true, he is divine in nature, having come down to man in the virgin birth, not out from man in the male seed. No part of the original sin of Adam, which is passed on thru the male seed into the female egg, was involved in his conception. So Jesus was born with Gods nature alive in him, not mans deceased nature. The miraculous powers that was displayed in him, is now displayed in you, demonstrating his acceptance of you, and your unity with him. For your benefit, as well as evidence for before the world. The details of a list of that evidence can go on and on, but you’ll get the picture if I only mention a few. Everything that was in Christ is visible now in you, character, attributes, principles, etc., one person does not have it all, but it is distributed among you, as God sees fit.
has been confirmed
> So now you have all the proof you need to testify to it. They say the proof is in the pudding, so you are your own best evidence, in that you are self-evident. This is substantial at that, because one by one, God has accepted you each and gave you gifts. It is the evidence that establishes that you have been sealed by and are under the influence and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This means, no more wondering about it, or second-guessing your security, of all yourselves in the church of God. Which means its beginning in you, is also the end of judgment that once sealed ones fate to the second death. In its place, is the continuing grace of God in you, until death in the body, which leads us to eternity in Christ body.
among you-
> Just look around you, it was not done in secret nor just some rumor of it happening, it is happening in your midst as we speak. God has positioned himself to be at rest among you, he has made himself at home in you, as you should recognize and then be at home in him. As I have already said, Gods stake with you is not a partial or divided alignment type of action with you, God is fully identifying himself with you and in you. He has not just taken a ten-percent stake in you, he is fully invested in all of your future and desiring a full return on his investment. Not for his gain, but for yours, where you then become a glorious testimony of him.

1:7 so that
> You see God gave full forethought ahead of time, before he called and invited you to be with him, as to what would be your state in life with him. Knowing we can Look back at that, as the evidence of his intent, we can now look ahead at what is coming up for us in the future and think to ourselves, this is real.
you do not lack
> Each of you has something to give, simply because God has stored it away in you for that purpose, it is not in heaven any longer, it’s in you. God has made you the vault of his treasures for you; you need only cash in on them to have every good thing you require, and more. When it comes to the term "poverty stricken", as it relates to spiritual assets, it does not relate to you. Due to what you have had from the start, you have no idea what that means, it is an unknown phrase to you. Because it came with your Christianity, it is second nature to you. In that, you have never known Christ apart from spiritual gifts, "what else is there?" You might reply, and you would be right, you’ve had it all from the beginning. Unlike the first apostles, they new Christ before the Holy Spirit came to give them their gifts. Moreover, despite Christ being there with them, they did not have your understanding, until the Holy Spirit came to them.
any spiritual gift
> Consider for a moment, just what you have been apart of and seen come out from among those with you. That is, Apostle, Pastors, Teachers, Prophecy, Discerning Of Spirits, Evangelist, Tongues, Interpretation, Knowledge, Wisdom, Administrators, Healing, Helps, Miracles, Giving, Faith and Prayer.
as you wait
> So we are not idle in things to do, as time winds down on mankind’s destiny before God. These gifts are meant to be used collectively, in place of what Jesus was doing individually will on earth. We are his voice, his hands, eyes, his walk among the people, everything he did, we are to replace with ourselves. This is not just the pleasant things, some may be called into suffering and martyrdom. However, those who remain alive, are here to represent Christ on earth. We are to occupy in his place.
for the revelation
> One day we’ll see Jesus, it will happen, eye to eye and face to face, the world and ourselves will see Jesus come. What they tried to deny and ignore, they will be faced to gaze upon in all his glory. They will no longer be able to linger together in the shadows apart for his light, acting as though he was irrelevant or just not expedient to consider. The out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality will no longer work, because his glory will surround them on all sides.
of our
> We will be on the side of victory and the world on the side of defeat. They will not be able to hide behind ignorance; they will have to deal with the one that we have believed in, we will be proven right just in Christ’s appearing alone.
Lord Jesus Christ.
> The day of his arrival, it will be apparent from his victory, that he is Lord over all, that the name of Jesus alone, means authority with the power to back it up. That the Messiah had already come, but the world did not believe him and for them that are dead, it is too late.

1:8 He will
> The will of God in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are united in this cause for you, a true team effort in them, being an example of exactly that which they want you to be. Look at how Jesus, while on earth, looked dependently on the Father for guidance and trusted in the Holy Spirit to show God as powerful in him.
also strengthen you
> They are at work to make you stable also, but that stability is in your unity of diverseness, not in your isolated posture, that makes you look good as some island paradise alone. The lesson God wants you to know is that your strength comes in bonds, not in looseness to one another. Lose fitting clothes may feel comfortable, but they do nothing to add shape to who you are, they simple cover up that which you are hiding. Tight fitting bonds with others though, will press and hold you to that which you can be. This is what God is working to do for you through unity, to make in you, that stable environment, which establishes you. Therefore, the strength he is giving you happens as you bind yourselves together.
to the end,
> What this provides for then, is endurance in the long haul of your life, you will not just sprout up and than die off out of season. The structure of Gods grace has everlasting power in you, to sustain you thru the unseasonable time, with just as much vigor and life, as in the times of abundance. Because the grace of God, in which we are based, is always in season in us, despite the state of Gods curse over all of the earth, which assures difficult times. Because it was God who order the curse on mankind’s environment, he can also order the peace of God, to supplant and supersede the affects, that exist of that curse, right up to the end of that curse. God controls both at the same time.
so that
> The reason that God is doing this, is so that despite his attribute of justice, that caused him to respond to mans sin in the curse in the first place. There is an exit strategy, which does not keep us in a helpless and hopeless state. As God, he has negotiated and navigated a way for man to be alive in a state of death. Basically, God has order a temporary continuance of the trial against you. Due to that, all of us continue to wait for Christ to come and put all things in order, before we are tried by him. Then, within the proper setting, God will deal with all of mans sins, both the believers and unbelievers at the same time.
you will be
> Because of that method, you will not be swayed away from him into everlasting destruction, in that, it is no longer a option for our legal standing before him. You have been moved out from under the death sentence already. The desires of your heart to know Christ are not held in your security, but in Gods. Therefore, he will not remove them, nor do you or other forces have access to his desires, that the power of his grace provides in you. Gods implant of faith in you is immortal, even if your flesh is not able to comprehend the meaning of that. Because of that, all your hope is literally in God- not mind you, in you having hope in God, your realization of Gods hope for you, is an aftereffect, not the cause of Gods endeavor. Again, it is Gods hope that secures you, not yours, your hope is merely for your comfort, it has not effect, after all, your hope came after you were saved, not before.

blameless
> Remember, it is God who has determined man to be in sin, the fact the devil and others make accusations of others sins against them, does not give those accusations authority. They are no more than reverberations of Gods own decree concerning your sinful state. The devil did not teach God that man was a sinner, God first proclaimed it, then, that which came after that was because of Gods proclaiming it. Therefore, when you come before Christ judgement, he must continue with that accusation and decree against you for it to have any meaning, in that, he is the only one with authority to make it stick, but guess what? It has been eternally removed, so when you are summoned before Christ, and the request is made for your charge, it will be said of you, there is no charge, you are innocent. Because God must make the charge, but there will be none, grace has replaced your sin under the law, and there is therefore, no one with the authority to condemn you, others and the devil cannot condemn you. God initiates all the decrees of condemnation, so absent that, there is no charge.
on the day
> At that time, Christ will make his final stand, it will come about, due to his position of authority, and mankind’s sinful state will be meaningless to stop or prevent it. It is a day of appointment, set by God to occur without fail or commentary concerning it. The only voice to sound that carries any impact along with it, is Christ, the rest will be but distant background noise that will be filtered out to dead silence. This is the time where there are no more lies uttered against God or in the defense of man, only the truth will survive in his presence, even if it means the eternal death of those who rejected him, they will admit it. However, for those in Christ, the truth is Gods grace, sufficient in all of its ability to save us.
of our
> As it had already been established as the truth, it is no longer an item seeking its resolution. The very moment that we came to Christ as part on his body, we became subject to that resolution and the affects of it. We moved out from under its counterpart, which was condemnation under the law and into a new state under the banner of Forgiveness: Where your sin no longer is angering or separating us from God. Justification: God setting up the legal status of your situation to allow for- Absolution: Where you are cleared of all charges against you, having them all paid in full before the day of the Lord, all of which are contained in the affects of grace.
Lord Jesus Christ.
> As Jesus in his state of Lordship, makes this his day of reckoning, but not for those trusting in him, for them, it is a day of recovery. Where we are pulled permanently out from under the affects of Gods curse and state of judgment on mans sin, and into nothing-less, than his full glory.

1:9 God is faithful,
> God being the one who decrees all things, and the only one whose decrees are eternally followed thru on. We can rest assured that what he decides to have happen, will just happen, because no else has authority make them happen, and no one else is able to prevent his decrees from being made so. Therefore, what we have is Gods word, decreeing that we are safe and secure, and that every promise of his, is a decree that cannot be prevented. We must remember that what is difficult for us to do, is easy for God. In this case, our being faithful to God is not something we are easily persuaded to do with consistency. However, for God, it is his natural nature to be faithful, it would go against his Holy attributes and character, to be unfaithful or unreliable. God is reliable, it is our thinking and understanding of that fact, that is unreliable and that is what trips us up.
by whom
> From that position then, God initiated an action by decree, that would have a cause and affect. He set up the conditions, by which man could be altered from his continuous involvement in sin, and reconditioned to exist in a state that repelled and ignored sin, as they were drawn them into holiness. God created this in us in that we needed it; it came about from his ability to make so. It is a result of God initiating it, not as a result of our responding to it, so that, was and is, the cause and affect.
you were called
> For us to respond, God had to first make that connection with us and invite us into his presence, in that, God is out of our reach, but we are his "reach", as it were. Meaning that God does not have to go out to discover us, we are already in his possession and at his disposal to have effect on us, in either blessing or cursing. After this contact or call, it was then necessary for us to respond to him, putting our trust in him to be able to take us all the way home. The call is for all of mankind to become the image of his son Jesus, thru faith in him. Though God has called, we must answer his call and affirm it as truth to be lived by. If we reject its truth, we than reject his call to be in the image of his son and remain separated from God, still under an eternal death sentence.
into fellowship
> However, ours is faith in Christ, and that is our focus here. The results of faith in Christ, is the union with him in our Spirit, which leads us and guides us away from the path of darkness and death, and into his light and life. We call it "fellowship" to describe it as a function, but its meaning is so much more. It is where we show up to be involved in each other at the most personal and vulnerable level possible. Fully exposed as to who we are, God first revealing himself to you as your eternal Father, in love with you, and you uncovering to him your heart also, as children desiring their own. But that is only the setting of the stage for fellowship, the meaning of it is the real power behind it, is in contributing to each other, for the others benefit. You respond to offer God praise and glorify him, and God instills in you gifts and power that are from him to you.
with his son,
> Jesus himself promised us this when he said "Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened." God sought you out to offer this to you, but remember, it is not a give and take condition, it’s an offer to join him in the process of relationship. It is a give condition that he is demonstrating to you, how to be like him, and that is where true fellowship is achieved, it is once again, the cause and effect. It isn’t the effect itself, that is relevant or crucial in achieving the goal, what it relevant is the cause, or the giving of oneself to the process of it, that creates the affect of fellowship.
Jesus Christ our Lord
> When you engage Jesus, with the same promise as above, but reversing the offering to him, saying, "Ask me and I will give it to you Lord, seek me and I will uncover myself to you, knock and I will open myself for you. For if you ask me Lord, I will give, if you reach out to me, I will respond. If you knock Lord, I am open". Then you have reciprocated and repeated the cause to Jesus, and the affect is fellowship. So, the goal is accomplished by the cause, not the effect. You have entered in a deep relationship with Jesus Christ our Lord.

1:10 I urge you,
> I write imploring you for the sake of our God, to stop and think about what you are doing. Step back for a moment and look the whole picture of your church from the outside looking in, and see if you like what you see, and shamefully, what others are seeing. There is an immediacy to your situation there, which requires an extreme response on your part. Don’t be defensive in this and dig trenches, rather be proactive in its solution. Don’t dig in your heels, tear down fences and pull out deep-rooted tendencies towards your animosities instead.
brothers and sisters,
> I am not trying to bark out commands to you, my goal has always been to teach you in the grace, that I myself received from God. This must happen in you from the inside out, or it will not hold together, my power as Apostle has limits to it. Even if I ordered you on this to resolve what is at issue, my bindings would not hold you to it. It is you, who must make the choice among yourselves, concerning your place in Christ body, for it to have lasting and meaningful substance.
by the name
> But that does not mean that I am not willing to apply the pressure and induce the labor in you to get this done right now! Because that is my part in Christ body, to tell you right up front, that this whole church thing is not about you and who you are in it. It all comes down to the one whose banner that we say we are under, and whose glory we are seeking to raise high among us.
of our
> This banner is for us, to be used in us as the solution, not the problem, which is occurring among you now. Our prosperity does not lie in our finding our individuality in the church, that is a delusion, sent to you by the enemy to destroy you. We exist together not in our resource of independence, but in our having been brought together here by Christ. Because we were depleted in and of ourselves before God, we were empty and Christ made us full by his power thru each other.
Lord Jesus Christ,
> Who Christ is, is the most precious thing that we have ever come to know, Jesus is the one as Lord, who overshadows all that we are. The sound of his name alone, is the rallying point that I want you to all gather around, and dignify him with your presence there. Center yourselves in him, for his sake, and you will find the benefit of his effect on you.
to agree together,
> It is time to come to the peace table, and set the record straight, as to the Who? What? When? Where? Why and How you are the church of God, under the single banner of Jesus? So I ask you, where is God in the picture and structure of your church administration? This is supposed to be about you not being the central figures in this setting of your church doctrine. It is about establishing the mechanisms by which God has instituted the church to function in. The key word here being "God", otherwise it is just the vain thoughts of man, showing himself to be foolish in playing church.
to end
> When you do this, it will be the beginning of something right, and the end of something wrong. It will put a stop to you moving away from Gods will, and the grace that it provides. Instead moving you near to him, and as a result of living near to God, you become aware of his environment and so accustom to his ways, the rest becomes irrelevant, as to concerning who has prominence in the light of his glory.
your divisions,
> God is orchestrating a symphony with everyone of you, not a solo act or band tryout, the solo act was your life without Christ, but now you are in an orchestra. You cannot take sides with some, for the intention of being against others. Taking sides is great; so long, as you are all on the same side. However, what you are doing is aimed at each other to create disarray. Don’t you have enough enemies it the world who want to see you dead, to satisfy your tendency for divorce? Haven’t you had enough of rejection and plotting from them, to give up your infighting?
and to be
> You should be pass that stage now and should be standing shoulder to shoulder with one another. That much from life you should have already gleaned without my having to point it out to you. You are supposed to be marching in lock step together towards the will of God, having the perspective in you from where we came. Unless of course, you are still there where God found you, not changing out of the old garment, for the grace of God to be effective fully in your life.
united
> Each of you has a part in Gods church to play and function properly in, just as a symphony does. Not everyone plays the same instrument, but we all have but one conductor that leads us in one song or message. It is he who separates us out, to play either a solo or to be in unison with others, but it is all the same melody of message. We accomplish this feat by one simple method; we all look to him for our cues and rhythm, where he calls each according to your gift, to perform your part.
by the
> To do this, you must all be reading off the same page that was written for your part, which is also written to be in concert with others. So you need to stop trying to divide authority and power, by this section playing over here, and another over there, which leads to all of you being out of sync. Come together and hear the music in harmony, following the conductor’s lead, which is Christ.
same mind
> Our position in the church flows from the top down, meaning it begins with God and his plan for us. Which makes our goal the same, not different, God has given everyone, the same gospel message. That being so why would God now lead you on a different path than another, with different beliefs in your base doctrines. So start over with the original gospel message and build towards one another from there, letting the message itself be the target. Instead of moving away from one another with the gospel, which in actuality, is another gospel not of Christ, that could be anyone’s call. If you begin with anything but the true gospel as your defining message, and do not plumb and gauge yourselves back to that, you will divert of course, and the message will be lost in you. You will no longer in your church represent Christ, but rather, the social structure of the day, will be your guide, which is worldly in every way.
and purpose.
> Resolve in yourselves, that whatever you do, its purpose is according to the gospel. Build supernatural instincts for one another, which leave you coming back for more. It may sound strange in human and physical structures, but a plumb line is suspended from a high place, with a weight on its low end, to cause it to hang perfectly straight, despite the crooked terrain. Now this is a spiritual plumb line, that I make an example of, is held secure in heaven by Christ, but guess where it is pointing to here on earth, if you thought us, you would be wrong. God is omnipresent, so it is also pointing to Christ on earth at the same time. Therefore, it is a path, which has its intended purpose to lead from Christ, to Christ.

1:11 For
> Now here is what I see happening among you and that which is setting the premise or ground work for what I need to set the record straight on, concerning that which is troubling your church. You have made false decisions in thinking that church life, is a power grab by some, and a place where you determine self-respect in front of others for yourselves. What you’ve enacted in church life, is just extensions and process of your current social order, which you were supposed to out of. Both of which are rooted in selfish, self-centered motivations, that you have made your purpose in church life.
members of Chloe’s household
> There is a household among you whose owner is Chloe: whose name means green herb. Members of that household have told me the truth, so you know what that they have knowledge of among you, and so now you know, that I Know the truth by a first hand account, given to me by them. So denying that which is going on among you would be pointless, because they have and will testify against you in the church assembly.
have made it
> They have become informers on you and cast you out into the open, as though you had some dirty little secret, that you who covering up and keeping from us. They have opened the door for investigation by me into this matter, and I plan to see it thru. You should be grateful to them, for not letting what was wrong fester among you and destroy you. No one wants to admit their failures and weaknesses to those who are over them, but it is a true sign of strength and wisdom to do so. It shows the leaders that you have willingness in you to be accountable in your Christian walk.
clear to me,
> So we all know now, that this is out in the open and that it must be then dealt with, we are going to have an intervention here for your own benefit. I see what the addiction is and I’m going to help you go cold turkey to get over it. If it hurts, it hurts, but that is the result of sin, I know its sting personally, because I bear the scars of that which it will cause in you by my hand.
my brothers and sisters,
> You must have already known in your hearts that you were wrong in it, or you would not have left it out of your official letters to me. None of you wants to face the most difficult and deep-rooted issues, because we fear that ripping them out or losing them will tear us apart or leaves us maimed and disfigured in life, in a sense these issues are who you are. Well, in some respects of that analogy, you are right. It will open wounds and even dismember some from their strongholds in life, but the healing process will bring you together in caring for those wounds. Once you have gone down the road you are traveling, you cannot back up to find the right road. It requires supernatural power input from God, to lift you from where you are, put you back on the right path, you are now stranded, and it requires an airlift rescue mission. Although surface issues might be easily resolved or glossed over, that which is at the core of you is able to corrupt every work you do.
that there are
> This is not one isolated incident, it is growing, it has become the trend line of where you are heading as a people. You see what happens when you allow a little leaven or sin to invade your church body, it then soon spreads and the whole body takes it shape, instead of being shaped in the image of Christ, in whom there is no leaven. You are in the shape of disobedience and sin; you are becoming reckless in your actions towards one another.
quarrels
> Examine with me, what something that you started with, was at appearance at least, a matter of opinion over what someone had said, but has now turned into rivalries for prominence. Not by the leaders, but by the followers, in that you have almost formed into tribes, as were the ways of the Jews. All of you are claiming in your own minds the just cause of your actions. Leaders can only mislead, if they have followers who are willing to be misguided by them. Strife is always at the personal level and then becomes unqualified disagreements, as it moves from that focal point, into group separation, where the original cause is even lost in the shuffle. Therefore, in like manner, unity is always at the personal level and becomes unqualified in groups of separation to, in that Christ is no longer the absolute focus in divisions. What I am saying, is that neither origin, separation in strife or unity in Christ, is able to remain definable as the cause in its original form, in a group settings, where there is no personal connection between the other groups. That is where followers are able to find their strength against being mislead by leaders, who are seeking something more for themselves over other leaders. The nature of your personal ties can hold your church body together, or divide and conquer you, and it is you who determine which it will be.
among you.
> You planted the seeds for this yourselves, you need to realize your guilt in this right up front, if you don’t, you’ll just replant them again. That which you have sowed, you are now reaping and the harvest is that which a drought provides. Very little flavor and very little to have a feast with, nothing to celebrate, it is just enough to sustain the spiritual malnutrition in you. As you waste away, until one day, Christ is no longer visible among you, in that you did not gather in his name, and he is therefore not among you any longer.

1:12 Now
> I am going to raise the bar on you here, in that, if it is not right for the people that I am about to mention, to be rallied behind, then it is not right for your local leaders to have such a claim to fame either. Rather than name names among you, I am going to change the names too leaders who are over your leaders, which should drive my point home. In that none of the leaders that I am going to use, would take part in your dissension. Take special note that I even include our Lord Jesus in among these names I use, and the reason why I do.
I mean this,
> This is the charge that I hear against you, and I believe that it takes the form of what I am henceforth describing to you. So lets not miss the meaning of it, I am going to give you multiple examples of it for you think about. Listen closely and you will discover the meaning of what is wrong, and why.
that each of you
> What I see happening among you is that you are taking up defensive positions against each other. Each trying to prove the other wrong and yourselves right. Trying to come out ahead of the other, as if it were like a competition where there are winners and losers. God is not creating sports leagues for spiritual church softball; God will have no part in pitting you against one another, there is not contest of skills or wisdom from this in God.
is saying,
> You are proclaiming yourselves in these actions, to be in sole possession of the truth., that can hardly be, if there is but one truth, and yet so many versions of it among you. Some or all of you have it all wrong, which is what I expect is the truth there. That all of you have lost your unity in Christ, as your focal point in that of the message of Christ crucified.
"I am with Paul,"
> You say, you side with someone like myself, Paul, that there are those who see me as the Apostle to the gentiles. Therefore, you take up a banner that reflects some of things that I have said that you liked, or that I emphasized in my personality. You see yourselves in me and identify that, or someone who is like me, among you. In general, that can be a bonding experience, unless it becomes the central issue and not just icing on the cake.
or "I am with Apollos,"
> For others of you, who maybe like the arts and drama, you have set you affections on someone of like-mindedness also, someone who reflects the image of Apollos lets say, whose name means one who destroys. He is eloquent, inspiring to listen too, a great man of God, but there is no contention between Paul and Apollos. We both have our minds set on Christ alone, not on what one does apart from the other. For us, it is proper conduct of the message of Christ in the church and the churches conduct towards that.
or "I am with Cephas,"
> Then there are lets say the Jewish Christians among you, who see themselves in their heritage and link themselves to Cephas, who is the Apostle Peter, whose name means a stone or rock. In that, he is dedicated to those of the Jewish faith. Yet, he and I preach the same gospel and other than different mission fields, we have but one cross behind and before us.
or "I am with Christ."
> Then there are those who are rejecting the authority of those such as Paul, Peter and Apollos, saying you are your own man. You will not come under the authority of any leaders there. Yet those of you who say that, we have no fellowship with you or agreement with you in such thinking either. You cannot serve Christ apart from his church, because we are his body and cannot be dismembered; Christ will not be disjointed from himself.

1:13 Is Christ divided?
> Where did you get the idea that Christ could be parceled out like some sort of private land ownership? Where deeds are issued on a first come, first serve basis, so all of you are staking your claim and getting yours. Then once you have it, it is yours to rule over and devise its use for your own kingdom. Christ is not kingdom building on or in you, He is the Kingdom! That is the message!
Was Paul
> I want to use myself as an example here, so not to appear as though I am going after other leaders. I want to dismiss myself, as ever being a more prominent figure than others are, right up front in this. The others will back me on this, but they can speak for themselves, as to them being on message with me, this I know of them though, that they agree with me. I won’t put words in their mouths, but I’ve heard them speak the same, as what it is I am telling you.
crucified for you
> I could never be anyone’s savior, I was a chief enemy of Christ until the day he saved me from myself. If it was up to my former self, there would be no savior at all and none of us would be saved. Did not the gospel message that we gave you, point out the fact, that no man born of Adam could be savior of mankind? For me to be your master, and you my disciples, the first thing I would need to be is perfect. In case you were not listening to me when I was there, I’m not. Therefore, I became nothing of taking note of for anybody, especially on the cross. God forbid that I should even begin to see myself in Christ shoes, it shames me to even have such thoughts being made aware to me in my mind.
or were you baptized
> Secondly, in that you were baptized, did you not understand the meaning of that, in that you were identifying yourself with the name of the one to who you were baptized too. There is no duality or plural baptism in Christianity, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is one God in baptism. There is no one among man who can be added to God, they have filled position for eternity. Apart from God, there is no baptism.
in the name of Paul?
> I have no disciples who follow after my calling to them, which are to commit totally to me in Baptism; no one pledged their life to Paul. Besides, I have pledged my life and loyalties to Christ, so I have no time in my life to be someone else’s fantasy, so in other words, get real. I resign from that position ahead of time, if someone is even thinking of putting me on some pedestal. I will never take such a position for myself in the church; I learned my lesson as a Jew attacking the church, being as one who approves his own justice in things and instead fought against God.

1:14 I thank God
> This issue of baptizing is one area, where I should be able to rejoice in, but instead, due to your use of it, I am glad I had very little involvement in it. In that, you practice the taking of something so good, and then using it for something so wrong. I think God saw this one coming and restrained my participation is this. So that I would have a strong case, in preventing myself from being used in such a divisive manner.
that I
> My actions in that alone, should speak louder than words to you. When the opportunity was there for me, to take preeminence among you, making myself as something before you, I took no such benefit to myself.
did not
> Otherwise, if that had been my objective, I would have had you lining up to receive from me, my seal of approval upon you. However, I did no such thing among you, which could lead you to such a conclusion of my intentions.
baptize
> This ritual we do in baptizing someone, is meant to identify and anoint them as having been received by God. As performed thru them who are on earth as representing the church in Gods name, as though passing on of his mission in you, to them. That is the whole of it, it is in the church for that usage, and for no other significance than that, it is to formalize their acceptance by both God and the church publicly, in being identified with Christ redemptive work for you. Even the disciples of John the Baptist came finally under Christ baptism, and what did John say of himself in relation to Christ, "He must increase, I must decrease." Now Jesus said no other mere mortal, was greater than John the Baptist, yet you go counter to him, thinking yourself above him in position in church baptism.
any of you
> For reasons of this example of using myself as an object lesson, I am glad that those I did baptize among you, are few and far between. That way no one can say that I began this movement and used my name and actions, as reason for their own self-promotion.
except Crispus
> Those that I did baptize are Crispus: whose name means curled. He was the chief of the synagogue their at Corinth. Until he came to Christ and became his follower, leaving behind his own past of providence among the Jews, to follow the truth in Christ.
and Gaius,
> Also I baptized Gaius: whose name means lord, one with a reputation to lead on earth. A man who took great care of me when I was there with him in his home.

1:15 so that
> With those facts, the possibility of my misleading anyone, is not there, and the test of my intentions, are in my actions. Which you can review among yourselves and judge me to be in truth or falsehood on this.
no one
> Which removes my approving of what is happening, in and among you, as having any authority by me, or having its thought of origin in me. The facts do not support any such suppositions or supposed acts in my name.
can say
> They cannot say that I taught them in this based on my actions, because the weight of evidence is just not there. No one can offer up testimony to my having made any such instruction to them in this.
that you were baptized
> Because I took no actions to establish myself as their defacto leader among them, by anointing them in my name, when I had opportunity to do so. I never tried to add my name to Gods, or increase myself in the church due to my own stature among you. In fact, I have always pointed out my weakness, not my strengths when I taught you. Because I did not want you to glory in me, but in Christ, proved his glory in us.
in my name!
> Therefore, as the name of Paul is nothing, what is the relevance of having been baptized in my name? As I stated already, Paul did not die for anyone’s sin, and doing or saying anything in the name of Paul, yields no power. In addition, no cause of deliverance can ever be attributed to it, from being called upon in Paul’s name, for help before God. There is no cause and effect in the name of Paul.

1:16 (I also baptized the household
> I just remembered, that there is among you one whose family of believers, I also baptized.
of Stephanus.
> Stephanus: whose name means crown, who was the jailer from Philippi, who is with you now, him and his household, both family and servants, had received Christ by me and I baptized them all at once.
Otherwise,
> For the moment though, that is all I recall, which makes my point, I am not dwelling on my achievements in baptism.
I do not remember
> Which shows how little prominence I put on it, in relationship to it being assigned to me as my own legacy on earth, which is not what I see happening among you.
whether I
> I kept no records, because I am not keeping count, and neither is God, the power is not in the baptism. It is in the name of the one, to whom you are baptized, which is God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
baptized anyone else.)
> There could be others that I just don’t remember, people that have moved there, that I baptized that I am not aware of. I just don’t want you to think brushing over anyone intentionally.

1:17 For
> What I want you to hear in this from me, is the truth of what baptism is and set the premise of what role it plays in the salvation message, in that, it comes after the fact of salvation. It is a response to demonstrate publicly, that you have made a personal choice to be responsible to God in your life.
Christ did not
> First, you have to understand my commission from Christ himself, and what that entailed. That there was an order in which to do things, and a disorder to those same things, if not done according to his instructions and for the right reasons. The end results of it, did not, in other words, cause justice thru the means. If by the means of the baptism, it was done for other than for what it was intended, the ends were not then valid or justified by baptism. So the method I employed was according to my instructions from Christ, which is not reflected in what you are employing yourselves to do.
send me
> What he sent me out not to do, for the sake of this discussion, is almost as important as what he sent me too do. I did not come out here to set up a social order for the sake of building up ordinary people, under my personal leadership. I am not here to tax anyone for my personal benefit or receive a pledge from them.
to baptize,
> That means that the way you are segmenting Christians, according to who baptized them, as to what you think that means to God, is wrong. Because in doing so, you say to yourself that just because you think, you got it right, that impresses God. That is not what God is about and it is not my mission, nor is it the proper use of the rite of baptism. Baptism is not to be used to set up a social order, which gives authority to the one that baptizes over you. It is not to be used as a form of security among you, as though, it itself had the power over you or is used to give you status with some. It is not meant to be a form of peer pressure, which causes you to come under its compliance, for the sake of joining a group thru an initiation process.
but to preach
> What Christ did send me to do, is explain who he is to those I meet. To inform, and open eyes, to uncover the mystery that God had revealed to me. I am sent here to call people to the attention of Christ, to extinguish doubt and fear, and replace it with hope and peace. In which you are displaying the former, with the scent of fear in you, over the latter affects of peace, which is in the taste of fellowship together in Christ. Fear hides and causes what should be the power of Christ in you, to scurry away. However, peace reveals and is vulnerable to each other, drawing in the power of Christ to you, causing the fear to flee from you instead.
the gospel
> That message was the good news concerning Gods plan of salvation and that Jesus was that Christ, who came with the power to redeem us, and he did. To establish us all under his banner and lead as one people under his divine guidance, not our human social orders. The gifts he gave us were intended to unite us in interdependency, not as a leverage, to be used to pry us apart into social orders. It is supposed to good news among us, not divisive or issues of prominence.
and not
> What he did not send me out to do, was muddy the water and make it hard for people to see what it was, that he so plainly did for us. I am not here, though I could, to speak as one theologian, to another theologian. Shoptalk is for those of us among the apostles to discuss among ourselves; to not create the impression that wisdom is in the language or in the details. It is in the Spirit of understanding who Christ is.
with clever speech,
> So that we do not come to the masses with lofty words that make me look good, or using the art of debating and big words, that only the learned would know. Making me as one whom is indispensable to them for their meanings. I would rather use street talk, which lets everyone in on it, than just a few. I want even the children to be able to understand the gospel message.
so that
> The reason being, I do not want anything distracting someone from the main point of the message. I no more want to use fancy words, that show me to be something. Than I want to approach common people by arriving in luxury and wearing thousand dollar suits, that makes them look at me and what I’ve got. Pursuing that with their eyes, instead of the message with their hearts, I am there to bring. I do not want to distract from the cross to myself in anything I do, unless someone perishes or is misguided because of me.
the cross
> I want the cross in front of me, not just behind me, I want them to know that the cross is my cause, and not a cause for me to use it for my benefit and supplant myself in its place. The cross itself was that which bore Christ and made our punishment be upon him. It is what we are as a people, are to remember, for what agony it wrought upon our savior, that we thru him, could know his Father. Jesus suffered not only for our sins, but in that he so loved his Father and the glory of him, he wanted us to know him also, we did not know what we were missing, but Jesus did. This was the only means and method, Jesus could reveal to us who his Father was, so that we could know, what he already knew. The significance of that, that he suffer to so great an agony, just so he could show his Father, should alone speak volumes to our hearts. That Jesus gave his life just so that we could know what we were missing in the glory of his Father.
of Christ
> This whole mission of mine, must remain on message, if it is to be effective for the one that at the center of it. If it is to be of any real value to anyone, it must have at the core of it, the divine, and not the human objective. It must center on the savior and not the saved, because the saved are being saved from themselves, so how can that be of any further value to have them as an objective.
would not
> Anytime you water something down, it losses its flavor, now I do not want to exclude that we are imperfect and prone to making a lot of mistake along the way. It is one thing to mess up here and there; it is another thing to make it a lifestyle change. To build a society structure around a human form of governing and then ascribing that to a divine order, or a given ordinance to be followed by men from God, is an error. As I said, God is not in the process of building personal empires for leaders in the church, Jesus is the Kingdom alone, it is in him, that we are to be under.
become useless.
> However, when you continue in that watering down process, it multiplies the dilution factor to a point, where it becomes tasteless and undesirable for anyone. It becomes eventually just plain common; nothing special attached to it, that someone could not go draw from the well of it, to have a cause and effect to salvation. In that the message of salvation, is not present any longer for anyone to taste and savor from you.

1:18 For
> One of the most helpful things I can tell you, which is the premise for what I am going to explain to you. Is that the cross is not logical in its concept to the human mind, especially of intellectuals who want to understand it, rather than just accept it as truth. If man does not begin his hearts review of salvation, in honest pursuit with his soul, rather than his mind, he will not perceive the point of the message. The message is definable only by the Spirit and no by the rationale of the mind.
the message
> In that, the message had an objective, to show that it came willing, with power, not in the hands of the crucifiers, but in that hands of the Jesus, who laid himself down. That is the offense the world hates, they did not send him to the cross, he sent himself. In that God intervened according to himself and his understanding of necessity and not according to mans rationale.
about
> It also ends speculation as to how does God and man connect, man can no longer assume anything of his own accord. Because the message of the cross, applies to everyone one equally regardless of nationality. In that, God is in charge; outside of the input of mans thinking, increasing the offensiveness of it, to those who think themselves something.
the cross
> So the cross strips man of his humanity and calls it nothing, it removes mans humanity as having self-worth or honorable prosperity. It leaves nothing of value for man to say about his nature, abandoning them to such a hopeless state, that a divine being had to be crucified on their behalf. Meaning that there is nothing for their flesh to call upon as having been a benefit to them, as to what man does in life for himself, apart from Christ.
is foolishness
> That sets aside then every perception of good that man sees himself thru, it has no substance to it, that they can put their hands around and substantiate it. God never intended to make the cross socially acceptable, but to make it a necessity for everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Not to mention that salvation is only thru one born a Jew, who are despised in the earth because of their heritage in God. It is absurd to think that what the non-Jews see as a lower life form, should save them from sins.
to those
> Some have no cause but their own, they use everyone for their own benefit. They my not appear that way at first, until you expose them to the gospel message. Until then, they may be perceived as an asset to society and a excellent citizen, but exposed to the gospel message, all that they are, is disposed of and perishable in the truth of the message of the cross.
who are perishing,
> They are then without hope, in that, they are now become homeless, only destitute in all that they do. What ever the works of their hands are, adds nothing to their state, because they saw no value in the cross, they dishonored the God of it. Having no home in eternity, because hell is not a home, it is void of everything, including security, comfort, substance or roots to call home. It is a continuous desperation and isolation, without the knowledge of Gods hope in them. Because only the cross can provide shelter from the wrath of God, to which they have laughed and scorned. They have looked down at the cross as being beneath them, in judgment though; it is the cross, which will testify that they have no home in heaven.
but to us
> On the other hand, the ones who have come to the knowledge of the cross and what it is that Christ has done. We have a completely different view of things, for us who are made aware; it is not in us to save ourselves. The cross is the rescue that our hearts desire to take us where we cannot go ourselves.
who are
> The good news is, that we are already there, God is already rounding us up, so to speak, and bringing us into his kingdom. We are already a part of that which he is doing.
being saved
> Ask anyone among you, who knows Christ, and see if he didn’t make all the difference. We have made it into the good graces of God, who is the essence of everything that is. Our redemption has already occurred, so far as the assuredness of it, which is securing us eternally in heaven.
it is
> Because within God, lies that authority which we had none of. God, whom is in control of everything, is out of our control completely. That which is unalterable to us, can only be changed by the word of God, in that, he must speak for it to be so. Creation will not obey the voice of man, to become anything more than the state that God has put it in.
the power of God.
> Therefore, for us who know God, the message makes so much sense, that we are able to be a new creation thru it. We can hang our hat on it, in confidence, that in the cross is the unchangeable, being changed by the voice of God, in the living word of his Son on the cross. What before in life, was always debatable from one man to the next, is now sealed outside of the cross, as it seals us into it eternally.

1:19 For it is written,
> In the old testament, in the book of Isaiah 29:14, there is a reference to what God will do, which is a written prophecy, that applies to the meaning of the cross, in Gods dealing with man, in essence, it say’s this.
"I will
> God has planned already, how he will deal with mankind and the philosophies of their ways. He will strike them down as meaningless chatter before him, mere baby babble and nothing more. He will take them on, no matter the challenge of him in his ways of sovereignty.
destroy
> I will invalidate, and bring to nothing, that which they have based everything they know about on. Every conclusion that they make, without it having passed thru my word, will not stand up against my word, which is Jesus.
the wisdom
> Human wisdom, is disposable and only has gain in sin, not in God. Because their hearts are not set in the right direction, all of their efforts will be misguided ones. Their wisdom is fractured in all it dealings, one says this, another that, but nothing binds them together, in fact they contradict one another. If wisdom is to be true, it must first be drawn to truth and the source of truth, which is God and confirmed in him thru his word- Jesus.
of the wise,
> Those who attempt in life, to be high in thinking, do so at the peril of God, in that, they do not only not seek God first, the exclude him from the process. That reveals the folly of their thinking, in that, you think you can show yourself to be wise, while excluding the word of God to instruct you in it. Theirs is then, a godless religion of man, to promote man above the most high God. Just as in the garden, and as with the pride of the devil, they thought themselves to be god like unto themselves. They may even tell you, that is not their objective, but just try including God in the message or exposing them to his word, and watch their reactions and rejection of it. Why? It is foreign to them and does not promote them; it demotes them to creation, rather than creator. They are not able to promote themselves under such wisdom and be their own man, so to speak.
and I will
> It will be by my own word, says God, that all of what they are sure of, will crumble beneath them. After they have crossed every "t" and dotted every "i", I will shuffle them like cards and leave nothing they say stand the test against me. As they try to explore and define the infinite, they will always falter in not seeing that it is me. You will not be able to examine creation and not encounter the creator of it; I will always be in your way, because I am behind all that is.
thwart
> No matter their so called foundations of truth, if they are not mine first, I will frustrate everything they attempt to make sound, to show it in its weakness. This will be deliberate on my part; I will not let them be smug in their appearance to me. I will set them up to stretch out their vain imaginations, and then bring them down upon their own heads. Everything they thing think they have hit the mark on, which is in opposition to me, I will show them that they were not even near the center of it.
the cleverness
> They will think themselves shrewd in their abilities, as crafty in all their ways. Able to decipher and unravel the mysteries of the world. More noble in deed then others as they waste their time, trying to thread the needles of time and space. Only having to continually rewrite their own theory’s on life. All because they were so focusing on the eye of the needle, that they missed God in the backdrop of all creation. Always trying to prove themselves, instead of accepting God at his word.
of the intelligent."
> They count themselves among the cautious who deliberate with all sincerity, yet they focus only on the abstract and never on that which God has delivered to them in whole. They do not want to see the picture as it is, and put together that which puzzles them in life from that, instead they have each their own picture in mind and are seeking to make the pieces fit into that, but they won’t.

1:20 Where
> You can examine this for yourselves, just by looking at what God has done and apply it too what you see. The history of the Jews has also led to these same conclusion in a battle condition written about in Isaiah 33:18, so I’ll apply that lesson here for you to understand it in this context. Showing how the mystery of Gods salvation plan, left mankind dumbfounded, and for those who remain blind, foolishness. All of which occurred because of Gods intervention, not the methods of man, both then and now.
is the
> You make yourselves out to be ones who explore the infinite, yet you set out to do it within the limits of the finite mind of man. You say to your own credit, that you are the greatest minds alive, renown in your philosophies, just because you thought of it, before some other poor fool. Dreamers all.
wise man?
> Show me the one among you, who has shown God false, why are not the fools winning the argument and putting down Christianity. You who are in the faith know why, just as did the disciple when they said, "To whom can we go Lord? You have the words of eternal life".
Where
> Then there are those trying to find the details of everything, trying to establish it all in writing. They want a record of everything; pencil pushers that never think for themselves, but just refer to this or that. Complete opposite of the dreamers, they are not able to relate to anything that is not written down in the past. Not able to look to the future of what God is doing, because all their identity is in the past. They want no change, just the status quo, where everything is to remain the same.
is the expert
> If they know so much, why can they not see Christ? Because for them to think about it, it must logical and first, have the seal of man and his approval, a notary public to verify its authenticity as that of man. You seek completion in the thoroughness of the pen, but not in the Spirit of God. If you can not capture it on paper, than to you it is not relevant. How simple that is, for you to attempt to be able to write down the essence of God, to be the completion of things. Wouldn’t that be convenient for you if it were possible, but why is it not working for you in Christ on the cross, why can you not contain the actions of Christ on paper?
in the Mosaic law?
> With all that you have at your disposal, with God having given you the inside track on what he was doing in the old testament, you should be able to dispute what Christ has done in you own scripture, but you have not. In fact every time you examine it with me, I prove to you Christ in it, and you just get mad.
Where
> The next counterpart in all this, are those who try to defend that which is already against that which is occurring. Your goal is to argue against God, in defense of man; you even try to twist his own words, to no avail, to help you make your case. You will misquote Gods word for your usefulness, and then denounce it when inconvenient to your own strategy. You do not want the whole answer, just what helps your presupposed ideas of things.
is the debater
> Why don’t their words and arguments, stand up against our Lords in the judicial that pride themselves in, by making their case before the judge and jury. But they have nothing to say, no evidence to present their case with or argue against me, so as to convince me of their own salvation.
of this age?
> Every generation tries to take me on, but do no better than the previous. Because everyone is attempting the same thing, to exempt God from his creation, to leave out the only thing that gives creation life and substance, God. Because you cannot see it, you attempt to exist without it, even though every generation before you have failed; you just pick up on the same failed patterns and repeat them, from one age to the next. Because you simply cannot include Christ as that of your mentality, because without the Spirit of Christ, your words are senseless, in that, he denies in you, the very logic you are seeking in man without him.
Has God
> So, isn’t the argument by God obvious to them? Yes, do they acknowledge it, No! You see, God has taken them on at their level, in their own home field advantage and allowed them to have every advantage they can muster against him, and they still came up short. God even gave them the inside information they needed to prosper at his expense, and as investors, they spent wrongly every time.
not made
> So God proved himself to be above their thinking, he established himself, not only from his heavenly perspective, but according to mans gravity of thinking also. Where man tries to resolve it all from mans perspective, of seeing it thru that which is physical, even though man is two parts spiritual, Soul and Spirit, and one part physical, the body. God came to man in his physical state to reason with him thru his gospel message, and they could not comprehend it. Therefore, it is thru the Spirit only that God comes to man now and not the rationale of the "man of the world".
the wisdom
> But man sees wisdom only as that which is of them in their social environment, and not that which put them there in the first place, which is God. Man wants to establish everything on man, as not only the source, but also the end-all. Mans tries to see himself as the Alpha and Omega, wanting to usurp God of his glory and assigning it to themselves.
of the world
> It does not matter the origin of your nationality, or the ideas of your religion. God out maneuvers each one, as easily as God out maneuvers the others. Because they all assume man first, and God as a secondary issue or not at all. That is what a "man of the world" is, that which is seeking only the carnal benefits of life, not deferring that, for the eternal to come.
foolish?
> If they had been truly wise, they would have first read all about this first in what Isaiah said in 44:25, then they would have known better than to show themselves to be in front of God, as they relate anything and everything before mankind.

1:21 For
> Continuing on, we first need to set the premise; God gave man all the time needed to generate in themselves the right conclusion of mans fate and the solution of that thru God. In order that man could substantiate himself before God, God gave him a chance and let it run its course, until it was simply running in and endless loop of, defeat-to-denial, then from denial-to-defeat. With no possibility of an exit strategy thru man himself. Because it was eternally hopeless and a never-ending loop of events, God shut down the whole process, and began to engage a totally new process, without mans active input.
since
> God having established the preceding argument as fact, he was no longer going to deliberate with man over the outcome, but rather decree the method be by grace alone in faith alone, in Christ alone. Because the prior process had broken down into meaningless rituals, that meant nothing to God or man.
in the
> The base of all this was then, that which came about thru the testing of man, by God, in the law. This was being delivered to man solely thru man in the prophets, without the individual aid of the Spirit. So thru that, is what God observed and reasoned in himself, that enough, was enough, and it was time to provide salvation himself.
wisdom
> God engaged man, at mans level, allowing them to use their own abilities to achieve the process of salvation and knowing God. Only God though, was sincerely engaged in this, man was merely going thru the motions, or in denial all together. So God in his all-knowing capacity, declared an end to that attempt by man. That is the essential point that I am making here in this statement, it was because God could foresee the outcome, based on absolutes, that God did not make any guesses or base anything on theories alone, as man does. God was willing to test man, but man failed. Wisdom is as much knowing when to not continue with something, as it is to proceed with something.
of God
> Even though God was aiding and attempting to show man, the essence of who God is, so that man could adopt it as path to him. They were only looking at themselves, with complete disregard for that which God was allowing in them to take place. They were not encountering God in this, and that is what God observed. It was also a viewpoint that men would never be able to see on their own.
the world
> That left God then with man seeing only mans perspective, which has but one side to it, because mans only thought is me, what’s in it for me. Mans every attempt was to glorify himself, with or without his knowledge of God. It was a me mentality thru and thru, not single method of man, was trying to attain a relationship with God, it was all used for the purpose of social order or status, but not for relation building with God.
by its wisdom
> Therefore, in that frame of thinking, man was void of that which he needed to ascend to God and find redemption. Man always tried to view God and instruct God, missing out that they were beneath him so drastically, that none of their approaches were pleasing to God. They were but arranged ideas, fit around human ambitions, destined and able to only accomplish human things. The thoughts of mankind never ascended to the level of the image of Christ, or the Fathers image, as creation intended.
did not
> They could not put two and two together, no matter the hours of instruction, they just could not get it. It was much more than as if God were just speaking a foreign language, in that they were having trouble speaking or knowing its meaning. This had become a divide of species, where there no was sensory perception on mans ability, thru the carnal flesh, to be able to receive the communications, that God was giving them. The flesh was not able to take in the concept from God, what it was missing and what it needed to do. It was like trying to poor water into a rock; all it did was just run off it.
know God,
> So in the end, they new no more about God, despite the instruction, than they did before the prophets or the giving of the law. Despite the heroes of faith in Abraham, Moses and David, they were no more close to God than before their examples. God was never interested in connecting with a select few here and there; God was after a complete alteration of the entire world. Those few connections God made with man in history were for instruction for everyone to learn from. A picture lesson for them to build on, to know God thru observation, and then application, but that never happened.
God was pleased
> God could now put an end to foolish attempts and mans counter proposals of belief systems, that did not come even close to who God was. Getting on with what was always his one and only solution at hand to redeem mankind. God was not pressed into this merely out of obligation as God, to rescue man from sin. He truly wanted a relationship with us, as an attribute of who God is. God does not exist in a merely ceremonial position in the heavens, ruling laboriously over creation. It brings him great joy to have his creation as part of him, which was his purpose in creation, because it pleased him.
to save those
> So God set about the task to secure their eternity, without the threat of judgment any longer looming over them and preventing and separating mans destiny with God. God chose to act in place of mans failure, to attain for them, not just eternal security provided by him, for them, that would never fail. But also, fellowship with him, that did not require attached to it, any ceremonial bases to get man to know God in rituals. We are able too simply and without fear of rejection, speak to and hear God in our lives, as with one another here on earth.
who believe
> That is then available to those who accept the knowledge of what Christ would provide for them. That in accepting the message of the cross, as the truth that we needed, as according to Gods word on it, God would enter us with his Holy Spirit, and seal us eternally to himself in fellowship with him. This was an act the was effectual in ending all judgments against all ages, previous and future, for those who acted in believing God, as faith to God. So the Father initiated this, Jesus went forth and produced its results in redemption, and the Holy Spirit is performing spiritual instruction in us, as the Father gives it instruction thru Christ.
by the
> Doing it in the most unconventional way among man that God could do it in, an intentional act on Gods part. To demonstrate that for God, it was a matter of his will to do it, not a complex ideology as man would do. God simplified salvation to such a degree, that it was no more than a reaction to what Christ did for us. Moreover, that reaction, was either accepting it, or rejecting it. There was nothing more you could do in either response, to add too your salvation in accepting it or take away from Christ work on the cross, in removing you further from his security. It all hinged on your response to the cross and its message. It was a basic all or nothing proposal from God, in fact it reminds me of the mother who had enough of her children running constantly in and out, and gave them the finally ultimatum, In or Out! Make up your mind!
foolishness
> What a slam for mans thinking himself so prominent in creation. Salvation, by a Jew, on a cross, without the penance of man to support their own salvation, but instead, it was because of the penance of that man, Jesus, tried and crucified as a lowly criminal. Jesus was never of any worldly reputation, an outcast from birth until his death by man. He now has all authority to receive man, only by and thru that cross, when man acknowledges it to be the only truth for salvation. Only thru the cross and its message can you come to Jesus and only thru Jesus can you come to the Father in salvation.
of preaching.
> This than spread near and abroad, not by setting up a nation with shrines and temples, but in the temple of each believer, thru the simple telling of the story, of who Jesus is, and what he did as Christ on that cross. No power centers by which man could control the destiny of others, no matter the human institutions that man could construct. Anyone, who heard the message, could do an end run around them, and come directly to God thru the message alone. The knowledge of Jesus was all you needed, and God has provided for that himself, thru the power of the Holy Spirit himself, apart from mans allowance for it.

1:22 For
> The premise between the following is quite simple, the Jews are visual in instruction and like to see it in pictures, while the Greeks are students of complex studies and want a well thought out thesis on it, but got neither got what they wanted.
Jews demand
> The only thing that gets the Jews attention, is the spectacular; the rest they just brush aside. They saw it as their security in salvation, the opposite of the definition of what faith in Christ is, the absence of things seen. However, the Jews were obstinate against anything but what they wanted, it did not matter if it was good or bad for them. It was not just a sign that they could see, but the world could see, to validate their state with God, and it is what they wanted.
miraculous signs
> They wanted the entertainment and wow factor to be present, in all things God, or they rejected it. That was how they stood out from among the world, in that God would do for them, that which he would not for others. So it became to them the "there see, God is on our side, so you better watch out for us", mentality, so the world would pay homage to them and revere them.
and Greeks ask
> The Greeks on the other hand, want something they can talk about and analyze from some speculative point of view. They basically just like to hear themselves talk, and sound wise in their own discussions in forming opinions. They like to occupy their minds with endless discussions and debates, to prove themselves the more informed. Tell a good story with an intriguing plot and lots of twist and turns, and you will have their undivided attention. No children stories or simple solutions wanted though.
for wisdom,
> They want to take pride in understanding the complex, rather then embracing the simple actions of God. That is their view and interpretation of wisdom, take that which is complex, and complicate it even more by dissecting it to an endless degree, and then thru them only, make it look easy to impress others with. Countless what if, scenarios that never come to past, but are meant to only entertain their minds. The greater the myths and metaphors they could conjure up, the more they convinced themselves of their own god like qualities, and the simpler arguments, meant that they were no one special among the people, which was unacceptable to them.

1:23 but we
> Then we Christians come along with what both camps perceive as utter gibberish, mindless from either point of view. The object of our profession is past tense, looking back to go forward. Where in their thinking is not progressive and ever so common to cause people to take note of it, yet we refer to it as Gods glory come to man. The end of this, which I am going to speak on though, is that in the minds of them that do not believe, any excuse will do to reject God at his word and at his decree concerning salvation.
preach about
> We offer no power to one nationality over another, no greatness to be attained in ones own cause. All we say is, that’s it, there is no more than what happened to Jesus, than one need to know to gain salvation and know God. For Christians, it is a case of all or nothing in the cross, nothing more, nothing less.
a crucified Christ,
> What they mock, is that the one who was supposed to save mankind from their doomed fate, was himself put to death, and that is somehow now supposed to be the means of mans salvation, that being, Jesus defeat, or weakness as they see it. What nonsense that is to both of them, is how they perceive the meaning of the cross. How is ones loss, supposed to be a victory of gain, which they say is an insane concept that makes no sense. Well, I agree with that, it doesn’t in human terms, but salvation is ruled by heaven, and there it is salvation alone.
a stumbling block
> Christ went against everything that they had prepared themselves for in the coming Messiah, they read and quoted of his greatness, but brushed over and ignored the predictions of his defeat. So in their way of thinking, this one who was abandoned by God to hang on a tree, which was a true observation, God did abandon Christ on the cross, he cannot then be the Messiah, which was the false observation they made. Because they failed to recognize their need for a savior to save them from themselves, as opposed to what they were seeking, which was one for themselves as a hero figure, because of that, they did not understand their need for a Christ crucified. Therefore, because they neither wanted nor saw a need for such a one, they ridiculed Jesus as nothing more than a powerless dead body, hanging on a tree. It was something that they could just not get over or get around, all because of a false preconceived idea of what the Messiah should be.
to Jews
> As the Jews were looking for a valiant warrior, thru whom they would dominate and rule the world thru, as promised for them thru the Messiah. Jesus simply did not fit their plans and so they rejected him, as being able to give them what they wanted, and that left them standing opposed to what God was saying they needed. They also wanted someone, who was the cream of the crop, as far as coming out from the most noble and priestly among them, not a peasant coming out from among the commoners. They wanted to anoint the leader as he bowed down to them in their power, to give it to him, not one that they should bow down too. Not to one so beneath them, how humiliating that would be to them, in all their pomp and circumstance, to glorify one so diametrically opposite of all that they were. Stripping them in their shame before the ordinary people that they had created around themselves; they would actually have to repent of themselves, which was unacceptable. How could the Messiah come in common clothe, when they dressed in gowns that proclaimed their upper-classmanship, how would that look.
and foolishness
> Then also, among the non-Jews it had no status, in that it simply lacked any high and mighty thinking to it, no feats of achievement to expand the mind or to take credit in arriving at some higher plain of consciousness. Nothing to win an award over, or to demonstrate your own mastery in. They who were schooled treated it as pure ignorance, nothing more than wishful thinking, in the minds of those who were unable to attain their level of analytical abilities. They simply thought it was dumb and so was anyone who bought into it, so they were ridiculed for it.
to Gentiles.
> This was the basic driving force behind all non-Jews of status, prove yourself in your own superiority and complexity, or you were nothing. A social order of the minds, used to invigorate what would otherwise be hopeless in them. They had nothing else but their own vain imaginations, because they never had any encounter with God, because God at that point only had encounters with the Jews. Therefore, for them it was a grab bag of ideas that they pinned themselves to, having had no guides in them by God. So anything intriguing that a man could come up with, was okay with them, so long as it required deep contemplation and gave them the impression they were going to get better because of it. It was all snake oil salesmen though, one and all.

1:24 But
> On the other hand, we have the same namesake-sect of people, who do not see things that way at all. From them, it nothing short of a shocking revelation, that leaves them awestruck, that so great a God, should so simplify it for them, that all they have to do is say, Okay Lord. Not to oversimplify it, but there is not a whole lot more to salvation itself. The Christian life is much more involved but that is the result of the salvation, not the cause of it. There is a lot of labor involved in the operation of any church group, which is just the nature of organization. However, our labors are to bring others to Christ salvation, not ourselves, our benefit is the environment that it produces for us.
to those
> Why do they respond though and not the others, now that is a interesting discussion. First and foremost, we must acknowledge that there is a sovereign God at work here, and not everything he does, needs be explained in every detail to us. However, we know that the scripture tells us that God is probing the hearts of men and women, seeking those who will believe in him. God is actively searching out men and women to save and the scripture tells us that only God knows the true heart of everyone. He says that even we do not know our own hearts, but he does, and that is part of his profound wisdom, that is beyond the human mind to take part in its understanding or calling process. To us, it is to trust God to do all that he can, to save all that he can, that is part of our hope and confidence in Christ. The evidence supports that he already has done more than we can comprehend for us, and will continue to do just that to the end.
who are called,
> What ever that process involves, when God finds someone he wants to respond to him so he can save them, he invites them into him in a powerful form or method called grace. Now because of it gentle sound, it might be considered a docile, meek or shy expression, but it is not. Grace thru Christ is the power behind salvation; it is the cause and effect condition, where Christ was the cause and grace made its effect. So grace given to a human, is a soul shaking experience, one that will either turn you completely to God, or eternally away from him. It is a personal, but spiritual encounter with the living God of all things, one that cannot be ignored. Its end is either eternal life or eternal death.
both Jews
> What is so mind boggling to us as humans though, is how some of those in the Jewish community, that have clearly received from Christ this power of grace to see the meaning of the cross, as that which was promised all along to the Jews. How they hold onto to it, as though it were life’s last breath for them, among the same family of people who rejected him, trying to use that same promise as dismissing Christ as Messiah. Once grace from God is received within you, the vial of the mystery of salvation is lifted from you, and that is what has occurred in the ability here between the saved and non-saved Jews. The unbelieving Jews are still in a fog and are stuck in the mystery of the message. Where the saved Jews, because of grace, have come out of the fog, and have read and understood the final chapter, which is grace, making the previous chapters come together to make sense. You see the power is in the grace caused by the cross, to effect us when it is read by us into our Spirit, so to speak, by the glory of Christ.
and Greeks,
> Then you have the same metaphor taking place among the non-Jews, that occurred among the Jews, but with another mindset in them, not having the Jewish history or law in them for comparison. The cause and effect was the same in its exposing them to God grace, except they understood the gospel message from the human experience as coming from non-religious background, as most of you have also. You received the same message of the cross, but from the outside looking in at the whole process for the first time. You saw that there was no advantage to being Jewish, who were on the inside looking out, and that Christ in his grace was receiving you as his own, so you received his invitation of grace in you, and that saved you from eternal death.
Christ is
> This whole process of God in his grace, saving all those that receive grace in them that they are able to believe, is a sovereign action. Where God conducts a sort of romance of dance with us, that is perceivable to us, in that, we are able to follow his lead. However, that does not make it fully comprehendible to us, in that, the mechanics of grace is not ours to know, it is the power of a sovereign God, his glory in action. So do not spend so much time trying to thread the needle on this, it is not yours to lead the dance, but to follow its lead with God. One need not be able to explain Gods: Grace, Calling, Election or your complete future activity, to serve God fully in them, those are acts of God, nothing less.
the power of God
> Herein lies the source of Christ power, to create as God, a cause or source of power for man, where there was none. In that, he not only gave himself up in his own authority to do so, but he took back his life, in his own power, in that redeeming act. Where the Father approved of it, Jesus commanded it, and the Holy Spirit performed the resurrection in him. Defeating and crushing the devil in his strongholds on earth, giving us relief from sin in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Fulfilling the law himself, while providing us grace, thru which we in grace fulfill the requirements of the law, not in duty, but thru prosperity, we establish the law in us for its benefit to Gods glory and us. Which is all contained in the effect of that which is called grace, God containing himself in us, for his glory and for our salvation. The power of grace, lies squarely on the cross, it is what gave grace its life and power to perform in the hearts of man, what the law could not. It has all the authority to enforce redemption, justification and sanctification in everyone that receives it.
and the wisdom of God.
> All because God was first able to envision this outcome for us, and that he knew what his sovereign authority provided in him to do. In that, he had the insight to do it all right under our noses, and we could not even tell that he was rescuing us all along. From its beginning in mans fall into sin, to the redemption in Christ, God showed he had the answer all along. In that, he knew that what we were missing, was his glory, and that only he could bring us home to it. He not only put it all together, he did so and prophesied it all before he did it, thousands of years ahead of time. All the while the devil was trying to thwart his very plan, in his war with God. You see it wasn’t just an engagement against man alone, it was the whole time the devil saying, "over my dead body", which God was pleased to accommodate that request and oblige him in it. Never engage God it a match of power or wits, he created your existence, he can touch and see all the invisible aspects of you and everything else, it is less of you than you can ever imagine to attempt such a thing.

1:25 For
> Which is itself something to be looked into, just as an observation on our part, not necessarily an understanding of it though. So lets set the premise of this first, as easily and in as few words as possible, God big-man small, God Infinite-man finite, God Timeless-man dying, you get the picture.
the foolishness
> With that, we can set up a sort of comparison, merely at the human level though. Where we look at what we might look at as simple in the realm of God, and compare that as side by side issue of mans seeing of it. Lets take water for example, pretty simple right, and from Gods perspective, not even necessary.
of God
> So God takes this clear liquid, tasteless and odorless in its pure form, and uses it as the basis for all living things. Now for God, this is not complicated matter, which requires a mountain of research, he just speaks it to be so, and it is.
is wiser
> So here you have God using water for the basis of all life forms, from the smallest to the largest. He could have based us in some complex chemical compound, which had to first be formulated by him, an introduced into us for each new life, but he didn’t. He kept it simple for the benefit of self-procreation of all species. This is the pure beauty of Gods wisdom, over mans, because man is trying to make things more complex with every invention they come up with. Yet, not one of them rivals the human body, which is like a great big water bottle, with a multivitamin inside of it.
than human wisdom,
> Then here comes man, concentrating billions of dollars and man hours, studying how water in us works. It is just that what God sees and plans to do, is nothing like what or how God might view the very same thing. Mankind is spinning in circles in everything it does, but God always advances his cause without fail.
and the weakness
> But that was for human comparison only, this issue is a spiritual one, not water, in that, what appears minor for God to engage man in, has to be kept in context of whom God is dealing with in it. He is not deliberating with himself, he is communicating to man, and mans human perspective of what power is, is not the same with God. Therefore, the world rejects what they see as a defeat of death on the cross, as weak and frail in its ability to accomplish anything, plain water. Yet, if we look at what God did, with plain old water, they still don’t get the fact that the power is what is behind the object, not the object. The water and the cross, are the objects that both produce life, but the life is in the power behind them, not in them. Life is not in the water; water is water, nothing more. Yet, mankind presumes it is, so we spend billions searching for life there. The life is in the power of God, to make it both appear and become alive, and so it is in the cross.
of God
> There were and have been thousands of crosses in the time of man, but until God gave meaning and power to one, a cross was just a cross. Just as God gave life to water, he gave life to the cross, or in this case, the message of the cross. Therefore, it is what is of God, having to do with the object, that is the point of power, not the perception of it in man. Jesus said if mankind would not praise him, the rocks would cry out in praise to him.
is stronger
> God is able to do all things, even with what appears to man as nothing, but the most basic of things, yet at the same time, everything God does that appears simple, he achieves vast returns on. While everything that man does he attempts to do in mass with great difficulty, which is then with great labor, exchanged for some other foolish thing, or succumbs to ravages of time, all spent for nothing. Man only begins everything that he does, where God left off, but in the end, man is only moving rocks around. A king stated that he built his kingdom on top of his fathers, so he was greater than everything his father had ever done was. Leaving aside the concept, that he would not even known kingship, had his father first not been king. However, this is exactly what man does in Gods creation, taking credit where no credit is due them. For had they not first been created by God, they would not have an existence to glory in.
than human strength
> Yet for man to accomplish what they consider to be greatness, requires the assembly of great numbers, and the coordination of many. Just to do what they refer to as greatness, but is all meaningless activity in the end. Just consider what man says are they great wonders of the world, not one means a thing, yet look how they labored over it.

1:26 Think
> Consider this for yourselves, observe how God does things and try to understand them. Notice how there is something contra at work, in most of the high achievers in the world. Something that God does not like and disqualifies them for his plan of salvation. It leaves them in an impotent state, from which they are unable to receive his invitation, they have no fertile soil in order for them to come into and under the influence of his saving grace. He does not exclude them because of success, it is just a prevailing state among them, their apparent no need of God mentality. Something God can perceive in them, that either excludes them from being receptive to grace or so greatly offends God, that he flat out rejects them. But God is able to find some even among them, his sense of people is far more than we know, so he is able to find some among them whom are redeemable, according to the message of the cross.
about the circumstances
> All of you, are your own best examples here, just look around you and listen to your own testimonies of salvation. Were you mostly from the upper crust of society, socialites all, leaders and philosophers, or were you people doing life, when you heard God calling you home thru the message of the cross. In fact, isn’t the cross so despised among the social elite’s, that those of you, who were among them, are no longer welcome there?
of your call,
> You though, heard Gods voice sounding in you, which is you being notified by God, that you are part of his desires to save you, and that he wants to receive you into his kingdom, thru the cross, in the power of his grace. Mind you, the call is you being notified of his offer of grace, not you meeting a set of preset test that he has given to you too achieve. That election process has nothing to do with us effecting its outcome, we are not likely aware of God probing us. This call from God is the power of God, calling you to come home; it is not some mysterious mystic event. Remember that God uses the simple to do the impossible; it is God grabbing your attention and focusing yourself on him, with power. So that you can understand his desire for you too react to him, with an active desire for him in return. That is what causes you to respond to him, for that very acceptance, that he is offering you. Your call also is complete with your place in the church body. God not only has a home for you there, he has outfitted you with the special gifts you will need, to find fulfillment in it here on earth, and aid in the outward calling of others to him.
brothers and sisters.
> Look at your church family makeup, and then try to make sense out of it from a human perspective, and you will realize what I am saying. Not even a hint of human design in the church environment. That is because solely God for his glory created the body of Christ, so that we could thrive in the rich soil of his glory. The church is Gods visual call to the world to come home, in that God is applying to human hearts, in an open forum to be looked upon by others. We are not a secret society by design; rather we are openly taking the message to the people. The internal part of Gods calling, God takes care of, as far as revealing himself to them thru his grace, enabling them to believe.
Not many
> God did not try to go thru proper channels with the message of the cross, he bypassed existing human authority structures. He neither cared for their approval or wanted you to see them in their own state, as something God admired. He did not want us to think that the ways of the opinionated people were admirable to God. Their acceptance meant nothing to him, in that they would have withheld the best for themselves, and allowed little to flow thru them to the common people. They would have wanted a religious order with them at the top, making others subject to them merely for their benefit.
were wise
> You see their wisdom, does not give it away, their wisdom says keep the better part of it for yourselves, as part of their lifestyle of excluding others, so that they stay secure in that which whose opinion matters most. However, Gods wisdom says give it away, and I’ll give you more than you had before. Because the love of God, his grace and wisdom, increase faster than it can humanly be depleted in us. Think of us as the small end of the funnel, where God pours himself thru us, as he is the source at the large end. The thing is, is that the large end on Gods side, is infinite in diameter, where our end is set according to our receiving it and giving it away. Now our end is always the constraining point, but is also able to be trimmed larger to receive more, yet always smaller than the infinite supply in God. So the more we open our end, the more and faster the flow of God thru us, which also purifies us in flushing out the stagnate part of us, from having been closed to Gods love previously. Therefore, it is the power of God flowing thru us, which makes us strong. Not the reserves we have, or what we save for ourselves that fortify us. We do not become stronger in God by saving our resources for ourselves, or building ourselves up, but by giving it all away. This is a hard saying, but I as your apostle am living it, wouldn’t you like what I have?
by human standards,
> But you see the world in its concept of wisdom, turns the funnel upside-down, so that God is the choked off point at the top smaller end, and they are the are large end wanting, to be the main recipient of what comes to them. However, you see, God will not oblige that in them, he will not submit his love and grace to their narrow interpretation or selective and filtered reception off him. So God, just corks their end, that they want to receive him thru, and cuts them off from his grace permanently.
not many
> Then look at those among you, whose previous state was that they had control over the lives of others, thru their positions of authority. There are some, but most were just not willing to give up their power, to come under Gods power, and be equal among you. Power had so corrupted them, that there was no room for Gods authority over them.
were powerful,
> The power that is human in form, makes man the top dog, where his desire is the enforced one, it is a selfish power to the exclusion of others. Even tough it is a very insecure state of power, in that others are always challenging you for it. Yet, it is tangible to them, where grace is not. Therefore, they are not able to join with God, because of what their perspective of having powerful has caused in them to be. In that, what they thought was their source of power, has actually overtaken them in its desire of it, and now has power over them. They have been defeated by the very human power that they were attaining too, because they lost God.
not many
> Then look at the few among you who were social elite’s, the charismatic among people, those who thought they were just genetically superior to others. Not many humble among those crowds, which were willing to bow to the will of God. There are some among you, but not many will come out from them.
were members
> They had their own view of themselves, that began as its base, to look down on others, they did lift themselves higher, they simply lowered their opinion of others, to the point of exclusion. Their method was to makes themselves look good, by making the other people look bad. This is the big ego club; anyone could join it, and is available at all economic levels and social stratosphere. This can be any group who thinks it noble, to discriminate against others. Based solely upon their own opinion of things, as it relates to them. It begins with them as the focal point, to which they become so enamored to it, they even exclude God as inferior to them.
of the upper class.
> Every society has it upper crust, every high school has its upper classmen, and it is in society at every level. Children and adults do it to, by making yourselves exclusive, thru the exclusion of others is what does it. Not because you’re better, you are just making others look bad, in both yours and others perception of them. You do not raise the bar for yourselves; you lower the boom unto them, and stand on the backs of others.

1:27 But
> It is not that God did not want to have all of mankind come into his salvation, he does, but it was their precipitous or high minded prevailing attitudes, that made it implausible for all of mankind to be saved. God having tried to reason with man over this for centuries, then, changed course as he knew he would have to and work from the bottom up, at least from the human definition of it, in his salvation plan. God set aside any humanly organized methods, and went straight for the heart of each person individually. God was fed up with the unprofitable talk among the so called top thinkers, and decided to not only rescue sinners, but put them deep thinkers, in their place at the same time.
God chose
> God then decided to set the standard himself, of what was worthy and noble before him, making it opposite of mans thinking, as to what was acceptable in gathering his grace to it. God split the field among all mankind and himself, and he then placed himself at the lowest form of humanity and said, come find my salvation here. Instead of appearing in rising glory on his throne, he rose up from the mud of society, and said come get messy down here with me, if you want salvation. You, who are so clean in your ways, you will have to get dirty to find me and live among least desirable among you. I will not meet you at the top of your game; I am at the bottom of what you would refer to, as the refuse of the world. No matter how long the church exist, or how many great things you do, those in it will be referred to as the most ignorant of mankind, by those reject of God.
what the world
> So in among the wise of the world, what God did was say to them, I am not in among temple rituals and schools of thought, I am in the garbage dumps of what you look down on of men in. Come to me here, and I will save you from your sins, God resisted them in their proud state in life, and gave no grace to them, which would not lower themselves as he did.
thinks foolish
> For their interpretation of it, what God is saying to them in the essence of coming to the cross in its meaning, they just don’t get why, what Christ did on the cross, would make any difference, because it is not profound in human thinking. It runs counterculture to what they have built society on, and that is that they think, you must lift people up to the level of Christ, or better yourself first. However, what God is saying is that you must come down to Christ level, just as he did, in order to meet him. The only place that you can come to Christ is at the cross of defeat, so that he can resurrect you into victory, just as he did himself. We must all suffer the shame of the cross having defeat over us, in being subject to its condemnation of sin in us, after the pattern of Christ, in order for God to work his grace in us, as he created grace thru Christ. Now the cross does not condemn us, it redeems us, but we must show up at the cross in sin, to be exposed to its condemnation of us. Alternatively, there would be no purpose to the cross, if we were not condemned in the reason, need and meaning of the cross. Therefore, in exposing our need because of sin to the cross, God can cover our sin with Christ sacrifice.
to shame
> In those who have come to the cross though, it is nothing shy of brilliance. Because they see and understand the meaning behind the cross, and that God intentionally, put it where anyone could come to it. Yet, where the high and mighty would not want to dirty themselves to be apart of it or interfere with it. Because of that, when we are down in the dumps, God is right there already for us. Do you get it? Nevertheless, the world only sees a cross and nothing more. Therefore, they turn their nose up at the stench of what God is saying, just as we do the smell of a garbage dump. However, God is turning his nose up at them and saying, you are that which is rotten to me. You are what are rotten to the core, not the cross of Christ or my people who find me there.
the wise,
> So for them to come to the cross, it is an embarrassment before their colleagues for them to approach the cross, and embrace it. To them, you might as well hug a rock or fall in love with a tree, in that, they see no difference, because they cannot see pass the object, too the message. However, the wise are being left out of Gods plan, because they are not willing to meet God where he is, not up, but down. God will not give kudos to them and qualify their ways, and that leaves them in the dumps, without God, but not us, where they perceive us to be.
and God chose
> Then for those in power, God did the same thing, he did not seek out the authorities and make a pact with them to carry out his plan. Instead of wielding armies behind him, he yielded himself to being defeated and then calls the defeated to join him in his defeated kingdom, at least as the world sees it anyway.
what the world
> What God did, was instead of choosing athletes to run his race, or the most daunting personalities to be at his side. He chose those who in worldly thinking, were crippled and untrained in the arts of self-defense. So how could they then take the reins of authority in the world and not be moved. It was simply illogical as a method of maintaining control over the population, as they see it.
thinks weak
> To them, Christians are a frail people who did not take control by force, in the power of the flesh, but those who spoke only a message about a cross. Which unknown to the world, was empowered by the Spirit of God, to reach the spirits of others. For among the worldly, the rule is, "actions-follows-perception", so you must maintain the illusion of perceived power, to maintain the control of the people. Nevertheless, here these Christians are, freely and joyfully, submitting themselves to the shame of the cross, and calling them slaves of Christ. Without even the perception of power to it, but they do it because of Christ defeat at the cross, which to the world is powerless, at least, that is how the world sees it. So in all other cases of the death of men on the cross, the "actions-follows-perception" concept applies, but it those cases, the action and perception are death and defeat, not power, but not for Christ. For Christ, the action of death and defeat, resulted in life and redemption, completely opposite of mans strategy rule of "actions-follows-perception". The action of death and defeat should result in the perception of weakness, but Christians are gaining their strength from it and boast of it as the power in them. Simply baffling to them, why anyone should follow Christ and the cross.
to shame
> All this defeatism, resulting in victory without using their own strategies, leaves them embarrassed, because there was no battle field to resolve the issue on. None of what they learned in the human experience, applied to what God was doing here, and they saw nothing that could be called, a gathering storm. To which they could then, either gird themselves against it, or make allegiance to it. It simply did not meet the measure of what humanity saw as strong, durable and mostly defensible, as having the power to draw to itself with a gravity all its own. Yet they are weak to do anything against it, despite their efforts to resist it, it only grows stronger, yet with no power source, as they could see.
the strong.
> So, the powerful became irrelevant among man, as a way for Christianity to exist in the world without their consent. They were those who like to bully people into there way of thinking, who shout people down as their method of rule over others, being afraid of others words of descent. Now though, they have no say in the matters of the heart where Christ is Lord, they are as mutes before God and his people, having no effect on their souls. God has made the weakest strong, by removing their slavery to sin, but the world does not see the strength of it, only its weakness, despite their own bondage to sin.

1:28 God chose
> God reversed the standard of living perception on humanity, so that the first would be last, and the last first. The poorest among you will be the richest in God, and the richest on earth the poorest, having nothing from or before God. Those who are looked up too, will be looked down on and vice versa. We need to understand how this works for ourselves as well as how God is using it against the world.
what is low
> God is making the standard of his people, opposite of the worlds standards, so that we can easily come out from the world. He is ending the race of prosperity among men, as the only way not to be left behind. So that only the loser wins, and those winners in life according to the world, lose their souls. God ended the ascension to greatness and the allure of some higher consciousness, as the point of arrival with him, doing so in no uncertain terms. Instead of it as gain, it is that, in which you become lost to your own way of thinking, where it is nothing but speculations that drive you further from God. In that, God has established his out post on earth, not with those whose heads are in the clouds, but in those whose feet are on the ground, where reality is not air brushed away to hide the flaws. However, it is where the flaws are that God receives and calls you thru to him. It is exposure, in the elements that you find God working, not in the protection and shelters of the worlds devices or approval ratings.
and despised
> The perfect 10’s of mans thinking are rejected, and only the zeros are the acceptable to God. Only those who come to God with nothing lovely in them to offer him, receive anything in return from him, the overweight are Gods pride and joy. The beggars are given the choice cut of meat, at the most prominent spots in his banquets. While those who arrive with pomp and a gift in hand, are left out in the cold of night and refused admission to him.
in the world,
> The acceptable to God, have no heritage of royalty among men, rather they are the slaves of mans abuses by those who have rule. God gathered up the gutter people who the world looked down on, as those to whom his word of salvation would come to, and to whom the elite’s would have to consort with to come to God in. Because they are the ones who will prosper in God, that which is the ways of the world, will be the neglected by God, abandoned by him as nothing.
what is
> So, God gave his state and invested himself to what the world deemed as the powerless and disposable people in life; those who knew little and were a drain on society as a whole. They became the very promise of God, as the ones he has made his choice to be in him, and represent him here on earth. God is aligning himself with the outcast of society, and rebuking those who think themselves to be noble, and not just noble before man, but before God.
regarded as
> Where man had set the standard of acceptance higher and higher, where only those of privilege and rank, could gain access thru the exclusive intuitions that they set up. God set his standard down at the level of barely alive, ignorant and untrained, virtually invisible in society, having no self-worth or importance among men. It is not that those elitist among them cannot join those in lowly places, but the you must join them there at lowly cross in humility, not in a majestic temple of presenting yourself as worthy on high.
nothing,
> God went to the have-nots of the world, to offer them everything. While at the same time, making that act of coming to him as nothing alluring, even unattractive, in the eyes of the ones coming to him, as to it having any appeal to the world. God dumbed-it-down, in mans way of thinking, so that its glory would not be revealed until you were bowing at the cross with Christ. Then as Mary in the garden, you look up to see, and behold the true glory of the living Jesus before you. Was no lowly gardener that you came seeking answers from, but Christ our Lord, the living God of us all, standing before you, having been there for you, all along. The invisible God made only visible at the foot of the cross to them who come to seek him there. God did not come to them throwing money out the window, so that the wealthy and greedy would envy the wretched in this, with them being showered with what they had and aspired to. God offered nothing of nobility for the eyes of the world to see and desire, in his taking up with the have-nots. Only a lowly state before men, which remain as such in this life, but in that state, exist an eternal life in heaven, and an internal fellowship with God here on earth.
to set aside
> God intentionally then, revalued the importance of things, he made the precious commodities among men, as worthlessness to him. God reversed the order of things that man was striving for in its relative value to God, it was no longer the high score that won, it was the low score. Even though those who gained the high score, out performed those with the low score in life gains and worldly pursuits. Those who are winners according to the worlds standards, would lose with God though, along with everything they gained. All they had won and more would be given then to those Christians they had been labeled as losers. God replaced nobility in life, with humility, as that which should be sought for. Not for showmanship and to receive praise from men in it, but that you would be drawn away from those false praises and worldly pursuits. Because men see its perceived lack of value as a something not to go after and negate it, this leaves you separate from them in life goals. So that not only could you not gain a good name in the world because of it; you would be further driven from the viewpoint and relevance of man in pursuing it. God made void that which man is doing, by simply refusing it as having any merit before him. If you are relevant to man, you are irrelevant to God, if man cannot live without you, God can.
what is
> So the backbone of mans society and thinking, that though it might be functioning as planned in human terms, has been severed from God, and is in a permanent state of paralyses with God. What is the hope of all society, which is the ascension of man before man and God, carries no weight with God to move him in favor of man.
regarded as
> Because man sets his standards of measurement against that other men, they become the focus of them own selves. What they see as the goal of merely outperforming one another, God ignores as wasted time and attention. God will not even acknowledge what they do as having any merit before him.
something,
> The aspirations of man have become, null and void before God, having no redeemable qualities to them. God is not only canceling them out; he is showing disdain for the pursuit of them. In every standard of man, God is revoking its place of prominence, with a state of meaninglessness before him.

1:29 so that
> In doing this, God reversed the common logic of man in relationship to him, for the very purpose of denying bragging rights to those who think they are better than others. God established a base line of measurement, "that resisted the proud, but gave grace to the humble". Not only did God resist them; they resisted God, beginning their eternal separation from God.
no one
> Because this went counter to even the humblest of men, because even those without anything human wealth or wisdom, did not strive for less, as the base of what they were in relation to God; all humans strove for something more, not less. Therefore, God came in even below all of humanity, in his provision of salvation.
can boast
> Because of that, God eliminated finding satisfaction and contentment in oneself, due to ones own efforts, from having attained a rightful place with God, in and of themselves. That door was closed on that possibility, due to the method that God chose to bring salvation to man thru the cross.
in his presence.
> Therefore, whether God is in fellowship with his believers or in judgement of the non-believers, both will have no merit in them, to have a defense of their position intrinsic to them. The saints will not be able to claim they saved themselves in any part of salvation or sanctification. In addition, the condemned will have no merit of self-righteousness, to save them from their own condemnation, without them having ever come to the cross.

1:30 He is
> God is at the center of all this, it is his orchestrating all the events of time, to coincide within his glory, to extract man from sins destiny in them. God did this outside of mans influence of it, only informing man what he what do, then verifying it after the fact of it being done, according to his willing it to be.
the reason
> Had God not done that, in coming at man from the opposite direction that man was heading, man would have missed God completely. So God went ahead of man in time and arranged things in reverse order, so that when man came into time, Gods cause and effect, was already in play. You see the future has already occurred, and eternity is already in existence. This is not some new thing, God is and always has been timeless, and future events to God are no different than past or present events. The scripture also clearly states that God has gone before us in order to secure our future for us, so God has already been there for us, on our behalf. Before we were ever born, God said he already knew everything about us.
you have
> Because God took the initiative to do this, without seeking mans input to the method. Man is not dependant on mans ability to secure this for us, God secured man from his wrath, so those in Christ are in no danger, because the only danger was Gods wrath, which he told us is no more, by his own hand.
a relationship
> From that we are now engaging in a relationship, that is coming to us from God, not from us to him. That means we are dependant on his means to continue in it and not ours. But more than that, this is a family tie, not just some mere acquaintance of passing ships in the night. God has birthed us unto himself in a spiritual rebirth that will last eternally. We are born now into his dominion, and he is going to protect us eternally in himself. That does not relief us of our responsibility to seek holiness in that relationship also, the joy and adventure is in the pursuit of God, and fulfillment in discovering God more intimately ourselves.
with Christ Jesus,
> God then designated all of this, to be in and thru his son Christ Jesus, so that he would become our sole advocate and the embodiment of God before us. In Christ we have a place to go and see God fully active in life, no fairytales or fancy chants, no laws to come thru to find God, laws are there to reveal sin; Jesus in his grace is here to reveal God. There are no missed opportunities in Christ that can cause penance to be due you, before you can return to him fully engaged with him. The failures are opportunities for Gods glory to be revealed in you, not to take or extract from you a tax for your sins. Your failures are Gods times of repair and teaching, in both discipline and doctrine for you, always with love and healing you as his core desire for you, never revenge.
who became
> God not only made Jesus the focal point of man to see, but he made Jesus the focal point of God also, so that Jesus became truly the center of that which is or ever was created. It all existed in the figure and person of Jesus, whether it was of human or divine origin, it all existed in the embodiment of Jesus, and we know him as our friend. God altered his own state, in order to communicate and secure life for us, so that he could alter our state, to be eternally with him in a love relationship.
for us
> Nothing was on the line for God, so far as his eternal state was concerned, he was in no way threatened by or was in need of creation itself, he did all this because it pleased him to do it. We are here for Gods good pleasure to also be in us, as it is in him to be shared in communion with us. Although the judgment of man pains him, both in the Spirit and in the flesh from what it cost of his son, we are worth it to him, just because it pleases him to be in us.
wisdom from God,
> So the entire construction of what God did, we saw played out in the life of Jesus, written and recorded for us to have full knowledge of who God is and what he is like. Jesus was God embodying Gods master plan for us; Jesus brought with him not only the wisdom of God in speech and teaching, but also his life, death and resurrection, were actual examples to us of who God is. Moreover, how counter he runs to our culture, no matter the generation that was before or came after him.
and righteousness
> We saw in Jesus how Holy God is, and the pureness of thought that resides in a sinless God. The only way that we are able to perceive that God is holy though is thru the revelation of our own decay and sin. As it was with the law, without it, we would not have known sin, and without first knowing that, in having it revealed to our thoughts and actions. We would not have understood that God is holy and righteous in all things, not just some, because the law revealed the great divide between man and God. God is complete righteousness in every aspect of who and what he is as God. Man though is on the opposite edge of that precipice of sin that is set to condemn us, sending us over that edge into the outer darkness of destruction. Except for Jesus on the cross, we would have met its fate, but Jesus became our righteousness before God, with God in full agreement for him to do so, so we are become righteous, who have faith in God to make it so in us, by his power, not ours.
and sanctification
> Jesus has than sanctified us in the Spirit and is training us in living it out in this body also, subduing the bodies desires, to the will of that sanctified Spirit in us. When God gave you a new birth in him that was a spiritual body birth, that spiritual body was holy and as pure as Christ resurrected body, eternally safe from sin at birth, never separable from God ever. That was your first encounter with holiness in you, but there is also an ongoing process in our physical body. Where it is being made subject to that Spirit, which than is perceivable to you and others as the witness of Christ alive in you. Physical deliverance is only thru giving rise to spiritual control, over physical habits. The body itself is eternally corrupt and eventually will be replaced by a new body. Whether in the resurrection or the rapture, it will be supernaturally changed from its current corrupt state, into that sanctified state, which is presently alive in Christ’s fellowship with you.
and redemption,
> This is where all of the final pieces just mentioned, of Gods relationship with us is-Revealed in us, in his plan set in his wisdom, having come to completion- The glory of his righteousness, made known in us by taking us from the law too grace, in order to establish the law in us, in the power of graces prosperity, which is- The cause of Christ having the effect of sanctification in us, in our daily living- Which then meets our final state in redemption before the Great White Throne Judgement. Where time ends and eternity is forever before us, united with God in redemption. Now the cause of redemption occurred with Christ on the cross, but the effect of redemption occurs at the judgement seat of Christ. All of which were acts of God, thru Christ for us, not by us.

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