Divine Love Was Everywhere In The New Testament
There was a time when all I wanted to do was to read and understand the Old testament. Though I have been through Bible College and understood the New Testament according to what I had been taught the Old Testament seemed to be beckoning me. So for many years this is mostly what I would listen to and read. I thought that understanding what God wrote in the past was probably key to understanding what He wrote in the first century and so I indulged my curiosity.
It is only in the last few years that I have begun to be drawn to the New
Testament once again. I find now days when I read it I understand it in greater clarity than I ever did in Bible College. Perhaps it is just maturity in
the word or perhaps it is just God’s timing that these latter books of the Bible are revealing themselves. In either case , it is wonderful to see God’s
truth unfold before me in deeper and more meaningful ways.
Divine Love was everyone
Just recently it became clear to me that the move of Divine Love was even more present in the first century church than I had previously thought. As I
have been reading about it my theological mind has reeled at the implications
of what I have been seeing in scripture. I have even hesitated to share
this with people because this truth is definitely a double edged
sword. Those who wish to rejoice in this truth will find great comfort
but those who wish to stand against the Tabernacle experience will feel that
they have been given fresh ammunition with which to fight it. Be that as
it may, each of those who come to understand what I am saying must live with their own choices.
Here is a truth,
“Among other things, the Apostles were presiding over a move of the Tabernacle experience within some of their churches characterized by divine love. A great deal of what they spoke about concerning love and immorality is directed at the excesses perpetrated by those who used God’s
liberty as an occasion for the flesh”
A significant portion of the New Testament scriptures in several books are
devoted specifically to dealing with what was happening in churches which were experiencing the manifestation of Divine Love. Paul dealt with it in 1
& 2 Corinthians and in 1 Thessalonians. Peter dealt with in 2 Peter.
I am sure there are other references but I have not had time to fully find them all yet. What scholars and lay people alike had in the past assumed were just references to immoral behavior (simply because they were in the Roman empire) may actually be reference to excesses that were taking place because of the current move to the Spirit in some churches.
A new birth can be traumatic
Excesses were committed by members of these churches and the apostles were trying to deal with them through teaching and sometimes through shunning those who would not walk straight. Though the churches had no need to be taught about brotherly love some unstable souls and even false teachers were using what was clearly of God for an occasion of the flesh.
The move of the God’s Spirit that started, as I have postulated previously,
with the power of God manifesting at the gate beautiful continued to percolate throughout the New Testament congregations to different degrees and in different ways. Obviously, the church of Corinth was the major hot spot of this experience and thus it exhibited the lion’s share of excesses.
However, other churches were coming into this realm and they were also starting to experience some of the same difficulties associated with the Tabernacle experience.
The Dragon wants to stop us
I believe now that persecution from the Roman Empire arose specifically to
bring this move to a stop before it came to fruition. Above all things Satan
loathes and fears the unity of the body of Christ and so when he could no
longer contain this experience through persecution from the Jews he endeavored to crush it through spear of the
state.
Those who seek to quench the Spirit (if they even grasp what I am saying) will now find ample scripture to rally (however wrongly) to their side. As
they realize that the apostles themselves were speaking to the excesses of the move of Divine Love within their congregations they will no doubt be over joyed. However, this just raises the bar on both sides of the isle.
Now that we see what was truly going on in the first century church we will
still have to decide weather to side with or decry that which God is bringing
once again to His people.
We are all responsible for our own behaviors
In the end we must all walk before God as individuals and decide if the voice with which He speaks to each of us is more important than our earthly reason and well being. This is going to be really interesting and I am keen to see how it all works out.
