Man is by nature (by an act of God) a social creature. In other words, what
it means to be a person can only be defined in the light of another person.
When Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment. He responded with
". . . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind . . . And the second is like [similar]
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt. 22:37,39). He
was revealing the mystery of life in the essence of being a social creature,
the mystery that the individual=s
life is always manifested in others.
As has often been stated, real joy is Jesus, others, and you.
However, it is less a segregated love flowing from one to the other than it
is the jointly experiencing of love together. The only way man can have a
love for himself, which will not produce the same fall that occurred in
Lucifer, Adam, Judas, and in every man who began to turn the emphasis upon
himself, is to understand that love must occur in the mystery of oneness in
threeness, the mystery of "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . and .
. . thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
It is not love God, love yourself, and then love others. "Love
thy God . . . and . . . love thy neighbour as thyself" is to be
understood, in the light of the revelation of how one is made complete.
Without others, man is incomplete. With others, man is complete. He is made
complete only in threeness: God, an individual, and another.
Man created as a social creature is to understand that the creation of first
man Adam (Gen. 2:7) was incomplete without the creation of Eve (Gen.
2:18-25). It is to understand "even the mystery which hath been hid
from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To
whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you [not singular, but
plural], the hope of glory" (Col. 1:26,27). It is to understand that
the ultimate definition of what it means to be a complete person can only be
defined, mysteriously, in the light of another person.
In other words, a complete person, in the Judeo-Christian perspective,
cannot be defined as a singular individual. Just as God cannot be defined
without the Oneness of His Threeness (the unity of God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit), complete man cannot be defined without the
oneness of his threeness (the unity of God, the individual, and another).
Mysteriously, especially to the mind-set of the Western world, a complete
person is a distinct individual who has the essence of his being in God and
in, at least, one other person.
A person is always defined in the light of others. Judas was not a godly
person because he attempted to use Jesus for his own enhancement. On the
other hand, Jesus was godly because others were always enhanced at His
expense. In both situations, it was the interaction that occurred between an
individual and others that determined the life that the individual
experienced. Life is always measured not in singular acts, be they deemed
good or evil, but in the action that transpires between at least two people.
In all of life there are only two basic relationships that exist between
people. One, in the light of the Acts of the Apostles, can be call the Judas
principle. Relationships are formed between an individual and others in
order that others can be used to enhance the individual. The use of others
to enhance one=s self takes place
out of either a pleasure or a utility motive. In other words, all natural
relationships exist because pleasure is being received or a need is being
met. Others are used for the enhancement of the user, as the life of Judas
illustrated.
The other basic relationship that can be experienced by man is the
supernatural relationship of love. This relationship is illustrated by the
life of Jesus. He lived His entire life and died for the sake of others. The
Jesus principle is simply the enhancement of others at one=s
own expense. It is the lifestyle of supernatural love.
It was this supernatural relationship of love that was experienced by those
to whom Jesus had come after His death, resurrection, and ascension. It can
also be seen in the lives of the multitude who believed shortly after the
events of Pentecost and in the life of one name Joses in particular. The
records reveal that the early believers and Joses, surnamed Barnabas by the
apostles, lived their lives to enhance others at their own expense.
With the miracle of the impotent man walking and the consequential message
of Peter that followed, it can be seen that the Father did send Jesus Christ
into their lives to be their life (Acts of the Apostles 3:26). What was
occurring among the believers was not natural. The multitude came together
with such unity of heart and of soul that "neither [of the multitude
that believed] said . . . that ought of the things which [they] possessed
was his own; but they had all things common" (Acts of the Apostle
4:32). The experiencing of the death, resurrection, ascension, and return of
Jesus in the baptism of the Holy Spirit produced such power in their lives
that the supernatural relationship of love was being experienced.
Great grace was producing great things. Experiencing Jesus in the Spirit
produced experiencing Jesus in the connections between the believers.
"Love God . . . and . . . thy neighbour as thyself" was occurring.
Oneness with God had produced oneness with the believers: "Neither was
there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or
houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And
laid them at the apostles= feet:
and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need"
(Acts of the Apostles 4:34,35).
This supernatural relationship of love was seen in the life of Joses when
"having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the
apostles= feet" (Acts of the
Apostles 4:37). The Father had sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the life of
Joses. The Jesus life, in turn, produced that which only Jesus has ever
accomplished, living life in the essence of others. Through the return of
Jesus to Joses, the supernatural relationship of love was experienced.
Great grace was effecting the entire multitude of believers. Those early
apostles was experiencing the manifestation of Jesus in their lives and in
the connections among the believers. Truth was being encountered. The return
of Jesus into their lives was producing astounding results. Lives were being
drastically changed.
Since truth was so prevalent, error also was immediately exposed. Joses had
sold his land and brought the money and gave it to the apostles to be used
as needed. There were others, however, who fell to the temptation to use
what God was doing for their own enhancement. A couple, Ananias and his
wife, Sapphira, also sold some of their possessions. They held back part of
the money they received and gave only a portion of the price to the apostles
(Acts of the Apostles 5:1,2).
The same Holy Spirit that inspired Peter to preach beyond his natural
ability now reveals to him what Ananias and Sapphira had done. He said to
them, "why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost . . .
?" It was the conniving of their mind that spelled their doom.
They could have done what they wanted to do with their possession and the
money that it brought to them. It was not the amount of money or for that
matter the giving or the non-giving of money that was the problem (Acts of
the Apostles 5:3,4). They were misrepresenting what they were doing in the
connections between the believers.
In the scheming of their mind, they attempted to make their relationship
with the believers to appear as something it was not. Their deception, the
falsehood of their relationship, was not against the people to whom they
lied. It was against the Holy Spirit who is the true maker of relationships.
They were destroying the supernatural relationship of love.
Upon hearing the words of Peter, Ananias fell dead. About three hours later,
after the body of Ananias was carried out and buried, Sapphira came to
Peter. When she responded in such away that Peter knew she had contrived
with her husband to deceive, he said, "How is it that ye have agreed
together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord" (Acts of the Apostles 5:9).
She, too, fell dead. The same young men that carried her husband out now
carried her to his burial grave. Together they lied and together they died.
There is a reason why things happen in the physical world. They are the
results of a non-physical truth at work. In the example of Ananias and
Sapphira, there is nothing but death that can occur in individuals when the
connection between individuals is violated. The greater the relationship the
more apparent and drastic is its violation. Since the believers were
experiencing the highest form of supernatural love by the intimacy of the
returned Christ, dead was swift and notable upon its violation. It, too, was
the manifestation of the risen Christ being prevalent in the primitive
church.
The power of Jesus was evident in many ways during those days, months, even
years following His return into the lives of His disciples. The risen Jesus
was not only seen in the death of Ananias and Sapphira but He "by the
hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the
people" (Acts of the Apostles 5:12). The apostles had prayed, ". .
. now, Lord . . . grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may
speak thy word, By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and
wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus" (Acts of the
Apostles 4:29,30). They were now witnessing the power of Jesus alive in
their lives.
The effect of the return of Jesus was accomplishing exactly what Jesus said
would occur before He departed. He told them, "Verily, verily, I say
unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father"
(John 14:12). The return of Jesus by the baptism of the Holy Spirit into the
lives of the apostles was allowing Jesus to be manifested in many different
lives in many different places at the same time. Greater works were being
seen in the quantity of Jesus now being manifested in the world.
Great grace was producing great things. The power of Jesus was so real that
believers were bringing the sick and laying them in the streets that the
mere shadow of Peter might pass over them (Acts of the Apostles 5:15,16).
Multitude were coming from all around Jerusalem bringing the sick and the
possessed. The manifestation of Jesus who had returned in the baptism of the
Holy Spirit was bringing both spiritual and physical salvation to the
people. The power of Jesus had intensified by His resurrection and His
ascension. He was alive and He had returned.
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