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Church Principles New Testament Church Principles of the New Testament As Practiced by Early Brethren Vol. II B.P. Harris Church Principles of the New Testament As Practiced by Early Brethren Vol. II CHURCH UNITY, CHURCH DISCIPLINE B.P. Harris Assembly Bookshelf Sacramento All Scriptures are taken from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated. ―Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.‖ Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Some Scriptural texts are sourced from: BibleWorks™ Copyright © 1992-2008 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. BibleWorks was programmed by Michael S. Bushell, Michael D. Tan, and Glenn L. Weaver. All rights reserved. Bible timelines Copyright © 1996-1999 BibleWorks, LLC. All rights reserved. Map datasets Copyright © 2005 BibleWorks, LLC: source of underlying data for some of the images was the Global Land Cover Facility, http://www.landcover.org. Detailed Jerusalem image Copyright © 2005 TerraServer.com. All rights reserved. The following versions and works are referenced from BibleWorks: The English Translation of The Septuagint Version of the Old Testament by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, 1844, 1851, published by Samuel Bagster and Sons, London, original ASCII edition Copyright © 1988 by FABS International (c/o Bob Lewis, DeFuniak Springs FL 32433). All rights reserved. Used by permission. Apocryphal portion not available. Copyright © 1998-1999, by Larry Nelson (Box 2083, Rialto, CA, 92376). Used by permission The English Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible 1862/1887/1898, by J. N. Young. ASCII version Copyright © 1988-1997 by the Online Bible Foundation and Woodside Fellowship of Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research. Used by permission. The Tyndale New Testament (1534) - Scholars have regarded the 1534 edition as Tyndale‘s definitive version of the New Testament. Though in 1535 he did issue another edition, the 1534 edition remains his crowning work. The text was entered by Mark Langley. Scripture quotations marked HCSB are been taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers‖ Complete Jewish Bible. Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. www/messianicjewish.net/jntp. Distributed by Messianic Jewish Resources International. All rights reserved. Used by permission. ―Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation. Copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Unless otherwise noted, all Greek Scriptures from the New Testament are taken from— BYZ - Robinson-Pierpont Majority Text GNT 1995. Produced by Maurice A. Robinson and William G. Pierpont. Public Domain. Accented. The Robinson-Pierpont is a modern (1995) attempt at producing a reliable Majority Text version of the Greek New Testament. These books are free as the Lord provides. Please limit one per household. They are available from: (Please note – At this time, this book is only available in digital format) Assembly Bookshelf P.O. Box 15086 Sacramento, CA 95851 USA This book may be freely copied, duplicated or printed in any form, digital, paper, or any other format, in part or in whole—but if desired in part, only if reference is made to the whole. Copyright 2019 by the Author Table of Contents BOOK ONE CHURCH UNITY Prerequisites for Keeping the Unity of the Spirit 7 The Bond of Peace 11 The Problem of Manifesting the Unity of the Spirit Down through the Centuries 20 Separation from Evil in Scripture 28 J. N. Darby‘s Misapplication of Separation from Evil 35 Why Separation from Evil Was Not the Basis for the Unity of the Spirit in the Church 68 God‘s True Principle of Unity within the Godhead 77 God‘s True Principle of Unity for the Church Revealed in John 17 87 Some Grammatical Considerations 87 The First Part—John 17: 1-10 92 The Second Part—John 17: 11-26 102 The Name of the Father—vs. 11-20 102 The Sanctification of the Son—vs. 17-21 116 The Glory of His Life—vs. 22-26 137 The Unity of the Spirit Expressed in Fellowship 157 Liberty of Judgment in Fellowship 161 Limits of Expression in Fellowship 190 Extent of Fellowship 215 Concluding Remarks on the Unity of the Spirit 220 5 BOOK TWO CHURCH DISCIPLINE The Importance of Discipline 237 Societal Sins—I Corinthians 5:1-13 243 Doctrinal Sins—II John 1:7-11 264 Personal Sins—Matthew 18:15-22 307 Determining the Sins in Question 310 Grammatical Aspects of the Passage 316 Concluding Remarks 376 Heretical Sins—Titus 3:10-11 381 Party Sins—Romans 16:17 404 Self-serving Sins—I Timothy 6:1-5 416 Apostasy—II Tim. 3:1-8 429 Prideful Sins—II Thess. 3:6-12 447 Disorderly Sins—II Thess. 3:14 453 6 BOOK ONE CHURCH UNITY PREREQUISTITES FOR KEEPING THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT Ephesians 4:1-3 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. KJV Paul reveals in his epistle to the Ephesians that every Christian should endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. However, he also reveals those prerequisites which must accompany this endeavour. These are a walk characterized by lowliness, meekness, patience, and, most importantly, a walk characterized by forbearing love. These four characteristics cannot be minimized in the walk of the believer if he or she wishes to keep the unity of the Spirit. However, many times these four characteristics are completely ignored by those who are the most zealous for this unity. Unfortunately, rather than being lowly, such Christians many times become puffed up in their pursuit of oneness. They become spiritually proud; they purport to be the only Christians who are really maintaining the unity of the Spirit. As such, rather than being meek or gentle, as Paul exhorts, they are harsh and critical of other believers. Rather than being longsuffering with their brethren, they are impatient with other Christians, demanding submission to their views and interpretations. And, rather than being forbearing in love, their love becomes the opposite. Their love may endure for every Christian who might agree with them, but their love becomes short-lived for everyone who will not. As such, their love is not really an expression of the love of Christ, which is both longsuffering and forbearing (for Christ died for hostile sinners in utter rebellion from Him—Rom. 5:6-10) but rather their love is an expression of a love, straitened by misplaced and self-righteous zeal. Without these four attributes mentioned by Paul, especially the last attribute of forbearance, it is all but impossible for one to truly maintain the unity of the Spirit, for if one‘s walk is deficient of these characteristics, the opposite characteristics are shown in the heart of the saint—spiritual pride, a critical spirit, impatience, and a merciless and 7 self-righteous intolerance toward those who might not agree. We must all guard our hearts from these opposing characteristics, for if those characteristics fill the heart of the believer, the true unity of the Spirit is all but fleeting and all but impossible to be expressed. Why is this so? The answer is because the unity of the Spirit is none other than an expression of the very life of Christ and if those four attributes mentioned by Paul are not being expressed, that means Christ is not being expressed, living His life in us, and if Christ is not living His life in us, it means we are living by our own soulical religious life, which may indeed, be moral, but certainly is not spiritual. As such, since Christ‘s love was filled with lowliness, meekness, and much longsuffering, the Holy Spirit‘s love will be filled with lowliness, meekness, and much longsuffering, which means, if a Christian claims to walk by the Sprit, their love should also be filled with lowliness, meekness, and much longsuffering. And not only that, since Christ‘s love was filled with much forbearance, the Spirit‘s love is always full of much forbearance, which means, if we as Christians claim to walk by the Spirit, our love should be filled with much forbearance. Forbearance is so important to a walk that endeavors to keep the unity of the Spirit. It is most unfortunate that some Christians will only emphasize the latter (the unity of the Spirit) while completely ignoring the former (forbearance). But Paul‘s exhortation begins with the former, not the latter. Perhaps, it might help us if we better understand this Greek verb translated forbearing. W. E. Vine defines it as follows (first under its verbal form, then also the nominal form of the word). ―A. Verbs 1. ANECHO (ἀλέρσ), to hold up (ana, up, echō, to have or hold), is used in the Middle Voice in the N.T., signifying to bear with, endure; it is rendered ‗forbearing (one another)‘ in Eph. 4:2 and Col. 3:13…Cp. B, No. 1, below.‖ ―B. Nouns ANOCHE (ἀλνρή) a holding back (akin to A, No. 1), denotes forbearance, a delay of punishment, Romans 2:4 ; 3:25 , in both places of God's forbearance with men…in Romans 3:25 it is connected with the passing over of sins in times past, previous to the atoning work of Christ…Longsuffering is that quality of self-restraint in the face of provocation which does not hastily retaliate or promptly punish; it is the opposite of anger and is associated with mercy, and is used of God, Exodus 34:6 , Sept., Romans 2:4 ; I Peter 3:20 .
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