Charity Covers a Multitude of Sins, Part 2

[Study Aired June 16, 2026]

In Part 1 of this study, we examined 1 Peter 4:8 in its context and established the foundational categories: to be carnally minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6), and the carnal mind cannot be subject to God’s law — it must be destroyed, not reformed (Romans 8:7). We found that Peter’s word for “fervent” (ἐκτενής, ektenes G1618) describes love stretched to full capacity — love that does the hard work, modeled on Christ’s own agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). We traced the meaning of “cover” through the Hebrew (kasah, H3680) and Greek (καλύπτω, kalupto, G2572), and found through the companion proverb (Proverbs 17:9) that covering is not concealment that ignores sin but the hiding of what has been dealt with — transgression carried away, righteousness put on (Psalm 32:1, Romans 4:7). We then followed the thread of clothing through Scripture, from the fig leaves that failed to the fine linen granted to the bride, and saw that the covering is always God’s work, always requires death, and always results in the garment of righteousness — which is Christ Himself (Galatians 3:27, Colossians 3:14).

Now we turn to the question that sits at the heart of the tension: What is the process by which sin is addressed so that charity can cover it? If love does not ignore sin, how does it deal with it? And how do the scriptures that demand correction, discernment, and even rejection fit within a love that covers all?

Christ’s Blueprint: The Corrective Process

Before examining what the apostles teach about correction, we must begin where all correction begins — with Christ’s own instruction. In Matthew 18:15-17, Jesus lays out the process that governs how the Body handles sin:

“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

Every stage of this process is designed to restore. The goal at each step is stated plainly: “thou hast gained thy brother.” Not punished. Not shamed. Gained. The entire structure is love in action — fervent, stretched-out love doing whatever it must to bring a brother back.

The first stage is private. Go to him alone. Tell him his fault between the two of you. This is love covering — keeping the matter as contained as possible, giving the brother maximum opportunity to repent without public exposure. If he hears, the matter is resolved. Charity covers the transgression (Proverbs 17:9). It need never be spoken of again.

The second stage widens the circle only when the first has failed. Take one or two witnesses, “that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established” (Deuteronomy 19:15). This is the discernment and testing that the apostles would later apply — trying the spirits (1 John 4:1), not laying hands suddenly on anyone (1 Timothy 5:22). The facts are established. The matter is examined carefully. Love does not rush to judgment. It establishes truth through witnesses.

The third stage brings the matter before the church. The sin has now been privately confronted and confronted again with witnesses. Repentance has been offered and refused. The matter becomes known to the Body — not for gossip, but because the individual’s refusal to hear requires the full weight of the fellowship.

The fourth stage is removal. “Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.” This is the most severe measure — the rejection that Titus 3:10 commands, the delivery unto Satan that Paul exercises in 1 Corinthians 5:5. Love has done everything short of this. Now love escalates, not because it has given up, but because the leaven must be purged for the sake of the Body and because the severe process of flesh-destruction must begin for the sake of the individual.

Notice the progression: each stage is an expression of love, each stage gives opportunity for repentance, and each stage preserves the possibility of restoration. The process is not designed to destroy the person. It is designed to destroy the flesh — the carnal mind that cannot be subject to God’s law (Romans 8:7) — so that the spirit may live.

And then, immediately after laying out this process, Christ gives Peter the principle that Peter will carry for the rest of his life. Peter asks: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” Jesus answers: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22).

Unlimited forgiveness. After the correction has done its work and the brother returns, love covers without counting. This is Proverbs 17:9 from Christ’s own mouth — the transgression is dealt with, and the one who covers it seeks love. Peter heard this instruction from Christ directly, and years later he wrote to the churches: “Above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). Peter’s command in his letter is the distillation of what he learned from Christ in Matthew 18. Correction and covering are not opposites. They are the two movements of the same love — the same fervent, stretched-out love that Christ taught and Peter lived.

The Judgment That Charity Drives

With Christ’s blueprint established, we can see what the apostles teach about correction as the outworking of the same process.

Paul states the principle directly: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged of the Lord, we are chastened (παιδεύω, (paideuo, G3811) — corrected, disciplined, trained) that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32). When we examine ourselves, the external judgment is unnecessary — this is Matthew 18:15 at the individual level, the brother who hears and is gained. But when we do not judge ourselves, the Lord Himself judges — and that judgment is not destruction. It is correction. It is training. Its purpose is that we should not be condemned with the world. The judgment saves us from something worse by dealing with us now.

This is what Peter means when he writes that “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). God does not wait for the world to be judged before correcting His own. He begins with His people. And the purpose of that judgment is the same as the purpose of the covering: life. Charity and correction serve the same end. Charity is what makes the correction purposeful rather than punitive, and charity is what covers the result when correction has done its work.

What does this correction look like at its most severe? Paul shows us. A man in the Corinthian fellowship was in open sin, and Paul commands the Body to act: “In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:4-5). This is Matthew 18:17 in practice — the final stage, removal from the fellowship. And yet even here, the purpose is stated: the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. The destruction is real, but it is not the destruction of the person. It is the destruction of what must die — the carnal mind that cannot be subject to God (Romans 8:7) — so that what is of God may live.

Paul immediately connects this to the leaven principle: “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7). The purging of leaven is not cruelty. It is the protection of the Body and the salvation of the individual at the same time. Leaving the leaven in the lump is not charity — it is negligence that harms everyone. True charity purges, because charity’s aim is a new lump.

Christ Himself gives us the principle that governs this entire process: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). The destruction of the flesh is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of fruitfulness. The seed that refuses to die abides alone — it produces nothing. The seed that dies brings forth much fruit. This is why Paul can command the destruction of the flesh and call it salvation in the same sentence. The dying and the living are not opposites. They are the same process. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).

John the Baptist declared this same reality in the language of fire and harvest. To those who came to his baptism without repentance, he said: “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8). Repentance is not merely a confession. It must be demonstrated — proven by fruit. And for those who do not produce that fruit: “Every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). The axe is at the root. The fire awaits. But what does that fire do? John tells us: “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:11-12).

The threshing floor separates what grows together. Wheat and chaff grow on the same stalk — every grain has a husk. We all carry both flesh and spirit, the carnal mind and the seed of God. The fan separates them. The wheat — the spirit, that which is of God — is gathered into the garner. The chaff — the flesh, that which must die — is burned. Paul confirms this principle in language that could not be clearer: “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). The fire tries every man. What is of God survives. What is of the flesh burns. And the person comes through — saved, yet through fire.

The baptism John describes — “with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” — is a single baptism, not two. The spirit fills the wheat. The fire consumes the chaff. Two operations of one work, applied to the same harvest. This is 1 Corinthians 5:5 in the language of agriculture: destruction of the flesh, salvation of the spirit.

Paul tells the Thessalonians the same truth in yet another image: “When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Paul does distinguish between those who face this destruction and the brethren who are children of light — the Body is not appointed to this particular wrath (1 Thessalonians 5:4, 9). But his choice of travail as the image for even the most severe destruction is deliberate, and it is consistent with Scripture’s witness elsewhere. He uses the same image in Romans: “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22) — and what does creation’s travail produce? “The manifestation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). Jesus uses it: “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:21). And Isaiah declares that God does not bring travail without bringing forth what it produces: “Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God” (Isaiah 66:9).

Travail is not pointless agony. It is the pain that produces life. A woman in labor does not escape the travail — she passes through it, and what comes forth is a child. The destruction is real. The pain is real. But God does not bring to the birth without delivering.

This is the judgment that charity drives. From self-examination to the Lord’s correction, from the private approach of Matthew 18:15 to the delivery unto Satan, from the fire on the threshing floor to the travail that brings forth life — every stage of the process is the work of love. Charity does not cover sins by looking away. Charity drives the process that addresses sin, and then covers what that process has dealt with. The correction and the covering are two movements of the same love, and charity is the bond that holds the entire process together (Colossians 3:14).

The Tension Resolved

With this framework in place — Christ’s corrective process in Matthew 18, charity as the love that drives correction and then covers its results — we can return to the passages that seemed to contradict 1 Peter 4:8 and examine whether any tension remains.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). John commands us to test what is being taught in the Body. This is not opposed to charity covering sins — it is charity in action. If a little leaven leavens the whole lump, then failing to test the spirits is not love. It is negligence that allows the leaven to spread. Trying the spirits is the diagnostic that identifies what needs correction — the second stage of Matthew 18, where witnesses establish the truth. John’s target is the spirit behind the teaching, not the destruction of the person delivering it. The spirit is tested. The flesh is exposed. The correction serves the same purpose as every other stage of the process — the destruction of what is false so that what is true may remain.

“But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Matthew 12:36). Christ’s words here are not the opposite of charity covering sins. They describe the thoroughness of God’s corrective process. Every idle word accounted for means every piece of leaven identified. Every careless word brought to light means every element of the flesh exposed for correction. This is what Paul describes: “Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts” (1 Corinthians 4:5). The judgment reveals. The correction trains. And when the process has run its course, charity covers what has been dealt with (Proverbs 17:9). The accounting and the covering are not in competition. The accounting is how we get to the covering.

“A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject” (Titus 3:10). This appears to be the sharpest tension — a command to reject a person from the fellowship. But we have already seen in Matthew 18:15-17 that Christ Himself established this process: private approach, witnesses, church, and then removal. Paul’s instruction through Titus follows Christ’s blueprint precisely: first admonition, second admonition, then rejection. Love is patient. It warns. It corrects. It gives opportunity for the fruits meet for repentance that John the Baptist demanded (Matthew 3:8). But when repeated correction produces no fruit, love escalates — not because it has given up, but because the leaven must be purged for the sake of the Body and because the more severe process of flesh-destruction must begin for the sake of the individual. The rejection is not the failure of charity. It is charity’s most severe instrument — the fourth stage of Christ’s own process.

“Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure” (1 Timothy 5:19-22). Paul is writing to Timothy about the oversight of the Body — specifically about accusations against elders, the public rebuke of those who sin (verse 20), and the danger of partiality (verse 21). His instruction connects directly to Christ’s process in Matthew 18: you do not skip stages. You do not endorse someone (lay hands) before the testing process has established the truth through witnesses. Laying hands suddenly on someone who has not been tested is not love. It is a failure of discernment that makes you a participant in their sins. The leaven spreads to the one who endorses it. Keeping yourself pure is the discipline that prevents the covering from becoming complicity. There is a difference between covering sins through the corrective process — hiding what has been dealt with (Proverbs 17:9) — and covering over sins by refusing to address them. Paul is warning against the latter.

“If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). John distinguishes between two categories of sin with two different prescribed responses. This distinction is not unique to John. It runs through Scripture.

For sin not unto death, the response is intercession — pray, ask on his behalf, and God gives life. This is James 5:20 in practice: converting the sinner from error saves a soul from death and hides a multitude of sins. This is the earlier stages of the corrective process, where admonition and intercession succeed. The correction works. The brother repents. Charity covers.

When sin reaches the point John calls “unto death,” he withholds instruction about intercession: “I do not say that he shall pray for it.” John’s restraint here echoes an established pattern in Scripture. God commanded Jeremiah three times to stop interceding for Israel: “Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee” (Jeremiah 7:16; see also 11:14, 14:11). God told Samuel to stop mourning for Saul: “How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel?” (1 Samuel 16:1). The Torah itself makes this same distinction: sins of ignorance had sacrifice provided (Numbers 15:27-29), but the soul that sinned presumptuously — with a high hand — was cut off, with no sacrifice available (Numbers 15:30-31). The author of Hebrews confirms this in the New Testament: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26).

There is a category of sin — deliberate, knowing, high-handed — for which the normal restorative provisions of intercession and sacrifice are not operative. John recognizes this category and declines to prescribe a response for it. He does not explain why. He does not tell us what happens next. He withholds instruction, and his restraint should be respected rather than filled with a rationale he does not provide.

What we can say is this: God’s judgments, even the most severe, serve His purposes. Isaiah declares: “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:9). And the very next verse sharpens it: “Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness” (Isaiah 26:10). Judgment teaches what grace alone cannot teach the wicked. And even the paradigmatic case of fiery judgment — Sodom, destroyed by fire and brimstone — is not God’s final word. Ezekiel prophesies: “When I shall bring again the captivity of Sodom and her daughters… then thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate” (Ezekiel 16:53, 55). Throughout Ezekiel, God’s stated purpose in judging the nations is that they will know Him: “I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 25:11). The judgment produces knowledge where none existed before.

The sin unto death is real. The withholding of intercession is real. The severity of the judgment is as harsh as it must be. But Scripture consistently testifies that God’s judgments are purposeful — they teach, they reveal, they produce the knowledge of God. How this applies to the sin unto death across the ages is a matter examined in other studies. Here, what matters is this: John’s distinction between sin not unto death and sin unto death does not contradict charity covering sins. It identifies two stages within God’s corrective work — one where human intercession is operative and one where it is not — and both are within the scope of God’s purpose.

In every case, the passages we were asked about operate within the framework of charity, not against it. Trying the spirits, accounting for idle words, rejecting the heretic, keeping pure, recognizing the sin unto death — each of these is a specific expression of the love that addresses sin through the corrective process Christ established. The tension was never in the text. It was in the assumption that covering and correction are opposites. They are not. Correction addresses sin. Charity covers what has been dealt with. And the love that drives both is the same fervent, stretched-out love Peter commands.

The Covering Completed

The process that Scripture traces from Genesis to the present — the covering of sin, the clothing with righteousness, the corrective judgment that destroys the flesh and produces life — is not an endless cycle. It has a destination.

Paul describes that destination in the language of clothing: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). The final garment is immortality itself. The nakedness that Adam feared, the filthy rags that Isaiah lamented, the fig leaves that could not cover — all of it is resolved when mortality is swallowed up by life. Paul told the Corinthians the same thing in different words: “Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). We do not long to be stripped bare. We long to be clothed upon with what God alone can provide.

The bride receives her garment: “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8). Granted — not earned, not sewn from fig leaves or human effort. Given by God. The substance of the garment is what it has been from the beginning: righteousness. From animal skins in Eden to fine linen in the new creation, the covering has always been God’s work, and the garment has always been His righteousness put upon His people.

This is the inheritance of the Body — the firstfruits of God’s purpose. Those who know God now, who are corrected now, who are clothed now, are being prepared for a specific role: “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). The Body is not merely saved. It is given a position — kings and priests, the bride of Christ, those who share in His reign (Revelation 20:6). This is the promise to the first group, those who come through the corrective process in this age.

Peter told us that judgment begins at the house of God and then asked: “What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). Their end is not the same as the Body’s inheritance — they do not share the role of kings and priests, which is granted to those who overcome in this age. But neither are they beyond the reach of God’s purpose. The scope of what God accomplishes through judgment beyond the present fellowship, including the nature and duration of that work, has been examined in prior studies. What Peter establishes here, and what this study has confirmed, is the principle: God’s judgments teach (Isaiah 26:9), God’s fire refines (Malachi 3:2-3), and even the most total destruction does not stand as God’s final word (Ezekiel 16:53-55).

The process reaches its consummation when there is nothing left uncovered, nothing left uncorrected, nothing left unclothed. Paul tells us when that is: “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:24-26). Every enemy subdued. Death itself destroyed. And the final state: “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

God all in all. The carnal mind — which IS death (Romans 8:6) — destroyed as the last enemy. The spiritual mind — which IS life and peace — filling all things. The charity that Peter commands — fervent, above all things, covering a multitude of sins — is not a small instruction for polite fellowship. It is participation in the very work of God, who is clothing His people in His righteousness through a process of correction, death, and life. What begins in the Body as love among the brethren — the Matthew 18 process of confrontation, witnesses, discipline, and unlimited forgiveness — reaches toward a consummation that only God can bring to completion.

We acknowledge that passages such as Matthew 25:46, Revelation 20:10, and Mark 9:43-48 present complementary perspectives on the severity and duration of judgment that require careful study to understand alongside the restorative texts we have examined. These are not contradictions but areas where Scripture maintains emphases that must both be held with humility, recognizing that some things remain beyond our full comprehension in this age (1 Corinthians 13:12). These complementary truths have been examined in prior studies and remain subjects of ongoing study.

What this study has established from Scripture is this: charity and correction are not opposites. They are two movements of the same love. Christ established the corrective process (Matthew 18:15-17) and followed it with unlimited forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-22). Solomon taught that love covers transgressions that have been dealt with, and that reopening a settled matter destroys fellowship (Proverbs 10:12, 17:9). Peter — who heard Christ’s instruction directly, who witnessed the corrective process in the early church, who knew from experience both the severity of judgment and the depth of restoration — wrote to the churches the distillation of everything he had learned:

“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8).

Charity Covers a Multitude of Sins, Part 1

[Study Aired June 10, 2026]

Here is our verse under study.

(1Pe 4:8) And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

I was asked a question recently: How does the command to have fervent charity that “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) fit alongside scriptures that call us to “try every spirit” (1 John 4:1), give account for “every idle word” (Matthew 12:36), reject a heretic after two admonitions (Titus 3:10), keep ourselves pure (1 Timothy 5:22), and acknowledge that “there is a sin unto death” (1 John 5:16)?

On the surface, these seem to pull in opposite directions. One tells us to cover. The others tell us to expose, examine, and correct. If we take Scripture seriously — and we must, because the whole Word is truth (Psalm 119:160) and it does not contradict itself — then the tension we feel is not in the text. It is in our understanding.

This study will show that charity covering sins and God’s corrective work in the Body are not competing realities. They are the same love working toward the same end. The correction addresses sin. The covering hides what has been dealt with. Together they form a single process: the love of God working through His people — from admonition to rebuke to the most severe discipline — because the goal of that process has always been life, not destruction. “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

To see this clearly, we need to understand the categories Peter is working with, examine what he means by “cover,” trace that concept through Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and understand the nature of the judgment that charity operates through. When we do, the apparent contradiction disappears, and what emerges is a single, unified picture of God’s purpose: clothing His people in righteousness through a process that requires the death of the flesh so that the spirit may live.

The Foundation: What Death and Life Mean

Before we examine Peter’s command, we must establish what Scripture means by death and life, because these categories govern everything that follows.

Paul states the principle directly: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). The carnal mind — the mindset of the flesh — is not merely heading toward death. It IS death. The spiritual mind — the mindset aligned with God — IS life and peace. Death and life, as Scripture uses them, are present states defined by the orientation of the mind.

Paul then reveals why this matters for every corrective measure the Body will ever exercise: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The carnal mind cannot be reformed. It cannot be educated into obedience. It cannot be disciplined into submission. It is not able — οὐδὲ γὰρ δύναται  (dynamai, G1410). This is not unwillingness. It is inability.

The consequence: “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8).

This is foundational. If the carnal mind cannot be subject to God’s law, then every attempt to cover sin by tolerating the flesh — by letting the carnal mind go unchallenged — is not love. It is futility. The flesh cannot be improved. It must be put to death so that the spirit may live. This is why Paul can tell the Corinthians to deliver a man “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5). The destruction is not cruelty. It is the only thing that works, because the carnal mind cannot be fixed. It can only be replaced.

With this established, we can hear Peter’s command with the right ears.

The Context of Peter’s Command

Peter’s instruction to have fervent charity does not stand alone. It sits within a sequence of commands for the Body in 1 Peter 4:7-11 — be sober and watchful unto prayer, have fervent charity among yourselves, use hospitality without grudging, minister gifts to one another as good stewards. Every instruction in this passage is directed inward, toward the fellowship of believers. Charity covering sins begins in the Body.

The word Peter uses for “fervent” is ἐκτενής (ektenes, G1618) — stretched out, strained, extended to full capacity. This is not casual affection. The root is ἐκτείνω (ekteinō) — to stretch out, to reach. The word picture is something pulled taut, love under tension, love that costs effort and endurance.

This word family appears sparingly in the New Testament. In Acts 12:5, when Peter himself was in prison awaiting execution, the church prayed for him ἐκτενῶς — fervently, stretched out toward God on his behalf. And in Luke 22:44, the intensified form describes Jesus in Gethsemane: “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly” (ἐκτενέστερον) — “and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

The charity Peter commands operates at the same intensity as Christ’s prayer in His most agonizing moment. This is not passive tolerance. This is not polite overlooking. This is love stretched to its full extension — love that bears the cost of doing whatever must be done for the sake of the one loved. When we understand that the carnal mind cannot be fixed (Romans 8:7), we understand why this love must be fervent. The work it drives — correction, admonition, rebuke, and yes, even the most severe discipline — requires everything love has to give.

The verses immediately before Peter’s command widen the scope beyond the Body:

“Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead. For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:5-6)

Who are “the living” and “the dead” here? At the foundational level, Peter uses a standard phrase. “The quick and the dead” (ζῶντας καὶ νεκρούς) appears in Acts 10:42 and 2 Timothy 4:1 in the same form — Christ judges the living and the dead, meaning all humanity, those currently alive and those who have physically died. “Them that are dead” in verse 6 refers, at this level, to people who heard the gospel while alive and have since died. Peter’s point is that even physical death does not exempt anyone from God’s purpose — they were judged in the flesh (suffered physically, died as humans do) but live before God in the spirit.

Peter’s specific contrast — “judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit” — carries a deeper resonance when heard alongside Paul’s categories in Romans 8:6. The mind of the flesh is death. The mind of the spirit is life. Peter’s flesh/spirit contrast points to the same reality: those governed by the carnal mind are in the state Scripture calls death, regardless of their physical condition. Those who live according to God in the spirit have passed from death to life (1 John 3:14). The gospel was preached to “the dead” — to those in the state of the carnal mind — so that through the judgment of the flesh, the spirit might live. 

Peter tells us that the gospel reaches even those who are dead — and the purpose is stated: “that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” The judgment comes first. The life follows.

Peter confirms the order of this process later in the same chapter: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17-18). Judgment begins with those who know God. The word “begin” (ἄρξασθαι, arxasthai G756) implies continuation — what starts with believers extends beyond them. Peter’s rhetorical force must be heard honestly. He is making a lesser-to-greater argument: if this is how severe judgment is for believers, how much worse for the disobedient? If the righteous barely make it through, the ungodly have no ground to stand on. Peter is intensifying the warning, not offering reassurance about a sequential program.

What begins at the house of God does extend beyond it — but those outside the Body do not receive the same promises as those within it. The Body occupies a unique position as kings and priests (Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:6), the firstfruits of God’s purpose. What God does with those outside the Body in His time is His work, examined in other studies. Here, Peter’s concern is the Body, and his command is specific: fervent charity among yourselves.

This is the context in which Peter commands fervent charity that covers a multitude of sins. The Body’s practice of love that covers is not separate from God’s larger work. What God is doing in the Body now — correcting, judging, clothing in righteousness — is the firstfruits of a purpose that reaches further than the present fellowship.

What Does It Mean to Cover?

The word Peter uses for “cover” is καλύπτω (kalupto, G2572) — to hide, to conceal, to veil. James uses the same word: “he which converteth (turns) the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide (καλύπτω) (kalupto, G2572) a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). Peter and James are both drawing from the same Old Testament source — Proverbs 10:12: “Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.”

The Hebrew word here is כָּסָה (kasah, H3680) — to cover, conceal, hide. Solomon sets up a direct contrast. Hatred stirs up (עוּר, uwr, H5782 — to rouse, to agitate). Love covers. One brings sins to the surface to create strife. The other conceals them. These are opposite motions — but the concealing that love does is not the ignoring of sin.

Solomon gives us the key in a companion proverb that governs the entire discussion: “He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Proverbs 17:9).

This verse reveals the relationship between correction and covering that resolves every tension in the passages we were asked about. The contrast is not between covering sin and addressing sin. It is between covering what has been dealt with and dragging it back into the open after the matter is resolved. A transgression occurred. It was addressed — confessed, corrected, repented of. Now the one who covers it — who does not keep reopening it, who does not keep bringing it back up — is the one who seeks love. The one who keeps repeating the matter after it has been resolved is the one who destroys fellowship.

This is the sequence Scripture establishes: sin occurs, correction addresses it, and love covers what has been dealt with. Covering does not bypass correction. Covering completes it. The love that drives the correction is the same love that covers the result. They are not opposites. They are not the same action. They are sequential expressions of the same fervent charity Peter commands.

If covering means hiding, we must ask: hiding from whom, and for how long? Christ tells us plainly: “There is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matthew 10:26). Everything hidden will be brought to light. So the covering that charity provides is not permanent concealment as though the sin never happened. The sins are revealed — that is what judgment does. We will give account for every idle word (Matthew 12:36). Every deed, every thought, every careless word will be laid bare.

Then what does the covering accomplish? Paul answers: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged of the Lord, we are chastened (παιδεύω, paideuo — corrected, disciplined, trained) that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Corinthians 11:31-32). The judgment that reveals sin is corrective. It trains. It disciplines. And when the correction has done its work — when the flesh has been dealt with and the fruit of repentance has been brought forth — then charity covers. The sin is not ignored. It is addressed, corrected, and then hidden beneath the love that drove the entire process from the beginning. This is Proverbs 17:9 in action: the transgression is covered because it has been dealt with, and love does not reopen what God’s process has resolved.

David understood this: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” (Psalm 32:1). The Hebrew for “forgiven” is נָשָׂא (nasa, H5375) — to lift up, to carry away to bear. David places two actions in parallel: transgression is lifted and carried away; sin is covered. These are not two separate events. They are the same reality described from two sides. Something is removed and something is hidden at the same time. Paul quotes this very verse in Romans 4:7 “Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered”  and connects it to the imputation of righteousness — sin covered, righteousness put on. The covering of sin and the clothing with righteousness are one work.

Clothed by God: The Covering from Genesis to Revelation

The covering of sin is not an isolated concept in 1 Peter 4:8. It is a thread that runs from the first chapters of Genesis to the final chapters of Revelation, and it is expressed consistently through the image of clothing — garments put on and garments taken off, man’s failed coverings replaced by God’s sufficient ones.

It begins in the garden. When Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened and they knew they were naked. Their first response was to cover themselves: “they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons” (Genesis 3:7). This is man’s attempt to hide his own sin — and it failed. The fig leaves were not sufficient. God Himself had to act: “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). The Hebrew for “clothed” is לָבַשׁ (labash, H3847), a word that will appear throughout Scripture for the putting on of garments, including the garments of the priesthood and the spiritual clothing of the New Testament.

Two principles are established in this first covering. First, man cannot cover his own sin. His self-made garments are inadequate — because they are products of the carnal mind, and the carnal mind cannot produce what God requires (Romans 8:7-8). Second, God’s covering requires death. An animal died so that skins could clothe what the fig leaves could not. The seed principle is present from the beginning: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Something must die for the covering to be made.

Isaiah restates both principles. Man’s best efforts at self-covering produce nothing acceptable: “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Our righteousness — not our sin, but our very best — is filthy in God’s sight. The fig leaves have not improved. But God’s covering is another matter entirely: “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Here both words appear together — “clothed” and “covered” — and the substance of the garment is named: salvation and righteousness. This is what God puts on His people when He removes what they have made for themselves.

The prophet Zechariah gives us this exchange in vivid detail. Joshua the high priest stands before the angel of the LORD clothed in filthy garments, and Satan stands at his right hand to accuse him. The LORD rebukes Satan and commands: “Take away the filthy garments from him.” Then to Joshua: “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment” (Zechariah 3:3-5). The pattern is the same as Genesis 3 — the inadequate covering is removed and God provides the new garment. But Zechariah adds what Genesis only implied: the removal of filthy garments IS the passing of iniquity. The old garment is sin. The new garment is righteousness. To be reclothed is to be forgiven. This is Psalm 32:1 made visible — transgression carried away, sin covered. “A Psalm of David, Maschil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”

David understood this: “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy” (Psalm 132:9). The priests’ true garment is not linen or ephod. It is righteousness itself. And the response to being clothed in it is joy.

The New Testament brings this imagery to its fullest expression. Paul tells the Galatians: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). The garment we wear is Christ Himself. To the Romans: “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). Putting on Christ and putting off the flesh are the same action — the same stripping and reclothing that Zechariah saw.

Paul develops the pattern further in Ephesians: “Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). And again in Colossians: “Ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9-10). In every instance the structure is the same — the old is removed, the new is given, and the new garment is defined by righteousness, holiness, and the image of God. The old man that is put off is the carnal mind that cannot be subject to God’s law (Romans 8:7). It is not reformed. It is stripped away. The new man that is put on is renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator — the spiritual mind that is life and peace (Romans 8:6).

What is remarkable about Colossians is where Paul takes this. After instructing the believers to put on the new man, he lists the garments of the new life — mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness — and then crowns the list: “And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness” (Colossians 3:14). “Above all things put on charity.” This is nearly identical to Peter’s words: “above all things have fervent charity among yourselves, for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” The garment that completes the covering — the bond that holds all the others together — is charity. And charity is not something we manufacture. It is Christ in us. To put on charity is to put on Christ. To put on Christ is to be covered.

Paul tells the Thessalonians the same truth in the language of armor: “Let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Love is something we wear. It protects. It covers.

The thread reaches toward its consummation in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He writes of our present condition: “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). We do not seek to be stripped bare. We long to be clothed upon — covered with what swallows death in life. This echoes Genesis 3 directly: the nakedness that Adam feared is resolved not by fig leaves but by God’s garment that swallows mortality itself.

The final clothing: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). This is the ultimate covering — the putting on of incorruption and immortality. The process that began with animal skins in the garden ends with death itself swallowed by life.

Two final pictures complete the thread. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father does not interrogate the returning son or demand restitution before acting. He commands: “Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him” (Luke 15:22). The covering is given before the son has earned anything. This is mercy — God’s garment placed on those who return. But the covering is not without conditions, as Christ shows in another parable. At the wedding feast, a man is found without a wedding garment, and the king commands: “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). The covering is granted, but it must be received. You cannot come to the feast in your own clothes — in your own fig leaves, your own filthy rags.

The final word belongs to the bride: “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints” (Revelation 19:8). “Granted” — not earned, not self-made. Given. And the substance of the garment is what it has been since Genesis: righteousness. From the skins that covered Adam and Eve to the fine linen of the bride, God has been doing one work — covering His people in a garment they cannot make for themselves, a garment that requires death to produce, a garment that is ultimately Christ Himself.

This is what Peter means when he says charity covers a multitude of sins. The covering is not a human decision to overlook wrongdoing. It is the ongoing work of God, clothing His people in the righteousness that only comes through the death of the flesh and the life of the Spirit.

We have seen what Peter means by “cover” — not the ignoring of sin, but the work of God who removes what man cannot remove and clothes His people in a righteousness they cannot produce. From the skins in Eden to the fine linen of the bride, the covering has always been His work, and the garment has always been Christ. A question remains: if charity covers sins after they have been addressed, what does the addressing look like? How does the love of God bring sin to the point where it can be covered? How do the scriptures that command correction, discernment, and even rejection operate within a love that covers all? In Part 2, we will examine the corrective process that charity drives — beginning with Christ’s own instructions in Matthew 18 — and show that every passage that seems to stand in tension with 1 Peter 4:8 is in fact an expression of the very love it describes.

1 Samuel 20:1–23 David’s Distress and Covenant With Jonathan

[Study Aired June 1, 2026]

Our study for today highlights David’s distress in the midst of Saul’s relentless pursuit to assassinate him.  He therefore complained to his friend Jonathan of his present distress and sought Jonathan to be a true friend. The study also focuses on the renewal of covenant between David and Jonathan emphasizing David’s commitment to show kindness to Jonathan’s descendants.

Pro 17:17  A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

David’s Distress

1Sa 20:1  And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life? 

As indicated in the previous study, David represents the Lord’s elect who had escaped from Babylon or the church system of this world. Jonathan, on the other hand, is also a symbol of the Lord’s elect who was still trapped in Babylon due to his strong bond with his father, Saul. His unwillingness to leave with David to suffer, as a scapegoat let loose in the wilderness, would cost him his life later.

Here in verse 1, David was wondering why he was going through such a life-threatening experience as if some strange thing was happening to him. That was also our experience at a certain stage of our walk with the Lord, when the Lord came to judge us so that we could learn righteousness. Just like David, we were all not prepared for the Lord’s judgment of our old man or flesh, when He came with the spirit of His mouth and His brightness into our lives.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: 
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.  

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. 
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Sa 20:2  And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so. 
1Sa 20:3  And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death. 

Jonathan believed that his father Saul did not mean evil against David. Assuring David that he would not die implies that when we were in Babylon as the Lord’s elect, we did not see the present danger of our spiritual death through continued fellowship with the church system of this world. This was because we were not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven at that stage of our walk with the Lord.   

The fact that Jonathan did not know the intent of his father shows us that at that stage of our walk, we did not have a clue that the devil was our father and not our Lord Jesus Christ.

Joh 8:39  They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. 
Joh 8:40  But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 
Joh 8:41  Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 

David confessing that he was one step away from death in verse 3 is to let us know that as the Lord’s elect, we are being given over to death throughout our walk with the Lord. 

2Co 4:11  For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. 
2Co 4:12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.  

1Sa 20:4  Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee. 
1Sa 20:5  And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even. 

The friendship and love between Jonathan and David is what must pertain among the Lord’s elect. As the Lord indicated, we are to love one another  to demonstrate that we are really the Lord’s disciples. In another perspective, we can say that Jonathan’s love for David demonstrates the love of the Lord for us, His brothers. Jonathan telling David in verse 4 that he would do whatever David desires is the Lord telling us that whatsoever we desire in His name, He would do it for us.   

Mar 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

As we can see in verse 5, David was running away to hide himself in the field for three days, as a way to avoid sitting with King Saul at meat during the new moon festival. As we have indicated, Saul represents the church system of this world or Babylon. Therefore, David avoiding sitting at meat with Saul as part of the celebration of the new moon implies that we must run away from Babylon with its false doctrines (meat) and the weak and beggarly elements of observing days, months, etc., which would endanger our walk with Christ.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.   

We can see from this story of David that leaving Babylon is a process. We may leave Babylon physically, but still remain in bondage to its false doctrines, observing birthdays, Christmas, Easter, etc. These are some of the idols of the heart which mitigate against our spiritual growth in Christ. 

David running away to hide himself signifies our seeking refuge in Christ, who is our hiding place. 

Psa 32:7  Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. 

The fact that David was going to hide himself for three days implies that taking refuge in Christ is a process, resulting in our spiritual maturity through the Lord’s judgment (the significance of the number three). In other words, taking refuge in Christ involves suffering.   

1Sa 20:6  If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family. 
1Sa 20:7  If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him. 

David’s decision to skip the New Moon festivities because of its potential to endanger his life is a stern warning for us, His elect.

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 

Through this New Moon celebration, the Lord would use it to let both David and Jonathan know Saul’s murderous intention regarding David. In other words, if Saul gets angry about the absence of David from the New Moon feast, then it means that he had evil intent towards David. This implies that at a certain stage of our walk, the Lord wants us to know how we are hated by the world including our brothers and sisters in Babylon. Knowing that we are hated by the world which includes our brothers and sisters in Babylon shows that we are maturing spiritually in Him. As we are aware, it is children who are not able to discern easily those who hate them.   

Joh 15:18  If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 
Joh 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Joh 15:20  Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 
Joh 15:21  But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

1Sa 20:8  Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father? 
1Sa 20:9  And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee? 

Here in verse 8, David reminded Jonathan of the covenant they made before the Lord. As the Lord’s elect, our relationship with each other is governed by a covenant of love. It is through loving one another that we demonstrate that we are indeed the Lord’s disciples. This love shows itself in dealing kindly with one another as we see David reminding Jonathan in verse 8. 

Joh 13:34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 
Joh 13:35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 

In verse 9, Jonathan’s statement that if he knew that his father meant evil, he would have told David shows us that at that stage of our walk, where we were the Lord’s elect but were still trapped in Babylon, we did not know that we are hated by the world including our brothers and sisters in Babylon. This is because we were not given yet to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, since we were just like the multitude. 

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 

Who Would Tell David about Saul’s Behavior?

1Sa 20:10  Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee roughly? 
1Sa 20:11  And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field. 
1Sa 20:12  And Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about tomorrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and shew it thee; 
1Sa 20:13  The LORD do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the LORD be with thee, as he hath been with my father. 

In verse 10, David wanted to know who would inform him of Saul’s reaction when he realized that David was absent from the feast. In response to David’s question, Jonathan took David into the field to show him how he would relay the message to David. As we can see, both Jonathan and David represent the Lord’s elect. Jonathan taking David to the field implies that although, we, His elect, are of the world, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, to one another, which the people of the world are not given to understand.  

1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 

1Sa 20:14  And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not: 
1Sa 20:15  But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David everyone from the face of the earth. 

As the Lord’s elect, we are to show the kindness of the Lord to one another. This kindness to each other is from one age to another or age-enduring. It is insightful to note in verse 15, that Jonathan was in a way prophesying that David would overcome his enemies. In other words, as the Lord’s elect, we are promised victory over our enemies. According to the word of the Lord, our ultimate enemy is not flesh and blood, but Satan and spiritual forces of evil. 

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

1Sa 20:16  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies. 
1Sa 20:17  And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 

It is important to note that Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David. This house of David is the assembly or the church of the Lord’s elect. We are all in a covenant relationship with one another as the Lord’s elect.  

1Pe 4:8  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. (ESV)

Rom 13:8  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (ESV)

Jonathan making David swear again in verse 17 is to remind us that we are witnesses to the fact that we are to love one another. Jonathan loving David as his own soul implies that when one member suffers, we all suffer together. 

1Co 12:26  If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 

1Sa 20:18  Then Jonathan said to David, Tomorrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.
1Sa 20:19  And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone Ezel. 

As we can see in verse 18, David was going to miss the new moon festivities because he had to run for his life. What this signifies is that our continued attachment to the weak and elementary principles of this world (beggarly elements) would cost us our lives.

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. 

In verse 19, David was required to stay away for three days in order to have the response from Jonathan about whether Saul meant evil or not. These three days represent the period of our judgment, where we grow in maturity, able to discern between good and evil. David being required to remain at the stone called Ezel indicates that we must be ready to depart (Ezel means departure) permanently from Babylon. This departure is predicated on our being able to discern that our continued fellowship with the church system of this world or Babylon (represented by Saul) would cost us our life.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 
Rev 18:5  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.    

1Sa 20:20  And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark. 
1Sa 20:21  And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth. 
1Sa 20:22  But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way: for the LORD hath sent thee away. 

As we have indicated earlier, the Lord was seeking an occasion to judge David. In the negative context, arrows signifies the judgment of the Lord as shown in the following verses:

Psa 38:2  For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.

Psa 144:6  Cast forth lightning, and scatter them: shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.

Eze 5:16  When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread:

The fact that Jonathan intended to shoot three arrows affirms the fact that what David was about to go through was part of the process of his spiritual maturity through the judgment of the Lord. Jonathan sending a lad or a young man to go and find the shot arrows signifies that David was a novice at that stage of his walk with Christ and therefore needed to mature spiritually through the judgment of the Lord. 

Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 

As shown in verse 21, if Jonathan tells the young man that the arrows he shot were close by, then it means that David’s life was not in danger. The rationale behind this riddle is that if what we are looking for is close by, then we do not need to exert effort to find it. That is the greasy kind of religion which permeates in the church system of this world where we thought we were already saved and therefore did not need to strive for the mastery. The Lord wants us to persevere in our quest to know Him. 

Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 

In verse 22, if the arrows shot by Jonathan are beyond the reach of the young man, it signifies that the judgment of the Lord is at hand and that David must run for his life. It also means that the Lord intentionally hides his truths, mysteries, and deep wisdom and as the Lord’s royals, we must search for it. This searching out is a lifetime pursuit which involves hearing the voice of the Lord in the midst of the fire of our affliction. 

Pro 25:2  It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings (the Lord’s elect) is to search out a matter. 

Deu 4:36  Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee: and upon earth he shewed thee his great fire; and thou heardest his words out of the midst of the fire. 

Deu 5:24  And ye said, Behold, the LORD our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth.   

1Sa 20:23  And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me forever. 

The matter which Jonathan and David had spoken about pertains to David’s  salvation. This suggests that what every joint supplies in the body of Christ concerns our salvation and therefore, we must pay attention to it. 

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.  

Jonathan reassuring David that the Lord was in their midst is to let us know that whenever two or three of us are gathered in His name, He is there in our midst.  

Mat 18:19  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. 
Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. 

May the Name of the Lord be Praised. Amen!!

Marriage, Part 2 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part A - Discussion

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Eph 5:22 - Wives, Submit Yourselves To Your Own Husbands, As Unto The Lord - Part 1

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

As we begin this discussion today, I want you to remember that I gave the husbands the Lord's words to them last week, and while I am making absolutely no apologies to the radical feminist movement nor to the "me too" movement, I am giving you only what is in the Word of God, our very Maker, who knows what does and what does not work in making the marriage relationship produce the fruits of His spirit in every married couple who is fortunate enough to be given eyes that see, and ears that hear, the mysteries of the kingdom of God within you (Mat 13:10-15), and the fear of God that will drag you to repent of your lack of submission to Him, to your husband and to His ways.

It is not natural for any wife to submit herself to her husband because every fiber of her being is just naturally "enmity against God... not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be":

Rom 7:18 For I know that in [every wife] (that is, in [your] flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with [you]; but how to perform that which is good [you just cannot find out]
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

The curse the Lord placed upon all wives in the Garden of Eden for Eve's disobedience in eating of the forbidden fruit was to "want to control [her] husband":

Gen 3:16 To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you." (NET)

Look at how the Lord has hidden this Truth from the world through all the terribly bad translations of what he really said here in Genesis 3:16. I will give just two examples which typify 99% of the English translations of this verse:

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (KJV)

Gen 3:16 (3:17) And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pains and thy groanings; in pain thou shalt bring forth children, and thy submission shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (Brenton's 1851 Septuagint)

No, the Lord did not bless you wives with "...your submission shall be to your husband". It is beyond question that He tells you wives, and us husbands who are also the wife of Christ, "You will want to control your husband", along with the reassuring words that in the end, "He shall rule over you."

Every woman in this fellowship professes to want to be subject to Christ, their spiritual husband (2Co 11:2). So ask yourself, if you are hearing or reading this study, Are you honestly even interested in being subject to your physical husband as unto the Lord? Do you really want to be "the light of the world" and demonstrate who Christ really is to this world?

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Just as surely as "a city that is built on a hill cannot be hid", so also your blasphemous hypocrisy cannot be hidden from your husband or the world.

Tit 2:4 That they ["the aged women", vs 3] may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

God does not take part in mind games. He is the one who gives us our thoughts and 'turns us to destruction'. However, then He says, "return you children of men". He 'makes us err from His ways', and then He makes us to return to Himself:

Psa 90:3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

So I am not holding you responsible for what you do as the wife of your husband. All I am here to tell you is that it is God who works "in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure", and I am here to tell you that it is "His good pleasure [to] work in you" the repentance which He requires of us all:

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Which "good pleasure" includes:

Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

Either we tremble at his word or we don't, and He knows what is in our hearts. You wives are commanded to "remember" what it was like when you were first so much in love with your husband. Remember the time when you aspired to submit to him and to please him "as unto the Lord". Look at Titus 2:5 again. Think very carefully about what you are reading in that verse. When you fail to submit to and obey your husband, you are "blaspheming the word of God" before your own husband and before your own children, and before the whole world to whom you are supposed to be "the light of the world".

1Ch 28:9 And thou, [wives] know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Rev 2:23 And I will kill [the] children [of the disobedient wife] with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

That word 'reins', is translated from:

G3510
νεφρός
nephros
nef-ros'
Of uncertain affinity; a kidney (plural), that is, (figuratively) the inmost mind: - reins.

It is the Greek word for 'kidney', but 'kidneys' throughout scripture means "the inmost mind" and heart of every man, which God knows very intimately.

If you as a wife are not "submit[ting] yourself to your husband in all things, as unto the Lord... with a perfect heart" He will definitely not be found of you, and He will cast you off, your prayers will be hindered, God will not hear your prayers and you will receive "every one of you according to your works".

So when we are told:

Pro 18:22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

It is clearly stated that this wife is someone whom the Lord Himself considers to be "a good thing" who will bring favor from the Lord to her husband. Of course the opposite is also true, and a woman who finds a Godly husband also finds a good thing and will "obtain favor of the Lord". But we dare not let our "favor of the Lord" depend upon the actions of our physical spouse, male or female. We must remain faithful and not blaspheme the Word of the Lord, whether or spouse is a Godly person or not.

Our 'Manufacturer', our Creator, has ordained that husbands are to be the head of the family. These are the words of the Manufacturer's 'operator's manual':

1Co 11:3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

So men are designed by their Maker to be the leader, and "the head" of the home and of their wives and their children. You may very well be right when you protest, "My husband just simply is not a Godly leader, he has no respect for me, he favors the children over me, and he certainly has no fear of the Lord nor of His Word." If that is the hand the Lord has dealt you, then what would the Lord have you to do under such circumstances? Do you really believe for one moment the Lord gave you such a trial to give you an excuse to disobey His commandment for you to "be subject unto your husband in all things, as unto the Lord... that the Word of God be not blasphemed", before your children, before your family and before the whole world?

No, of course not. God does not give us trials for the purpose of excusing our carnal desire to cave in to the pressures of those trials. He gives us trials to "overcome" those trials. Listen to the promises given to those who "overcome the world":

1Jn 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith [in Christ within us].

1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Rev 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him [and her] will I give power over the nations:

Rev 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Rev 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

Those are just some of the incredible promises which are promised to you wives who are granted the strength to swallow your pride and fight against the curse that has been placed upon you by God, so you can overcome your desire to "control your husband" (Gen 3:16 [NET]).

Men are meant to be leaders, and a wife who insists on being the leader of her husband and her home is not a "good... find", and neither will she bring "favor of the Lord" to her husband. The Lord will not favor a wife who simply will not be "subject to [her] own husband in all things, as unto the Lord". When you wives do mental, physical, or verbal battle with your husband you are engaging in a spiritual battle against Christ Himself. If you take it upon yourself to say, "No, I am not battling Christ, I am battling an incompetent, ungodly husband" that is the same thing as "resist[ing] the powers that be" simply because they are evil thugs who want to murder Christ. Yes, that is the natural and naturally logical thing to do, but the Truth is that Christ Himself was murdered by a gang of thugs, and He still submitted Himself to their abuse, telling Peter:

Joh 18:11 Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?

None of us just naturally wants to "drink... the cup" our Lord has given us, and you wives with unconverted or incompetent husbands are no different. You would not just naturally want to submit to your husband, even if He were a very Godly and competent husband, if what he wanted was not what you wanted. How much more so when you are given an incompetent, ungodly husband who has no real fear of God or regard for His Word?

But none of this changes the commandment of the spirit:

Tit 2:4 That they ["the aged women", vs 3] may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Tit 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

If you wives really "love your children, and do not want to "blaspheme... the word of God", then you must never, ever, under any circumstance, permit your children to see you withstanding your husband. How can any woman who claims that she wants to serve Christ, argue with her husband in the presence of God and her children, and make any claim at all of attempting to be "subject to [her] husband as unto the Lord?" A wife who is serious about submitting to her husband really is a rare find. Don't even claim to be a virtuous woman if you cannot even "submit to your husband in all things, as unto the Lord". When you do such a thing you really do "blaspheme... the Word of God"

How true is the question:

Pro 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

What make this valuable wife so valuable?

Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
Pro 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

Can your husband trust you to do Him good and not evil all the days of your life? Can your husband count on you to speak highly of him behind his back? I mentioned last week how discouraging it is to a woman to dread the arrival home of her husband after a long day's work when the first words out of his mouth are words of disapproval of everything you have said and done that day. There is no natural desire to please your husband to begin with, and when he adds such negative behavior to the fact that you already want to control him, we have the perfect recipe for an eventual dissolution of that marriage to the man who you at one time loved and admired and to whom you once thought you wanted to submit yourself as unto the Lord.

Well, it all works the exact same way in reverse. A man who cannot trust his wife to speak positively about him to her friends and family and the world on Facebook simply cannot trust his wife. How can a husband "safely trust" a wife who constantly derides him to her friends and family, and who simply refuses to follow His leadership? How can it possibly be said that her husband "has no need..." if he has no support from his own wife. When you show no support for your husband, and all you do is give him a bad name to your children and your friends and to your family, then don't be surprised when your children show no respect for their father or to you, and don't be surprised when your family and friends don't want you and your husband to come around. You are reaping what you have sown.

You wives are doing your husbands and yourself no good at all when you uncover your husband's 'nakedness' (his faults) to your children and to all your family and friends. Instead of "do[ing] him good all the days of [your] life, you are really "do[ing] him evil all the days of your own life" as long as you do not bring yourself to "love your husband" (Tit 2:4), repent of your desire to "control your husband (Gen 3:16), and begin to encourage your husband to take back his proper place as the head of his house, and submit yourself to your husband in all things... as unto the Lord".

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.

This is the only thing that works in a Godly marriage. There is no caveat 'Unless he is an ungodly husband' in that commandment. You may well say, "My husband likes me being the decision maker." I have actually been told that, and in today's world that is far too often true, and it is obvious in many cases that the wife is simply more qualified to be a leader than is her husband. There are indeed men who prefer that their wives be in charge of the family, and be the leader. But even if your husband never wants to make a decision, don't just cave in to that ungodly, timid spirit.

Never accomodate a lie. What a God fearing wife must do in such cases is to encourage her husband to become a leader, and take the time to subtly show him and educate him as to what his proper role is as her husband and what his proper place is as the head of the family. Your husband may never learn to be the head of his own family in this life, but you as his wife ought never stop encouraging him to take the lead, and to be the leader of his own wife and children.

A Godly husband appreciates such a valuable and trustworthy wife, and he will inform his children that their mother is the most important person in this world to him. He lets his children know in no uncertain terms that their mother is their boss when he is not around. She is also their boss when their father is around. Every Godly husband will make it clear that His wife has him on her side at all times. Proverbs 31 makes it clear that a woman should have great latitude in family matters under her husband's headship, to run the affairs of the home. When we read the rest of Proverbs 31, it becomes obvious that a Godly man can and should trust his wife with the running of the children and the matters that concern the household.

Just as women need their husbands to make them feel loved and needed and appreciated, so must you wives make your husbands to feel they are loved and needed and appreciated. A marriage is an outward symbol of the body of Christ of which we are told:

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Let's be honest and realistic and Biblical in considering all we are saying here today. Let's all recognize and appreciate the fact that the spiritual 'giants in our land' are not driven out in one year, rather they are driven out "by little and little" until we are given dominion over the land which we are given of the Lord to occupy:

Exo 23:29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.
Exo 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

A quick easy work would produce nothing but the beast of self-righteousness, as the book of Job demonstrates (Job 29). It takes time to develop into a Proverbs 31 wife just as it takes time for a man to become a God-fearing husband. But as you are given to dominate and destroy the giant beast within you, this is the fruit that a Proverbs 31 wife produces:

Pro 31:13 She seeks wool and flax, and works willingly with her hands.

A God-fearing wife works hard to cover the nakedness of her entire family. She does not go around uncovering that nakedness, because she loves her husband, and he can trust that she will do him good and not evil all the days of her life, and this is the wisdom in her mouth and the fruit of the love she has for her husband and her family:

Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.

Pro 17:9 He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

Jas 5:20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

1Pe 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Read those four verses carefully and ask the Lord to strengthen you to become a wife who can be trusted by her husband to do him good and not evil for all the days of your life.

Let's continue to see what a wise, God-fearing husband sees in his most valued God-fearing wife:

Pro 31:14 She is like the merchant ships: she brings her bread from afar.
Pro 31:15 She also rises while it is yet night, and gives food to her household, and their task to her maidens.
Pro 31:16 She considers a field, and buys it. With the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
Pro 31:17 She girds her loins with strength, and makes strong her arms.
Pro 31:18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out by night.
Pro 31:19 She lays her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
Pro 31:20 She stretches out her hand to the poor, yea, she reaches forth her hands to the needy.

All of this is a perfect description of Christ Himself as accepting the Headship He is under. Everything He did was intended to please His head:

Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

A Godly wife seeks not her own will but the will of her head. She does not accuse her husband of his shortcomings because the wisdom of her mouth teaches her and her children and her family and her friends that her husband's sins are not his sins, but those sins and shortcomings are the work of "the law of sin" which the One lawgiver, God Himself, has placed in her husband's members. She deals with the trials the Lord gives her in the way the wisdom and fear of God dictate. In other words, she is obedient to the Lord's words whether her husband is or not.

We are going to stop for now, and pick up here next week as we continue to see that all either husband or wives do, whether it is good or evil, is a work of God in our lives and for our good, after the counsel of His own will, and we will end this study for now with these verses which should remind us all Who it is who is sending us all of our trials:

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

2Co 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

[The first part of this marriage series can be found here.]
[The next part of this marriage series can be found here.]

Hello, Mike

I just watched a shameful performance by Babylonian minister Gregory Dickow. He spent the entire sermon talking about the woman with the issue of blood and how she utilized her faith by touching the hem of Christ’s garment, and then he went through the (carnal) old testament synopsis on what the hem of a garment means, and that that garment was actually Jesus’ prayer shawl. To make this short, at the end of his show, of course, the money-making scheme came to surface, and he offered people to buy a “replica” of Jesus’ prayer shawl as the obligatory “point of contact” to enact miracles in our lives.

My question is: what is the TRUE spiritual significance of this story about the hem of Jesus’ garment?

Thank you, Mike… and by the way, your Revelation series has been a HUGE blessing to me. I have been going back and forth about whether Christ was made sin, or just a sin offering and NOT born in sin as we were, and it caused me great anguish as to which was correct. I am convinced that Christ indeed was made sin, and it took God opening my eyes. I think this makes me associate more with my Saviour, knowing that He indeed was flesh and blood JUST as I am.

Thank you again, D____

Hi D____,

Thank you for your question, and let me say that I am encouraged to know that you are coming to see that Christ’s flesh was ‘the same as the children of Abraham’.

Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
Heb 2:15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on [ him the nature of] angels; but he took on [ him] the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

If Christ’s flesh was not really “the same… as the children,” then He is not capable of “comforting (succouring) them that are tempted.”

All who deny this part of the revelation of Jesus Christ are singled out as “that spirit of antichrist.”

1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

It so happens that the vast majority of Christians deny that Christ struggled against His flesh. In doing so they are denying that He was actually in every way tempted as we are.

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

That is the spirit of antichrist, and it has been around and gaining strength since before the apostles died.

Now to your question, You ask:

My question is, what is the TRUE spiritual significance of this story about the hem of Jesus’ garment?

The answer to your question lies in understanding the spiritual significance of the word ‘garment.’ The hem of Christ’s garment is just part of His garment and happens to be the most outer part of any garment and the most accessible. However, knowing that the hem is the outer edge of a garment does us no good at all if we do not understand the spiritual meaning of Christ’s garment.

The short answer is that our garments represent Christ in us, because we are told that “the white linen garments are the righteousness of the saints”, and we are told that our righteousness is always of God and of Christ in us and not of ourselves:

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure [Christ in us] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Rev 19:8  And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Our righteousness of “not of us” but is “Christ in us.” Our righteousness, “Christ in us”, is our garment that covers our nakedness:

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

The angel of the church of the Laodeceans thinks he has much more than “touched the hem of His garment,” this angel thinks that he is covered with Christ’s garments, and in need of nothing when, in reality, he is naked, and very much in need.

This lady who wants only to touch the hem of Christ’s garment, is very much aware of her diseased condition, and acknowledges her need. While Christ is intent on clothing us with His garments as His bride, we come to Him with the attitude of the prodigal son, asking only to be a servant in the house of our loving Father, because we are now shamefully aware of our naked and humiliated and diseased condition and position.

Luk 15:13  And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
Luk 15:14  And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
Luk 15:15  And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Luk 15:16  And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Luk 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luk 15:18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Luk 15:19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

These two stories are saying the same thing. God will bring His elect to see their flesh for the disease that it is.

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Once this is acknowledged and all vestiges of ‘self’ have been burned and humiliated out of us and we acknowledge our own worthlessness, only at that point are we qualified to begin to be of any use to Him who uses the weak and despised things to confound the wise and the mighty.

1Co 1:25  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Why is God operating in this way? “That no flesh should glory in His presence.” Not even the flesh of Christ. It is right there in the same chapter that informs us that Christ was “made sin.”

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
2Co 5:21  For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

I think you know that the brackets indicate that the words ‘to be’ are not in the Greek.

That is the significance of wanting only to touch the hem of His garment. It was Christ’s spiritual garment that covered Christ’s flesh, and it is His garment that covers our sinful flesh. When we come to Him seeking only to touch the hem of His garment, then, and only with that attitude, will we be given a new robe and a ring and a party in celebration of finding that one lost sheep that has come to see his need for repentance.

Touching only His hem is a spiritually humble attitude, which is displayed by the humble publican, the humble prodigal, the woman at the well who was discovered with many husbands and a live-in, the woman caught in the very act of adultery and the man who was born blind and was healed and was then cast out of the synagogue. It is after we are cast out and humiliated that Christ finds us and we find Him, and we touch the hem of His garment and are made to know and worship Him.

Joh 9:35  Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36  He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37  And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
Joh 9:38  And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
Joh 9:39  And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40  And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41  Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Everything of the spirit is counterintuitive to the natural man. “If I can but touch the hem of His garment” is an attitude of humility which recognizes the greatness and righteousness of Christ and feels unworthy to take up His precious time with such a worthless person, who really would like to be more like this great man. This is the spirit that is of value to God:

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

I will close with one more example of an attitude of ‘If I can but touch the hem of His garment, if I can only be just a little bit like my Lord.’

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.
Mat 8:7  And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.
Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
Mat 8:9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Mat 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

God’s carnal ‘Israel’ has long ago forsaken Him and does not “tremble at His Word.” But Christ “marvels” at an attitude which says, ‘This is the man I want to be like, but I am not worthy to even be in the same house with this man.’

So the answer to your question is that “touching the hem of Christ’s garment” is a spirit which accepts the inadequacies of our own flesh, but which wants to be able to ‘do all things through this great man, our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Your brother in Christ,

Mike