Summer 2008
Call to Simplicity

2 Corinthians 11:2-4 For I am jealous over you with  (a) godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste (Ag-Non, Ag-Agathos Good, profitable, generous, beneficent [Fruitfulness ] Non-Nos- Temple [Ag-non Temples of goodness, or temples of fruitfulness] – Paul is speaking specifically of the True Church here and declaring that those that keep themselves Ag-non as temples of fruitfulness, [Which Christ himself shall partake of in this life and the next] And one should note here that the word Non is used of the Holy of Holies -- The Non of Nons, So that this partaking of fruitfulness shall be an entering into the Holy of Holies with the Lord. Virgin (Par-Thenon Partner in fruitfulness) to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity (Aplo-Te-Stos Simple,  Aplo Uncompounded, [Undivided, unmixed] Sincere, pure Te-Telos perfect or complete Sto- Stoicheion a straight rod or a straight ruler to make a straight line. [Also Paul here in using the word Aplo-Te-Stos is citing 2 Chronicles 29:17] )]) that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, (For example the Joy-less Love-less and cold hearted Christ of Augustine and Calvin) or if ye receive another spirit, (For example being baptized into the spirit of this world in the prosperity Gospel) which ye have not received, or another gospel, (For example in which men “of God no longer come to minister as servants of all, but rather to be ministered unto.) which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear (H-Ne-Ich-Esthe, H-Hdos- Pleasure, Gratification, Especially of sensual types of pleasure, Ne-Neon To give a nod of consent, Ich-Ichnos a footpath or line of conduct  Esthe- To eat or drink, To feast or banquet [This is a conversion, it is becoming the full disciples and the partaking of another]) with him. (The emissary of the serpent)

What is the simplicity of Christ?

It is that Jesus Christ is our Lord, our Master and our Savior, and that we are to disciple ourselves unto Him alone, because He has purchased us with His inesteemable blood and death upon the cross.

As purchased by Him and seeking to become His disciples we are to take His yoke upon us and to learn of Him, and to obey His words, and commandments alone.  So that when our brethren’s words or those who would declares themselves to be preachers and teachers over the flock of God differ from the words and commandments of Jesus Christ and that of the Apostles we are not to hear, obey, partake of or follow them.

Not all words are the same, not all voices are equal – as believers, we are commanded to not only hear but to divide, discern, and even scrutinize those things that we hear and to see from the pure word of scripture, and by the witness of the Spirit, if these things be so.

John 10:3-5 To him (Jesus Christ) the porter openeth; (The Holy Ghost [Note: in Discipleship The Porter is wrongly interpreted as the Pastor or Teacher]) and (Through the workings of the Holy Ghost) the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth (Unto) His Own sheep by name, (Individually and personally [As unto the child Samuel]) and (By His voice He) leadeth them out. (That they might be with Him) And when He putteth forth (Sends forth) His Own sheep, (Note the emphasis of His Ownership in this passage [Christ is speaking of this kind of relationship as available only to those that have fully surrendered their lives to Him, making him their sole shepherd.)  He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: (Do we so flee the voice of the stranger.) for they know not (Gnosko –They have no fellowship, no intimacy, they have no emotional affairs with) the voice of strangers.

1 John 2:19-21 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But ye have an unction (This Porter, The witness of the Spirit, The Anointing, The Presence of God – Which is a discerner) from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, (Through this Unction; of the Holy Spirit) but because ye know it, (Because you have fellowship with the Spirit, You are Intimate with the Anointing and Witness of the Spirit) and that no lie is of the (Spirit of) truth.

And as Christ taught:  
Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love (Agape-Seis Bond with Agape to) the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love (Agape-Seis Bond with Agape to) thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (And by this we can declare that all the teachings of Christ and the Apostles are also fulfilled in our obeying these two commandments in walking in the true Agape of God.)

In the above passage 2 Corinthians 11:2-4 Paul cites Deuteronomy 13:1, and interprets the false prophet, or dreamer of dreams “that giveth,” as one that preaches, teaches, any alterations of Christ, any alterations of the message of the gospels, and/or any alterations of the operation and functions of the Holy Spirit.    
Deuteronomy 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, (Antichrist’s, Anti- in Greek meaning: One who stands in place of.) which thou hast not known, (Christ also cites this here in His Own sheep know not the voice of another) and let us serve them; (Disciple ourselves unto them) Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

1 Chronicles 29:17 (Septuagint) And I (Solomon) know Lord that thou art He that searches the hearts and love righteousness and I have offered all these things in simplicity of heart. (Aplo-Te-Ti, Aplo Uncompounded, Sincere, pure Te-Telos perfect or complete Ti- A certain one) [Christ also quotes this as blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. – Which Solomon did]

So in this word simplicity of Christ we are to see is our being unencumbered by the doctrines and traditions of men. What is our being pure, perfect and complete here? Is Paul or Solomon speaking of sinless perfection in the use of the Greek Aplo-Te-Stos and Aplo-Te-Ti  No. The sincerity, the purity, the uncompoundedness they are speaking of is in our hearing and knowing Jesus Christ through His Porter.  The Sto- Stoicheion    that Paul adds to this sincere knowing -- is a plumb-line that points straight to Christ.  And we see further in this straight measuring rod of sincerity of Spirit to Christ, that it is a staying the course, as opposed to being blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine of other voices.

1 John 3:3 And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, (Cleanses purges and removes from himself everything that is not of this sincere knowing and of this straight Plumb-line of sincerity that points us straight to Jesus Christ) even as He is pure. (Even as Christ’s sincerity of knowing and Plumb-line of sincerity pointed straight to the Father.)