“My soul is weary of my life …” (Job 10:11, KJV)
In the teaching of Day 840 we started examining the extent of the spirit of perversity. Although the sub-series we’ve just concluded specifically concentrated on the manifestation of this spirit in the contemporary church, the working of this spirit stretches much further into the ordinary lives of believers.
We have spoken about how the spirit of perversity robs any matter, terrain or action of its intended (“straight”) nature, and distorts it, adds false value, meaning or connotation to it. It removes calling and purpose from people and things. It takes the character of truth and intended nature of people and things. Within its corrupting influence it loosens whatever is in its grip from its original ownership and conditions of use. The spirit of perversion influences one’s way of thinking by confusion, false arguments, hyperbole (exaggeration), casting important things as unimportant, misinterpretation, innuendo – it is a dedicated attempt to derail your communication and way of thinking.
In the sub-series that follows we would like to specifically focus on this perversion of the believer, on that which pollutes their spiritual functioning, “severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives” (Matt. 12:32, Msg).
In 1 Pet. 1:9 Peter centres his letter on one of the most important aspects of our walk of faith, when he explains that the end goal of the believer’s faith is the salvation of his soul. Obviously man’s spirit is rendered perfect when he is born again, “saved … through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”, but the soul dimension remains unchanged. Human nature, the embodiment of the soul, must be saved. Rom. 6:22: “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.” Some translations rightly refer to the “deliverance” (ABP) of the soul. A few verses later Paul explains this process of sanctification: “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Pet. 1:13-16).
Years of counselling have taught me that one of the most important reasons that people cannot move into the fullness of their identity in Christ is their inability to love themselves. It is interesting that when Jesus is asked a trick question about what is the most important commandment, by one of the scholars of the Law, he actually offers an answer not derived from the mainstream arguments of the Old Testament, but from quite an obscure section in Lev. 19 that speaks about acquiring a Godly nature. In Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee he summarises the chapter as follows: “God gives these instructions to Moses the lawgiver, and they amplify a portion of the Ten Commandments. God exacts holy conduct on the basis that He is holy.” It is found here, in the guidelines for everyday living: “Laws Promoting Practical Holiness Before God and Man” (as it is stipulated in the The Bible Knowledge commentary, in verses 18 and 34: “love your neighbor as yourself”.
Thus, when Jesus answers the Law scholar’s question of what the greatest commandment in the Law is, He says: “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:35-40).
And when God created man, He created him “in the Image of God”. We learn this from Gen. 1:27 – “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
With the Fall man lost the characteristic nature of God in which he was created. Because everyone has sinned in Adam, all people lack the glory of God (Rom. 3:23), in other words, we all lack “grace and truth” (John 1:14). We have no natural desire for “truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6), and we have no natural grace – “His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes” (Prov. 21:10).
Because of the spirit of perversity within him the fallen person also does not have grace for himself. We must all become acquainted with “the grace of God in truth” (Col. 1:6), the “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). Without that we will continuously insult the “Spirit of grace” (Heb. 10:29). Remember: “A perverse heart is abominable to the Lord (Prov. 11:20, DRB); and also: “For there will be no mercy for you if you have not been merciful to others.” (James 2:13, NLT).
The fall marks the point at which “the god of this world” perverted the way man thinks, looks and reacts, “lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). Herein lies an incredibly important key with regards to the necessity of loving oneself. Only once you have received “the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13), can you look at yourself and at others with grace. Only then can you become a minister of “the manifold grace of God” (1 Pet. 4:10).
Please do not miss the hidden depths of 2 Cor. 4:4 in the paragraph above. You only regain the “image of God” when your spiritual eyes are opened to understand “the gospel of the glory of Christ”. Please selah: the gospel of the glory of Christ = the image of God. Ensure thus, as 2 Pet. 3:18 says, that you “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
In her book Restoring the Christian soul, Leanne Payne writes the following: “Today, there is a multitude of Christians whose failure to accept themselves is accompanied by a needless and ongoing sense of guilt and shame, or even more critically, an intense and even pathological self-hatred.” This is one of man’s primal perversities. Our collective wound from Adam being cast from paradise has caused us all to be disgusted with the self, and since then we have endlessly been busy working the earth, ourselves: “So GOD expelled them from the Garden of Eden and sent them to work the ground, the same dirt out of which they’d been made.” (Gen. 3:23, Msg). This is why the unregenerated man says, like Job (1:10): “My soul is weary of my life …”
Rom. 8:2 explains there is a certain law at work in all people who have lost the Image of God: “the law of sin and death”. This pressing law in each person needs to be replaced by “the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus”, the only law that frees you from sin and death, and fills you with truth and grace, thus with glory, so that you can learn how to truly love yourself. More on this in the next teaching.
- Selah: Do you truly love yourself?
- Read: 1 Chr. 23-25; Ps. 131, 138, 139, 143-145.
- Memorise: 139:14 (note the synchronicity!).
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Leanne Payne’s book Restoring the Christian soul.
