PHUSIOO – A STUDY IN MERCY

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Author’s note: I originally wanted to call this article “PHUSIOO – CHARISMATIC SUICIDE?” But really the reproof and correction it contains extends not just to the Charismatics in the Church, but to the whole Church as well. The subject is deep, and confrontational, but also encouraging and healing. Hope you enjoy it! KRP

PHUSIOO – A STUDY IN MERCY

…for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. John 12:43 NKJV

One almost has to be a parent to understand the love of God in the Lord’s reproof and correction. Your desire is so pure for your child to do what is right because you know how they will be blessed if they do. You have a firm foundation of what is right and wrong, evil and good, blessed and destructive, and your child hasn’t built that yet. So, you are required to correct them in love, which is sometimes blunt and forceful, especially when their lives are at stake, both now and in eternity. Such is the nature and the background of this unique, and beautiful Greek word PHUSIOO which is used seven times in the Greek New Testament. Reproof and correction is the mercy of the Lord!

…is not puffed up ( PHUSIOO ); 1 Cor 13:4 NKJV

The love of God is not puffed up. This is the sixth usage of the verb PHUSIOO, and the last one in 1 Corinthians. Many of my readers are familiar with the reality that God uses words in His Word with divine design. No ‘jot or tittle’ is used haphazardly. God has a purpose for everything He says, where He says it, why He says it, how He says it, even to whom He says it. The original Scripture as it was God breathed to men of God was perfect.

PHUSIOO is used six times in 1 Corinthians, and once in Colossians. Before we get to the first usage, let’s see the context in which it is set.

Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 1 Cor 3:5 NKJV

PHUSIOO means to blow up, to set apart someone as special to the detriment of everyone else, to crown as a ‘king,’ to be worshipped as a ‘hero.’

Everyone wants recognition, but Paul’s stance regarding his own life, and Apollos’ ministry was that they were mere ministers, mere messengers, ‘nameless and faceless’ servants by whom you believed. There was no sense that Paul was setting himself up to be a hero that was worshipped, or a ruling king who would have subjects. When Paul saw the vision of the man of Macedonia, the man said, “Come over and help us!” not “Come over and rule us!”

The Lord showed me very early on that in Africa the old spirit of the village chiefs had gone into the pastors. Two years ago I attended an ordination where the ordaining bishop said the exact same thing. No wonder the people are enslaved, and the Word of God seems to have little if any benefit! This is PHUSIOO and its effects in the Church.

Back in the Colonial period European missionaries used the PHUSIOO principle to divide and conquer the central African countries in what was then the Belgian Congo.  They magnified the Tutsi people over the Hutus, which ultimately set them up for the massacre that occurred in 1959, and the ‘final solution’ in 1994. God have mercy on us! PHUSIOO in the Church has innocent blood all over it (even twenty years later I still remember with tears the skulls of the babies killed at Gitarama. They were stacked up like fresh vegetables at the massacre site which, ironically, was a church.  Do you wonder why I so passionately hate this evil? )…

We are still considering the context…

Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful. 1 Cor 4:1-2 NKJV

We will see that PHUSIOO is related to unfaithfulness in the Church, even if it is institutionalized unfaithfulness. Later we will see in the context how the Lord addresses this in light of eternal rewards at the BEMA of Christ.

Are you ready for its first usage? Please read all of these references in their context so that you get the full impact of the word.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up ( PHUSIOO ) on behalf of one against the otherFor who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? 1 Cor 4:6-7 NKJV

The Bible is its own dictionary. The first canonical usage of a word will set its basic understanding, extending through all other usages. Paul and Apollos state that we are mere ministers, not kings or heroes, so don’t think of us beyond what the Scripture says regarding all sons and daughters of God. Consider the phrase ‘on behalf of one against the other.’ I could preach on this with fire! We raise up the one to the detriment of all the others. This is the way of the world, not of the Church. ‘Who makes you to differ from one another?’ Man, not God. Demons, not the Holy Spirit. Boasting is a characteristic of PHUSIOO.

Does rejecting PHUSIOO throw out courtesy, kindness, even reverence and respect for individuals, in certain circumstances? No. What does it do? It throws out ‘kings’, ‘heros’ and the ‘classes’ of believers that we see in churches everywhere. No king but King Jesus!

I once cautioned a spiritual son that every time he took a plane flight he was separating himself from that pastor in the bush whom he was called to serve who would never fly in an airplane, so he was only to make those plane trips that he absolutely knew were the will of God.

Check 1 Corinthians 4:18, 19 for the second and third usages of PHUSIOO.

The fourth usage of PHUSIOO adds more light to its understanding.

And ye are puffed up ( PHUSIOO ), and have not rather mourned…1 Cor 5:2 NKJV

Our response to PHUSIOO should be mourning. I was once a member of a group of ministers who thought we were the tip of the spear, the best of the best in the body of Christ. Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Today, that Bible college doesn’t even exist; of those ministers, quite a number it seems are dead prematurely. I mourn the loss of those men and women, and of the good things that we did have, and could have brought to the body of Christ, but for PHUSIOO.

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 2 Cor 5:9 NKJV

2 Corinthians reminds us that all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to answer for the good and evil in our lives. The terror of the Lord is a sobering reality!

The fifth usage…

Knowledge puffs up ( PHUSIOO ), but love edifies ( builds up ). 1 Cor 8:1 NKJV

Will you allow me to get on my soapbox for a minute?

Why do we put titles in front of our names? Is it not to separate ourselves out from those who don’t have that ‘honor’? “I’m smarter than you!” “I’m more anointed than you!” “I’m special, I’m a king…and you are not special, you should serve/obey/respect/listen to me.” Will your title go to Heaven with you? Would you demand that Jesus Himself address you as ‘Dr. So and So’ or ‘Apostle So and So’? I don’t think so. Then why do you demand it of His sons and daughters? I remember meeting a dear man of God who wouldn’t allow me to call him by his first name, only by his title. How disappointing!

The sixth usage is the crushing one, because its set right in the context of the gifts of the Spirit, marking Charismatics as the most susceptible to PHUSIOO.

…love does not parade itself, is not puffed up ( PHUSIOO )…1 Cor 13:4-5 NKJV

Six is the number for the frailty of man. With the gifts of the Spirit comes the astonishing power of God, the kind of power men have always sought to establish themselves as kings and rulers. In the love of God, you reject that rulership and hero-worship. The Holy Spirit comes to glorify Jesus, not advance men and ministries. Testimonies have a time and place. But you don’t see them too often around here because I would rather preach the Word, train you and let you get your own testimony. Charismatics, beware of PHUSIOO! It will kill you…

The seventh usage really crowns our understanding of the insidious nature of PHUSIOO…

…vainly puffed up ( PHUSIOO ) by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head… Col 2:18-19 NKJV

Under the influence of PHUSIOO, the Head of the Body, the Lord Jesus Christ, is replaced with a human head. The one who is separated out becomes ‘Jesus’ to HIS people. God have mercy! Dear ones, there is only two positions in the body of Christ – Head, and member. We are ALL just members! We are not an army in the strictest sense, with officers, generals and ‘the rank and file.’ That’s another biblical concept that has ‘gone off the rails’ in the modern Church.

Finally, let’s get back to the love of God, and the simple humility in Christ. Let’s get back to esteeming each other more important than we are. Let’s give Jesus the glory, and not seek it for ourselves. Let’s reject PHUSIOO and live in the love of God! Amen? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…