The Government of God series continues with Part 5 

Before I launch into applications of the principles of the government of God that we have been talking about over these many session, I want to do a brief summary.  When we do come to talking about applications, we will look at a variety of things.

One of the main purposes of understanding Kingdom jurisprudence is, for example, to understand how disputes are resolved, whether: 
• Personally, between individuals,
• Between groups of people, 
• Or between the church as it exists in one city versus another city, and so on.
• Another is to determine order: what is the behavior that is acceptable across the spectrum of this people referred to as the Kingdom of God.
• We need to look at the distribution of resources so that, as Scripture says, things are done by way of equality.   
• How are we to view one another when externally we are different? 
• What are the issues involved in curing racism, curing sexism, curing the disparity in economic means, and so on? 
• What are the ways in which order functions in a family as between a husband and a wife, for example, and as between children and parents? 
• What are the ways in which a household that is related to an apostle in one city relates to another household that is related to a different apostle within the same city? 
• And beyond all of that, when all these different households come together, what is the order that prevails within a singular household versus the order that prevails “when the whole church comes together in one place.”

The government of God is sorely needed in the House of God. The nations will not accept the government of God. But God means to use us to show it to them so that people—persons, individuals—within these nations may say, “Theirs is the only form of governance that actually works. So let us go up and inquire how for ourselves we might appropriate this demonstrated governance.”  That is what I am moved to share with you over these many messages. I will continue to do one other summary, and then we will move on to the applications.