Underwear
Unlike the authoritarian benefactors of the Gentile nations, the Church, as the government of God, was to provide their service only by the charity and free will offerings of the people. Love, humility and forgiveness are required to make such systems, operating under the perfect law of liberty, a true blessing for both rich and poor alike.
The Levites were also naked of any exercising authority. They could not go up by steps lest they reveal that nakedness. The people were told to make underwear, a covering, for them.1[1] Giving them a covering and being naked has nothing to do with the clothes they wear. It is about coverture and the power or authority to act and lead by serving. The Levites had no inheritance, no personal estate, nor any exercising authority. They were a government. Their success depended upon the good will of the people who freely gave them their covering by tithing to them according to their service.
Charity is marked by Paul as the greatest of gifts and that personal sacrifice not only saves those who fall on hard times but also frees and matures the grantors of charity in the practice of the virtues, sacrifices and ways of Christ. Those called out ministers of Christ’s were appointed a kingdom at hand. They were restricted by several of Christ’s proclaimed conditions.
They were not to exercise authority in the management and service to the people seeking the kingdom but they were to be benefactors of the people.2[2] They were to willing become new members of His Family, a brotherhood belonging to God.3[3] They were to give up their personal estate and like the Levites before them they became the Poor Preachers of His Kingdom. Christ was specific in His requirements for the ministry of His Holy Church.4[4] Modern ministers often object to the mention of Christ’s clear doctrine.5[5]
- ↑ Exodus 28:42 “And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:”
- ↑ Luke 22:25 “And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.”
- ↑ Luke 14:26 “If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.”
- ↑ Luke 14:33 “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”
- ↑ The word hath in Luke 14:33 is also translated: hast in Matthew 19:21, “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.” substance in Luke 8:3, “And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” Have in Luke 12:33, “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.” goods in Luke 19:8, “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore [him] fourfold.” Ands, 1 Corinthians 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. possessed in Acts 4:32, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any [of them] that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.”