Monthly Archives: July 2013

ON LOVE; PART CCCXXXIX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

In the last essay we continued with our discussion regarding the Kingdom of God and how the Master tells us of the importance that this takes on once a man can realize some bit of it, once he can glimpse its reality a that state of being here and now. It IS unfortunate that the doctrines of the churches have not moved beyond their aged ideas on heaven and hell as reward and punishment for the Life of the man in the Earth, considering the gross sins as elements of punishment but not considering the vast majority of what is spoken against in scripture, in the multiplicity of separate commandments offered by Jehovah through Moses. Or, if some of these are considered, they are not considered in the same way as those more gross offenses that reflect the need for punishment in that eternal hell which is imagined as a lake of fire by some and equally horrific pictures of doom by others. For those who may consider the marginal offenses as the way to purgatory, which has no scriptural basis, there is also no True definition of what these may be and, in our vision, they still do not cover the long list that is enunciated by Moses of which so many are in regard to the treatment of one man by another or, how we should act in Love. Granted that there are many offenses that were peculiar to the times and to the sense of worship that the Jew was taught, in sacrifice, in eating and in the idea of being unclean along with the much misunderstood ideas on the Sabbath, but this does not detract from the reality that Christ taught regarding the law, and if one were to look deeper into some of these more antiquated laws, one would likely see some ways in which the deeper meanings of them could be continued yet to today as many were seemingly intended to protect a man from himself and from others.

The Master tells us clearly that: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till  heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). While many may believe the the Master Himself is the fulfillment of the law, we would wonder where they may get this idea that in His death the law is of none effect save from the misunderstanding of His words and the words of the Apostle Paul who tries to reason the law into a more modern and effective way. Jesus, in His own teaching to the people makes it clear that man CAN NOT make the law of none effect as He rails against those who have changed it by tradition saying in part that by doing so they are “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” (Mark 7:13). And, for those who do believe that the law is over and that the Master was the fulfillment of ALL, we should note that in the Apostle Luke’s Gospel there is no such safe harbor as the Master says more simply that: “…it is easier for heaven and earth to pass , than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). Christ teaches us that the law stands but he teaches us as well that in the Great Commandment, those words on Love that are taken from the law, plus His teaching on the Golden Rule which is but another way of expressing this Great Commandment, that ALL of the law can be fulfilled. And Paul, while he says many things to specific audiences of disciples and aspirants about the law versus the reality of the teachings of the Christ, he tells us as well that “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:8-10). Here is these few words is the reality of the teachings of the Christ, that in the conformance by the man in the world to the commandments of Love as they are expressed in the law and in the words of the Master, ALL is accomplished, ALL is fulfilled.

But this IS lost in doctrine and this perhaps because there is such difficulty in achieving this Love for ALL, this Love according to the teachings of the Master who tells us that we should “….resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” and that we should “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:39, 44). In these words is the avoidance of ALL the wars and the strife and the prejudices and the taking over of one man’s Life by another; in these words is the Truth of Life and of Love and, as the apostle makes abundantly clear, here IS “the fulfilling of the law“. And so that we should not be confused by the severity of any sin or offence against the law we have these equally clear and lost words from the bluntly worded verses of the Apostle James who says: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11).

And who is it that decides the mortal from the venial when it comes to sin, who decides that a particular offense leads to hell while others to purgatory or that ALL is forgiven and washed clean by the Blood of the Christ or by the Grace of God based in some pronouncement or affirmation of faith. Does the church decide these things and then if so, which church is right and which church is wrong in the global view these conventions of men which CAN NOT and DO NOT work. It is every man that judges himself as the God Within views the Life of the man in the world and KNOWS his state and this in not accomplished only at death by as a steady stream of prompting, a steady effect of conscience which can be heeded or ignored or lost in the constant clamor of Life in this world. And then, in view of ALL this what IS the reality of sin? If James can equate one with another regardless of severity, and his examples are just that examples, could it be that the common understanding of sin is wrong and the that right understanding is more in line with our reality that sin IS the focus of the man on the self and the self in the world and the severity of sin is the degree of such focus of man on the self and the things of the world? Can we see this reality in Paul’s words that tell us that “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); he CAN NOT say that ALL are murderers or adulterers but he CAN say that from the perspective of the self in the world that ALL focused there to at least some degree and these ideas of self are sprinkled into his own words regarding those opposites of the fruit of the Spirit: “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings” (Galatians 5:19-21).

• What can we say about adultery and fornication which is commonplace in our society, even among the clergy? And, is it fair or right to single out the unmarried couple in Love for special condemnation in this rather than the rampant world of prostitution or the emptiness of Life for the whore of either sex. And is it fair or right to single out gay and lesbian couples for special condemnation when the reality of fornication moves across gender lines and where there is no specific homosexual offense in scripture but only in the minds of men who seek somewhat of a safer harbor for their own offences. 
• What is the True meaning of uncleanness? Can we understand the lexicon’s definition of the Greek word akatharsia as: 1) uncleanness a) physical b) in a moral sense: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living 1) of impure motives ². This IS NOT only in sexual conduct but in Life conduct as we can see here in the idea of luxurious, profligate living. And should we not see here the ideas of Paul from Vincent’s perspective on this word uncleanness where he says: in Matthew 23:27 of the corruption of the sepulchre. Elsewhere in N.T. of sensual impurity. See Romans 1:24; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19. Here in the sense of impurity on the side of sordidness. In Ephesians 4:19, Paul speaks of working uncleanness ( ἀκαθαρσίαν ) in a spirit of selfish desire ( πλεονεξία ) which is the spirit of covetousness. In Ephesians 5:3, uncleanness and covetousness are closely associated. Paul means that his exhortation did not proceed from greed for gain or lust for power ⁴. We should be able to see the far reaching effects of this grossly misunderstood word.
• And what of lasciviousness? A more sexual word than uncleanness in the common understanding but yet another that has far reaching effects; the lexicon here tells us that this Greek word aselgeia means: unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence ², and much of this IS sexually oriented. Vincent however gives us more as he discusses this word from the Master’s speaking it in the Apostle Mark’s Gospel; Vincent tells us of the Greek word that: Derivation unknown. It includes lasciviousness, and may well mean that here; but is often used without this notion. In classical Greek it is defined as violence, with spiteful treatment and audacity. As in this passage its exact meaning is not implied by its being classed with other kindred terms, it would seem better to take it in as wide a sense as possible – that of lawless insolence and wanton caprice, and to render, with Trench, wantonness, since that word, as he remarks, “stands in remarkable ethical connection with ἀσέλγεια , and has the same duplicity of meaning” (“Synonyms of the New Testament”). At Romans 13:13, where lasciviousness seems to be the probable meaning, from its association with chambering ( οίταις )it is rendered wantonness in A. V. and Rev., as also at 2 Peter 2:18  ⁴. Here again we have a word that covers a multiplicity of offences and while these first words are commonly seen ONLY in a sexual way, these ideas from existing commentary texts should bring greater enlightenment as to the very nature of sin as we speak of it.
• Idolatry is another crooked word; that it is related to the Old Testament ideas of worshiping other gods should not effect the our common understanding the way that it has as in this word Paul himself defines it for us elsewhere saying: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5). Of another use of the word, as referring to the person who practices idolatry, by the apostle, Vincent tells us that we should see that: This is the earliest known instance of the use of the word. For the collocation of the covetous and idolaters, compare Colossians 3:15; Ephesians 5:5. New-Testament usage does not confine the term to the worship of images, but extends it to the soul’s devotion to any object which usurps the place of God ⁴. We should be able to clearly see the reality of our understanding of focus in these words by Vincent and the supported intent here of Paul.
• Witchcraft is a word that has its own meaning so far as we can see; it is alternately rendered as sorcery and here we look to Webster’s for some understanding of this word in English; we read: Divination by the assistance, or supposed assistance, of evil spirits, or the power of commanding evil spirits; magic; necromancy; witchcraft; enchantment ¹. Without getting into a Medieval mindset of witches and spells or into the more modern ideas of religiously oriented spells and incantations, we should note again that we are speaking about sin as the concentration of one’s Life, one’s focus, upon the self and the things of the self. Here in this understanding we can see the working of the carnal mind and emotions, to focus their power as one or as a group on the working of some thing in the world. And while this IS related in some small way with the realities of the Power of the Soul as spoken of by the Master and seen in the healing Life of the True disciples, the objectives of this work are purely for the self and the self or the extended self in the world. And, much as we have spoken previously about the religious art of healing as practiced by the well meaning man in the churches today, this witchcraft or sorcery is at best unpredictable in its effectiveness. We should add here that there IS much also of a profit motive involved with those who prostitute themselves in this fashion but who, at the same time, have little or nothing to offer save some ability to talk smoothly; these cast a pall upon ALL those other well meaning and capable persons who, while they may not Truly understand what it is that they do, are sincere in their beliefs.
• Next we have hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife which we will treat as a group of like offenses or sins. Many of these are not particularly considered as sin at all but which in our view of sin ARE that wrong focus upon the self, and which are as much a sin as any other in this list. Hatred we ALL KNOW and from this list we should be able to see the importance of not harboring this sense of mind or emotion; Webster’s defines hatred as: Great dislike or aversion; hate; enmity. Hatred is an aversion to evil, and may spring from utter disapprobation, as the hatred of vice or meanness; or it may spring from offenses or injuries done by fellow men, or from envy or jealousy, in which case it is usually accompanied with malevolence or malignity. Extreme hatred is abhorrence or detestation ¹ in the 1828 version which gives us a bit more understanding that our more modern understanding. Variance is rendered from eris, another ill understood Greek word which while like strife and contention which are a part of its definition in the lexicon which also includes wrangling ², should be seen as more. It is interesting to note here that this word is generally rendered as strife and that here in these sayings another word had taken that rendering; other bible translations alter this so that here in this word eris the rendering is strife and in the other place under the Greek word eritheia where King James renders strife, we find disputes, selfish ambitions and factions rendered by others; on these ideas, which we have read about previously from the sayings of James, Vincent tells us clearly that strife IS a wrong rendering and that it is rather some combination of what we cite here as that which is found in other translations. Now there is likely reason for the King James rendering here and elsewhere that has been lost in time and we may never KNOW the True intent; however, to be sure, these are both to do with the actions of the self in the world and if eris IS strife and eritheia is selfish ambitions, we should be able to see at least a part of the picture that the apostle is painting for us. Similarly we should look to emulations as another word that identifies man’s selfish nature; this word is rendered as envy and as jealousy by others and we should see greater understanding in the idea of emulation as we read in Vincent’s words on this Greek word zelos as used in James’ portrayal of what IS NOT Wisdom from above; Vincent says there that this word does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion ⁴. We should be able here to see the intimate relationship of these words used by Paul to tell us what ARE those works of the flesh and here we should also see the common thread of self, of self-seeking, self-devotion, etc., resulting in envy and jealousy and those other things that are caused by these ideas like hatred and wrath which is the last word in this part of the list. Wrath is an allied word to anger and is seen in other uses as speaking of the “wrath of God”  (John 3:36); this wrath however is from a different Greek word and should not be confused. We should likely see this Greek word, thumos, as anger rather than wrath and thereby bypass the confusion as we should KNOW that the ideas of wrath and God are rather incompatible. In anger then as in hatred we have a state of mind or emotion against another and, in the way that these ideas are presented here, we should be able to tie them ALL to the selfish nature and tendencies of the man in the world; tendencies that ARE of the flesh and NOT of the Spirit which IS the apostles message. 

We did not intend to go down this road today but we did and we will finish our list in the next essay and for an idea of where we were heading with our thoughts today we leave these words from Paul which are from what we see as one of the most powerful and enlightening chapters of his entire work.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-5),

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888