IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 942

ON LOVE; PART DXXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).

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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

In the last essay we discussed again the role of the Pharisee and the other religious leaders of the Jews in Jesus’ time and we noted again that these ARE NOT evil men as we would consider evil today; these were men who believed in what they were taught and in the traditions of their elders. Their sin, from the perspective of the Advent of Christ, was that they DID NOT recognize Jesus in their presence; that they could not reconcile His miracles and His speech with their own views of God and the coming of the Messiah. Jesus ways, His talk and His disagreement with doctrines and the traditions of the Jews created an air of animosity rather than a welcoming of their Messiah because they DID NOT believe, based upon these things, that He could be the one. This IS of course predicted in rather vague terms by the Prophets and the Jews DO NOT see this either, and this IS True even after this is pointed to by much of what He said and did. These men are blinded by their own doctrines and ways and even the many miracles of the Master could not sway these ‘religious’ men who Truly believed that they served God. And the Master understood this until the end as we read of His caution to His disciples saying: “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh , that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2). Here we should understand that this type of killing is an accepted practice in those times and for testimony we have the Crucifixion of the Lord and the stoning of Stephen as examples.

Our point in repeating these things IS simply to show the current reality of religion in the world today and how the Christian world has its preconceived ideas about the return of the Master and, although there are many different versions among the denominations and the sects, any return outside of these would create a situation similar to that which happened nearly 2000 years ago. This IS further exasperated by the emotional and devotional approach that most of today’s Christian religion maintains as well as worldwide spread of Christian Doctrine. In that day it was the less religious that heard and believed the Master first as they had less preconception and much appreciation for His works and His words and there IS NO reason to believe that were He to come among us today that this would be any different. As we have said in past essays, we CAN NOT even imagine how the Christ would come among us again today, in the complexities of today’s world where instant information and judgement reign. There are men and groups in the world today that claim that He has returned and that He had lived here or there and taught; CAN we believe them? The Truth of Christ is that He IS the personification of the Love of God and in this we can see most anyone who can be as the Master was and DO as the Master did; not the miracles so much as the words, the words of Love and of harmony and of placing one’s attention on the things of God. In this reality there can be many Christs, many who can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And we should remember here that Jesus told us how that we should KNOW the false teacher from the True as He says so simply: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” and again that “by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:16, 20). These words are from the same Sermon on the Mount that we are discussing and we should see here that the Master was as much referring to Himself as to any others. We DO NOT KNOW when nor do we KNOW how the Master will return but we can say that the Christ can Truly come to us again in the expression of ANY man who can let loose of the world of things, overcome it, and express the fullness of the Love and the Power of his own Soul which IS the Love and the Power that IS Christ and the Christ Within.

It is based in the historical picture that the Master Himself paints for us that we should be able to see the likely world response to the return of the Master if He does not come according to the preconceptions. And this will be further exasperated if He should come speaking against the multiplicity of Christian Doctrines that in the end are not much different that those of the Jews which were the subject of the prediction by the prophets in sayings that the Master repeats saying: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). And can we imagine if He were to come in another race, as one of different features or color than is ‘expected’, an expectation that likely differs around the world? So many are expecting to see Jesus instead of the Christ and in this they fail to understand the reality of the the True man, the Soul, and this is one of the greater failures of doctrine which may make it nearly impossible for the Christian world to accept one that Truly comes in the Name of Christ. However, in His words that “Ye shall know them by their fruits“, we should see our Truth and while we can ask here just what are the fruits by which we can KNOW, this answer should be evident. NOT only those virtues that are itemized by the Apostle Paul should be counted here as these are more the result than the action, but the actions themselves which can be found right here in this Sermon on the Mount that we are discussing. While we may not be able to rightly discern just what some of the Master’s words mean as we discovered in the last post, we CAN KNOW the most of them if we can look at His precepts without trying to limit them and their effect upon our behavior; if we can just take His words as the Truth as most of them ARE rather clear.

In the verse that we discussed in the last essay we are unsure about the idea of Raca and the calling of another “thou fool” and we understand that the utterance of words does not incur the judgement and the “hell fire” that the Master speaks of; in our view that there must be some other meaning here. At the same time we do KNOW what killing is and we do understand that the interpretation of murder is just to assuage the feelings of men who may kill by accident or carelessness or in wars which we did not mention. For us killing is the right rendering as we showed from the Old Testament usage of the idea but our understanding should be even more as the Master equates to this the very anger that can cause such killing or murder. This word anger we DO understand. In this saying: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22), we did not address the idea of being “without a cause” and this is because only a few of the translations frame the anger this way. In most the idea is plainly just anger and here we should see that to be angry without cause is not even a rational idea. And to our point on varying doctrines, it IS interesting to note how the ideas of doctrine can lead a man astray; in this saying IS the word brother IS treated as it should be by most commentary but there are bible translations that change the idea as we read in the God’s Word Translation which renders this as: “whoever is angry with another believer“; this IS plainly doctrinal and it IS wrong.

In the rest of this saying we should try to understand that there IS a meaning that IS NOT what is apparent on the surface; the reality of this is likely found in the word say and the way that that word relates to the rest of the saying. Again we are not fluent in Greek but we do note that in the King James Version, which IS keyed to Strong’s ³, the Greek word rendered as say is lego in the first instance where it is the Master who is speaking and the Greek word epo is used in the remainder of the text In the American Standard Version for which we have the interlinear text however , they use lego throughout and this is not apparent to us in the Greek text. Vine’s DOES NOT list epo as a Greek word that is used as say but lists it as command and tells us that it can be rendered as said ⁶  and perhaps here we can find some resolution which we DO NOT yet see as this word is used two times in another saying and rendered differently: “And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread” (Luke 4:3); here epo IS rendered first as said and then as command in this single saying. We must remember that we are trying to take the idea that this word expresses in Greek and find that same expression in English and here, in our view, say is not an appropriate expression and neither is the conversion of this to lego.

Our next saying from the Sermon IS: “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). Based upon the beginning of this we should see that there IS some relationship to the last saying so that this anger, or the implications of Raca and fool, must be assuaged before one can rightly approach God. Here we should easily see that one CAN NOT approach God if there is any division between a man and his brother and here we should note the way that this IS framed is complementary to the previous idea of anger; First DO NOT be angry with one’s brother and then deal as well with the brother’s anger. Now IS NOT only anger as the Master says if one’s “brother hath ought against thee” and this can mean anything including the implications of the previous ideas of Raca and “thou fool“. There are many theories as to why a man would bring a “gift to the altar“; some in regard to Jewish traditions and doctrines as in trespass offerings and the like, but we should try to keep this simple, as that this IS as Jesus says, a gift, an offering to the Lord, even flowers or lit candles or tithes. The point here IS NOT to over think this but to accept the idea as a gift of any order and for any purpose and that one should not do this if he IS at odds with his neighbor. The Greek word rendered as reconciled is diallasso and this IS the only place that we find this word in the New Testament; it means: to effect an alteration, to exchange, and hence, to reconcile, according to Vine’s ⁶. The sense here of reconcile the likely result that the Master seeks; that a man will do whatsoever is necessary to correct his problem with his brother to the end that there IS no longer anything amiss between them.

The essential idea here IS forgiveness insofar as whatsoever each party may have against the other IS forgotten in the True understanding of forgiveness and that this IS done in Love. Just as this saying builds upon the ideas from the last one regarding anger, and creates a situation where the cessation of anger becomes mutual, so these ideas of Love and forgiveness will be built up as we proceed. Here in the combination of these first two sayings on the interaction of man with man, the reality IS that one should not approach God if one IS angry, which the Master speaks against directly; or, as in the second, if anyone IS angry with him.  Again, in addition to anger here one should consider also any other thing can be see in Jesus’ idea of “ought against thee“. In both of these we have a common sense approach to Love for one’s neighbor and the elimination of anything that can disturb that Love. The Master moves this to a more legalistic approach in the next sayings and while we DO NOT KNOW the ways that these things worked out in that day, we can likely see the extension in modern times where disputes and disagreements can easily lead to legal action. We read: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing” (Matthew 5:25-26).

We should remember here that there IS a parabolic value to His words and here we can see this saying following upon the last two, as the negative result of the man who seeks out his neighbor to reconcile. Here we should see that one’s own anger is already dealt with along with the implications of Raca and “thou fool“. In the next sayings this is turned to the other party as that this man who has shed his own anger now must reconcile with his brother and “effect an alteration” in his attitude as well. We should see anger as the result and not the cause in ALL these ideas and understand that it IS the “ought against thee” that must be addressed as well. It IS in this that we see the current saying which cuts both ways, it affects both persons in the dispute, and should no reconciliation come, there is then the threat and the result of legal action. To be sure, in most every scenario that we can imagine, one of the parties is at fault. The call here is for BOTH parties to reconcile and in this perhaps we can see the other idea from Vine’s on this Greek word diallasso which is to exchange.  On the one hand then is to make amends and on the other is the forgiveness and in many cases these both must be seized by the parties and the Master’s point is that it IS better to swallow one’s pride and make things right; to admit wrong and make amends and to forgive and forget, than to endure the consequences which can include judgement in court, prison and the payment of “the uttermost farthing“.

Of course legal action IS more complex than this and our current societies are more complex as well; but the Master’s message still stands. Forgive and forget; admit wrongs and make amends and do not let anything interfere with that Love that one IS commanded to give to his brother. There IS NO disclaimer in the commandment; neither in the original pronouncement of it nearly 3500 years ago nor in the Master proclamation that this IS one of the two Great Commandments nearly 2000 years ago. The words are simply that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“; NO disclaimers attached whatsoever.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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 a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.

My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

•  ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996