IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1020

ON LOVE; PART DCIX

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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 some of the spiritual realities that should be seen as incorporated into the idea of “without hypocrisy” is rendered from the Apostle James use of the Greek word anupokritos. In the end we have concluded that the idea that one should take from this word in this context IS that the Wisdom from above will NOT be at variance to the ways of God, and this IS a rather clear ideal for a thought or a revelation that comes from God. It appears in fact to be and idea that need not even be mentioned in a list of the attributes of such Wisdom. There IS however the deeper reality here of the ‘hidden’ hypocrisy; that IS hypocrisy that IS NOT seen by the man who so expresses this in his thoughts, attitudes or actions and this was the intent of our long look at the ideas behind this word. We should try to see here that in order to NOT be hypocritical one must see things as they Truly ARE and not as one believes them to be. As we showed, the Pharisee and the other rulers of the Jews DID NOT see themselves as hypocrites until their ways were exposed by the Master and this reality included the Apostle Paul who was likely among the more hypocritical of men in that day based upon his own testimony of his actions. It IS ONLY when he realized that he was acting in ways that were contrary to the Truth and that his doctrines and his traditions were contrary to the law, that he was able to see the reality of his own hypocrisy.

And perhaps he had heard the words of the Master against the Pharisees and the scribes and the lawyers, against ALL who believed as they did, and that his reaction in that time was the same as the others; that they took offense instead of taking His words to heart; words that could easily be seen as the greater Truth. This IS the reality of such spiritual hypocrisy; that the Truth is standing before a man but he refuses to look at it or to hear it in his heart, preferring instead to remain in the darkness of the world of men. And this IS the point of the words from John’s Gospel, from that disputed part where we DO NOT Truly KNOW that these are John’s words or the Master’s, but which set forth a Truth for that day and for this; we read again:

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God” (John 3:19-21).

The Light IS clearly in His words and men come to the Light by keeping His words over the created doctrines and traditions. And this IS the reality of hypocrisy, hidden or in plain sight, that men DO NOT keep his words yet they proclaim themselves as that they DO. The most important part of this IS in His words on Love; words that doctrines and traditions have diluted and changed for more than 3500 years; words that the Master has made the cornerstone of His teaching and which ARE clearly stated as we see in the Great Commandments that we are still carrying at the head of our essay.

And this IS the idea from James; first that Wisdom from above DOES NOT come to the man whose focus is on the self and the self in the world; Wisdom from God comes to the man who is focused upon the things of God and to the man who seeks such Wisdom. The apostle tells us in the first chapter of his epistle that:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed . For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8).

In these words we should be able to see with clarity that it IS the focused man who will receive Wisdom and perhaps it IS because this focus IS by degree that the caution on how to KNOW this Wisdom is afforded us. Can we see here that the aspirant and the disciple who ARE focused upon the things of God are yet attracted by the illusion and the glamour; and that when a man seeks such Wisdom from God, that in this his own focus MUST be sure, that he CAN NOT be seeking for wisdom in a worldly sense.

This Wisdom from above then comes to the man who is focused upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True, focused upon the things of God, and that while one may believe that he IS, that he may be yet wavering. It IS in this light then that we should see these attributes and the importance of the last one; that whatsoever one thinks IS this Wisdom IS “without hypocrisy“. In this perhaps we should see that we must look again at our own motivations and our own realization of Truth; in this perhaps we should see that a man may be seeing the purity along with the other attributes because he IS NOT using the proper scale of reference; he IS NOT using the Truth of the words of the Master. In this IS the reality of this ALL important idea of  “without hypocrisy“; if a man should see the Truth as did the Pharisee, according to his own doctrines and traditions, then he may see that his thoughts and revelations are “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality” without ever realizing that he IS measuring against the wrong scale.

There IS much difficulty here but in the right understanding of the apostle’s words and right attention to his cautions, this becomes clear to the aspirant and to the disciple to whom James IS writing; there IS little help here however for the man who believes falsely that his doctrines and his traditions are the Truth. This IS a hard assessment for a man to make unless he can make it in the Light of his own Soul as did Paul who sees this Light in a vision on the road to Damascus. He could have shrugged this off as so many men who have visions of Truth which are at odds with their doctrines DO, but he DID NOT and he had his great awakening which set him upon the True Path to the Kingdom of God. We should remember here that as “a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6), that Paul had a strong belief in his own salvation and believed as well that “he doeth God service” (John 16:2). And in this IS the greater reality of the Master’s teaching on Repentance, that this IS NOT for the man who murders and steals ONLY, it IS for ALL men who falsely see Truth in their own ideas which are contrary to the Truth of God….it IS for ALL men who ARE NOT yet Truly righteous. This idea of “without hypocrisy” IS intended to catch the man who believes that his thought or his revelation meets the criteria presented in these other attributes of Wisdom from above; this IS the last check and one that requires a man to seek the Truth of his own motivations and perhaps to foresee the result of such Wisdom in his own Life and in the world and especially in relation to his brothers.

We have looked at this word from a secular perspective and we have developed our own ideas on the reality of the apostle’s intent but we have not looked at this from the perspective of doctrine which we will do now. The word that James uses, anupokritos, is a compound word that combines the ideas of without and hypocrisy which IS from the Greek word hupokrisis which is generally rendered as hypocrisy and both are seen as derivatives of hupokrinomai which is rendered as feign. The lexicon tells us that hupokrisis means: an answering; an answer; the acting of a stage player; dissimulation, hypocrisy ² and that the contrary word anupokritos means: unfeigned, undisguised, sincere ². None of these seem to see this these words as we see them and this IS because the carnal idea of hypocrisy DOES NOT capture the totality of the intent of the Greek words; the carnal ideas present ONLY the idea that this feigning is with purpose and IS KNOWN.

Vincent tells us this from an entry in Matthews Gospel on the word hypocrites that: Hypocrites (ὑποκριταί); From ὑποκρίνω , to separate gradually; so of separating the truth from a mass of falsehood, and thence to subject to inquiry, and, as a result of this, to expound or interpret what is elicited. Then, to reply to inquiry, and so to answer on the stage, to speak in dialogue, to act. From this the transition is easy to assuming, feigning, playing a part. The hypocrite is, therefore, etymologically, an actor ⁴. In the ideas here regarding the Truth and the falsehood, and the expounding of what IS elicited, we can see our point better if that which IS elicited IS the falsehood. The motivation of this separation is unspecified and need not be anything but gradual according to Vincent’s analysis and there seems no need for KNOWING that one IS so doing. In this we should try to see that there IS a lack of a more appropriate word for this Greek thought.

This word anupokritos is rendered in another place as “without dissimulation” by the King James bible and this IS another interesting word in the English language. The words from Romans ARE: “Let love be without dissimulation” and while the Revised Version renders this as hypocrisy, we should note that the King James’ translators DID NOT see it this way. The idea here is to do things in a right manner and so here with Love we can see the idea that this should be according to the teaching of the Master? We read the intent in the full saying:

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth , on teaching; Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not” (Romans 12:4-14).

Remembering that the apostle IS speaking to disciples and to aspirants we should be able to see that these would not be feigning Love but that they may not be interpreting Love in the fullness of the Master’s intent; in this we can see the idea of hypocritical or feigning, which is another rendering for this, IS NOT an appropriate idea. Dissimulation however has a more protracted meaning as we can see in this from Webster’s 1828 dictionary: The act of dissembling; a hiding under a false appearance; a feigning; false pretension; hypocrisy. Dissimulation may be simply concealment of the opinions, sentiments or purpose; but it includes also the assuming of a false or counterfeit appearance which conceals the real opinions or purpose. Dissimulation among statesmen is sometimes regarded as a necessary vice, or as no vice at all ¹. Can we see in this definition a greater reality of the origination of some doctrines; how that they are hiding the Truth, covering and concealing it for whatsoever purpose, and how that this same becomes the Truth for succeeding generations? Can we then see how that a man may be a hypocrite and not KNOW that this IS True? Can we see then James’ idea in this same way?

The leading point in this IS found in the Master’s address to the Jews, the Pharisees especially, who have been made out to be bad people based upon the Master’s words of woe to them. Few see the idea that these men Truly believed that they were DOING right, that they were righteous, and few understand the Master’s meaning regarding the Way to the Kingdom as He says: “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). Here we should see that NOT ONLY did the Pharisees believe themselves righteous, the people that they taught believed them and many believed themselves righteous as well; the doctrines of the Pharisees had become the Truth for them and for the people. The Master confirms this in that saying to His own disciples which tells them that these men who may oppose them believe that they ARE right in the eyes of God; we read: “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). To the Pharisee and those of their ilk it IS the Master who IS the hypocrite and his followers as well; it IS they who blaspheme and whose words are heresy. They DO NOT see the Truth in the same say that Paul DOES NOT see the Truth; these doctrines and traditions are in their nurturing and their experience; these are their Life.

The Master tells them that they ARE focused in the themselves and in the world rather than in the things of God in many ways and at many times and this most often in regard to their observance of the sabbath, which the Master KNOWS as a misunderstood edict from the beginning; that there IS a difference between DOING GOOD and doing work, that there IS a meaning to that word that IS rendered as servile that is missed in the language of the Jews and perhaps there is one for the idea of work as well. Many things DOES the Master say about His own DOINGS on the sabbath and He corrects their ideas according to Mark Gospel saying: “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). Can we see the overwhelming role of the sabbath in the doctrine of the Jews and can we understand how that this compliance may have been created because it was the easier commandment to fulfill? It IS not our intent to go into the reality of the sabbath day except to say that the Master’s view of this stands in stark contrast to the doctrines and the traditions of the Jews; here we should remember that the True meaning was that the day be set forth as a holy day and a day of looking past the one’s self interests in the world and onto the things of God….a day of focus.

Our greater point is that these Jews, these Pharisees and scribes, these Sadducees and these lawyers, DID what they believed as the Truth and this IS much the same as today where men believe their several doctrines over the Truths that the selfless man can find in the Master’s words. And this IS what the Master points out to them: not that they were evil men, but that their doctrines were NOT in line with the intent of the law and that their traditions were not in the Spirit of the word of God. Yes there are things that these men did that bordered on what the Master sees as evil, there were deficiencies in their conduct in regard to their brothers but this IS more because their view on the Love that we see at the top of our essay was NOT according to the Lord’s intent but according to their doctrinal interpretation. These Pharisees and scribes, these Sadducees and these lawyers DID NOT see themselves in the role of the servant which from the beginning was the True intent. 

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.

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)

This is called by some of the church the Great Commission and so it is. It is however hardly understood and at times grossly misapplied. Somewhere in the centuries that have passed since the Master left us we have come to think that the meaning of this is just to preach the word through any particular doctrine and baptize according to any particular belief. Vincent tells us that the word translated as teach here should be seen as make disciples of ⁴ and the lexicon bears this out. There is nowhere in scripture an actual defining understanding of the concept of baptism and we generally think of it as the immersion into or the pouring on of water and that somehow this clears us of sin. This is but an outward sign however of real spiritual undertaking by the conscious man and it is only when a man is ready to commit to the Master that a baptism can be considered real. We will leave this as the Quote of the Day for a few days and try to find in it some true meaning. Keeping in mind our four points, we should ponder on this.

The Master is speaking to disciples and not the multitudes and these are those that do believe on Him and follow Him and keep His words. Hard sayings for man in the world but claimed by many nonetheless. There IS a reality in the idea that the disciple should be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” which IS His words that ARE to be kept and in this light we add these ideas from the Buddha: “Love yourself and watch – today, tomorrow, always. First establish yourself in the way, Then teach, and so defeat sorrow. To straighten the crooked you must first do a harder thing – straighten yourself” (Dhammapada; on Yourself)⁵.

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
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888