ON LOVE; PART DCLXVII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “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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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
We ended the last essay with Vincent’s words on the saying by the Apostle John in the Prologue to his Gospel that offers us the realization and the Truth of the idea of grace as this IS used in the New Testament. While many believe that grace IS the gift of God, few can say what this grace actually IS and it IS in this that we see this whole concept as nebulous from a doctrinal view. It IS favor and it IS thanks but in the reality that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) the idea of favor IS not an applicable idea except in the understanding that this IS earned. At the same time the idea of thanks IS rather meaningless and the rendering of grace can easily be substituted for both and this IS how some instances of this are rendered in other gospels. An example is in the words of the Master on Love from the Sermon on the Mount where we read Jesus’ words in Luke’s Gospel as: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again” (Luke 6:31-34). The point here IS clear and in the rendering of this as grace it IS ever more clear as in our view grace comes from above as a tool, a faculty of Soul if you will, that enables the expression of Love in the world.
We have in this idea from the Apostle Luke a view of the different interpretations that the writers of the gospels have as Matthew frames this same idea as: “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Matthew 546-47). Here, while the Apostle Matthew DOES NOT use the word charis there IS the implication that there IS some thing, a reward as this IS rendered here, and this reward can be seen in our view of grace as we presented it in the last essay: as we use this grace, as we use the tools given to the Life in the world by the Soul for the expression of Love, more can be acquired. In this idea of reward we should try to see the reality of something earned and this IS as we should see the idea of grace as well. In the overall view of these ideas on Love from the Master, that it IS in expressing Love one can and does gain more grace, we can see the reality of the Master’s idea on having and using and then receiving more as we discussed in the last essay from Matthew’s Gospel where we read: “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath” (Matthew 13:12); we should try to understand here that grace IS NOT grace if it IS NOT used and this can be seen in the force of the Greek word echo that IS rendered as hath.
Much of the confusion on grace and much of the nebulous nature of its understanding IS founded in the idea that grace comes from God which IS doctrinally understood as that this IS from the Lord, the Transcendent Lord, rather than from one’s own Soul, the Immanent Lord. In the proper view most ALL of the usage of this word charis in the New Testament can be resolved and this view IS NOT hidden by the writers; it IS however obnubilated by doctrines which sees ONLY the Transcendent Lord as active in one’s Life. This IS the view despite the doctrinal presentation that God or Christ or Jesus comes to live in a man when he accepts Him as Lord and Savior; in this IS the same reality that we are presenting albeit from a different perspective where we see this as the realization of His presence as the Christ and the God Within. While it IS difficult to say if this idea of the God Within is intentionally muddied by translations and interpretations of that this IS the intent of the writers. The fact IS that these ideas are rather hidden and must be extrapolated from the whole of the message and this latter idea would be in accordance with the Master’s use of the parable and His parabolic language which IS intended to keep the mysteries of the Kingdom of God away from those who could NOT accept and understand them. And this IS an intent that IS carried forward in the writings of the apostles which are intended for the man who accepts and understands, the aspirant and the disciple, and which can confound the reader who DOES NOT see the Truth of the message.
Here we should try to see that down the centuries men have proclaimed their own understanding of the message of the ages and have taken upon themselves the authority to do so while at the same time NOT living and acting in the Truth of the role of a disciple of the Lord nor an aspirant to that High Calling. In IS in this understanding that much of what we read from doctrine yet today IS based and while many of these proponents of this or that theory of religion may have been devout, they are devout according to their own understanding which IS NOT necessarily an understanding of the Truth of the Master’s intent nor the intent of His apostles. Here we must state again our own perspective that we ARE NOT the final authority and that we ARE reporting our own perception of the intent of the Master and the writers; it IS ever up to the reader to discern the Truth and, in the context of our current discussion, we see this Truth as working through each man from his own Soul, his own Anointed spiritual self, his own Christ Within which IS part and parcel of the Lord and who IS the dispenser of this concept of grace upon the Life of the man in the world…and this dispensing IS in full accord with his ability to focus upon the things of God.
The Apostle Paul offers us these other words in that same first Epistle to the Corinthians that began our discussion on grace; he says: “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). While we take these words out of their context, they DO have the ability to stand alone as regards the idea of the grace of God and behind the apostle’s words IS our understanding of the Truth of this grace as it effects the ways of the man in the world. In Paul we have an apostle, a True disciple who has overcome the sense of duality that plagues the aspirant and the lesser disciple and this he himself speaks about in the other epistles. In our saying above the apostle tells us that it IS “by the grace of God I am what I am“, which in our view IS that it IS by the spiritual tools, the realizations and the revelations of Truth and Love that come forth from one’s Soul, one’s God Within, that he has come to this point in his Life: True discipleship.
In the next part we see the apostle’s words that “his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain” as a misleading translation and Vincent tells us that this idea of “was not” should be seen as: was not found as this in rendered in the Revised Version or as: did not turn out to be 4 which seems his own understanding of this. Other translations agree an this can further confound the idea; one, the American Standard Version renders this as “was not found vain” which IS to say that the grace itself was not vain while the Bible in Basic English (BBE) renders this closer to our own view saying “his grace which was given to me has not been for nothing“. Our view here IS of course according to our own sense of grace and according to the following ideas; we see that the apostle is telling us that this grace was not given to him for nothing but because he labored more than others, his focus was greater and his striving more intent…..hence more grace to make of him the True disciple and apostle of the Lord. Can we see the point here and can we see how that this idea and many like it can be approached in many ways and according to the doctrines and the beliefs that one holds.
In the end the apostle IS telling us that it IS by the degree of grace that he had received and used that he was able to get this greater degree of grace and in his idea of “yet not I” we should see the spiritual reality that he is showing us, that this IS the product of the grace already received. Here the doctrinal idea IS that this comes from God and not from Paul and while this IS True it IS also untrue when viewed from the perspective of the Lord himself bestowing this upon him. Our view here IS that this grace comes from the God Within, the Soul, and in this sense this grace IS from God; this IS NOT how this idea of from God is generally understood and this IS a source of the overall confusion that a man can not DO spiritual things on his own, in his own strength as this is commonly expressed. From the perspective of the carnal man whose focus IS his self and the things of the world, this IS a Truth, the man can not accomplish spiritual things in this state. However, in a man’s hearing the prompting of his own Soul and heeding this to the point of Repentance, this man IS NO longer the carnal man but the True man, the Soul, living by degree through the form and the personality in the world, a form and a personality that IS in the process of Transforming. This IS the very nature of our journey on the Path to the Kingdom.
Paul IS saying here that by the degree of grace that he had he was enabled and he “laboured more abundantly than they all” and it IS by this labor that the degree of grace in his Life increased to where he can say that “I am what I am“….a True disciple and apostle of the Lord. Can we understand this working out of grace in the Life of man and can we see that this labor that the apostle speaks of IS the labor of Love which IS the fulfillment of the word of God? There IS really no mystery here when this IS viewed in the right light. In doctrine however, where the whole idea of grace is rather nebulous, the understanding IS quite different; there the idea of Paul’s labors are attributed to his proclaiming that he worked harder than the rest merely as a statement of fact rather than the causal reason for his becoming and his being the True disciple and the apostle of the Lord. This idea is fixed in the doctrine of free grace as we read in John Gill’s commentary on the first part of this: But by the grace of God I am what I am; As he was what he was by the grace of God in a private capacity, upon a level with other Christians, being a chosen vessel of salvation, not by works, nor on account of faith, or any holiness of his, but by grace; being regenerated, called, sanctified, justified, pardoned, and adopted by it; being a believer in Christ through faith, as a gift of God’s grace, and having a good hope of eternal glory the same way; so he was what he was, as a minister of the Gospel, as an apostle, as in that high office purely by the grace of God: he was not made one by men, nor by his education, learning, and industry, nor through any merits of his own, but by the free favour and sovereign will of God, bestowing on him gifts and grace, by which he was qualified for apostleship, and to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ 8.
We should try to understand that the Master Himself never uses the word charis except in the citations from Luke’s Gospel above and one other entry which IS also from Luke; speaking of the treatment of a servant we read: “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not” (Luke 17:9). In every case the King James Bible and most others render the word charis as thank and, like we see above and in our view the idea of grace would work in a similar fashion. This IS a parabolic story to His disciples and here we should try to note that the servant gets NO grace from the Lord for doing only what IS expected and it IS this idea that leads to the Master’s admonition to them that they must ever DO more. Jesus words in full context say:
“But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself , and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:7-10).
And we should note here that this parabolic story follows upon the Master’s teaching on the “faith as a grain of mustard seed” (Luke 17:6) and in this link of context there IS greater revelation of Jesus intent and the Truth of grace. In the last post we ended with some ideas to ponder regarding the words on grace from the Prologue to the Gospel of John and here we end with and additional idea to which we should give thought. We will discuss both of these in greater detail in our next post.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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.
This Quote of the Day is the antithesis of glamour and illusion. In this mantram are the thoughts about ourselves and our brothers in the world that can diffuse those forces that hold a man in the world of things and prevent his spiritual progress.
Mantram of Unification
The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.
Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.
Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.
The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
