ON LOVE; PART DCCCXXXVIII
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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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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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)
In the reality of the idea that the Apostle Paul presents to us on strongholds there ARE many meanings, but we should understand that in the apostle’s context the meaning IS strictly spiritual and IS focused upon ALL things that may “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“. As we discussed in the last essay, the dynamics through which this idea of strongholds applies IS very diverse and effects most every personal thought that a man can have. At the center of this idea of strongholds IS IS the related affliction that IS contrary to ALL notions of spiritual Life….pride. It IS pride that shows forth one’s sense of self in this world; it IS pride that finds its center in the most common human idea of my and its related tone of mine. It IS in this sense of mine that we find the most common cause of glamour, that sense that ALL that IS mine IS better and right and we should try to see that this glamour in one’s Life IS a malleable feature which changes according to one’s own sense of social strata.
We should try to understand here that the combination glamour and illusion that we most always use IS the reality of the vanity to which Paul refers and that this sense of vanity IS the very nature of Life in this world where men come to believe that the carnal IS real and in which men lose their sense of Truth. It IS in this state that men live and this state IS one of illusion where men come to believe whatsoever IS found in their nurturing and their early experience as these are combined with one’s own innate predispositions regarding his direction in Life. While this IS a rather simplistic explanation of a most complex psychological matter, the spiritual reality can be made clearer in the defining terms for the Greek word mataiotes, which IS rendered as vanity in the King James Bible, that we get from Vincent. Mr. Vincent tells us that here: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 and it IS in his sense of this Greek word that we see our own view of illusion as this IS Life in this world under man’s subjection to vanity….he IS separate from God, and pursuing false ends.
It IS in man’s being “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) by the very Plan of God that we find the reality of Life in this world where man IS not only separated from God in a Transcendent understanding but he IS separated from God in the Immanent sense as well as he DOES NOT realize the Truth of his own spiritual being. While this immanent sense IS shown to us and hinted at throughout the New Testament, the reality of is IS NOT seen by most doctrines that teach that ONLY the man who believes in Christ on some level and according to some doctrine has this Presence of God and this despite the Master own teaching on one’s realization of His Presence. This doctrinal assertion IS glamour and this IS based in the depths of pride and that sense of mine that so pervades most every aspect of Life; this doctrinal assertion as well as the doctrinal assertions of ALL religions ARE but carnal strongholds and, in regard to a man’s spiritual reality, these ARE his prison. It IS this sense of prison that the Master presents to the Jews as He tells them: “woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13).
It IS their sense of doctrine, their sense that their doctrines and traditions ARE the way that God intended through the teachings of Moses, that IS their stronghold. This sense IS their illusion and this sense of doctrine and tradition IS the glamour which leads to their persecution of the Truth as it IS presented by Jesus. And doctrines today ARE also based in this same illusion, this same mataiotes that Paul writes on and which Vincent helps us to understand….and it IS the same glamour that prevents men today from seeing their own strongholds and their own spiritual prison. The apostle tells us that there ARE weapons and that there IS NO thing in this arsenal that IS carnal; it IS in the idea that the spiritual weapons that men have ARE “mighty through God” that we should see that they must per force be the same realizations of Truth that we have been discussing as the grace of God. While there are many renderings of these words among the translations and while Vincent tells us that this literally IS mighty unto God 4 and that the Revised Version (RV) shows mighty before God 4, we find the greater understanding in subsequent editions of the RV where this IS rendered to say that these weapons “have divine power“. We repeat Paul’s words here again:
“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” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
While we see this in the personal way of the struggle of men to fight off those carnal thoughts and attitudes about God and one’s own spiritual reality that have become one’s strongholds and which are held in the sense of glamour that IS pride and mine, many translations paint these words in a very different Light. In the last essay we briefly discussed the context of Paul’s words and how that they follow upon his words to the readers at Corinth saying: “Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:1-3). Here we should see the apostle’s dismay at the attitudes of some who see the True followers of Christ ONLY as men who ARE essentially the same as them; in this we see the glamour and the strongholds that these men have and in Paul’s outward idea against this we can see that he IS admonishing the reader to use ONLY spiritual power to dissuade such men. But it IS the inner idea that we should see here as we understand that the reader of Paul’s words can DO NO thing about another man’s imaginations nor can he change another man’s thoughts. It IS ONLY one’s own thoughts and imaginations that a man can deal with and it IS in this that we should see the deeper reality for them and for us, the reality of our own strongholds, our own thoughts and imaginations which may “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“.
This message however goes unseen and while many see Paul’s words here as an invocation to minister to others, the greater reality IS found in one’s own psyche, one’s own need to eliminate the strongholds that imprison. It IS in the very sense of vanity, in the reality of illusion and of glamour, that men DO NOT see the idea that it IS one’s own preconceptions today that prevent his realization of the Truth and that in these preconceptions, which ARE the result of living in this world with one’s nurturing, experience, proclivities and doctrines, men can effectively “shut up the kingdom of heaven“. In Paul’s words here we should see the reality of his endpoint as well and understand that these words themselves work against many of the doctrinal ideas about what the apostle IS saying. When we read his words saying “And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:6) we should see that one IS NOT to avenge or revenge others disobedience until such time as one’s own “obedience is fulfilled“; and this we should interpret as one’s own fullness of keeping His words.
This IS a key point in understanding the whole of the apostles thoughts here and, as we have said, there are several doctrinal views at play. Some see outsiders who look upon Paul and his followers as being just men as themselves and NO more righteous; others attribute this to internal conflict among the men of Corinth where some of Paul’s followers are in accord with his teachings and others ARE NOT….and in both of these ideas we find the idea of correcting those who ARE wrong. Perhaps we can see that Paul anticipated the lack of understanding concerning what he IS presenting to them and in this we should note the apostle’s own parabolic tone in his writing; in this view we can better understand the last statement which IS very similar to the clearer message offered by the Buddha saying: “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. If we can see this as Paul’s caution to those who would see his words as some doctrines declare his intent, we can see then see the deeper reality of His words where the real intent IS to show the reader that ALL things that ARE against the Truth ARE those imaginations and those thoughts which “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“.
And the weapons that men should use ARE spiritual, they ARE from the Inner man, from his own Soul, and these ARE found in each man’s realization of the Truth, each man’s realization of the Presence of God in his individual Life. We read the Master’s words on this Presence again:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless:a I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:15-24).
Here, when we can see and understand that the Presence of God IS found in keeping His words and that it IS this Presence that furnishes the weapons of which Paul speaks, we can then better understand that the idea that the apostle presents above IS a deeply personal one where each man must fight off those thoughts and imaginations that delude him, those that feed the glamour and maintain whatsoever strongholds he may have. ALL then comes back to the same basic ideas of Love and of keeping His words and it IS in so doing that, by measure, each man can come to have the necessary weapons with which to continue in the struggle and to overcome the more base carnal instincts that consume many and which “shut up the kingdom of heaven“. Here again we must understand that it IS those thoughts and imaginations that ARE “against the knowledge of God” which IS the subject, it IS the Truth of God that IS KNOWN by men through the “Spirit of truth” which IS the Presence of God. And it IS as the disciple, the man whose focus IS upon the things of God, who achieves greater grace, greater measure of the Presence of God, and who will understand the deeper reality of Paul’s words; it IS the disciple who will recognize the strongholds and it IS the disciple who will use the spiritual weapons that come in his realization of the Presence of God. And the nature and the scope of this weaponry IS made clear by the apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesian as IS the very nature of the enemy; we read:
“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11-17),
It IS in these words that ARE so central to most Christian doctrines that we have one of the greater realities of doctrinal stronghold and this in the face of the realities of Life here in this twenty first century. When we can see this idea of the devil as the reality of illusion and glamour, as the essence of that vanity that the apostle shows us that ALL men ARE bound by and subjected to, we can then see the greater reality of the misunderstood and misapplied ideas of sin and evil. This illusion and glamour, this vanity, IS the powers and these ARE the rulers of the darkness that fills the minds of men….and this IS a spiritual darkness. While it IS convenient to blame another, Satan and the devil, for the rather natural ways of men in this world which are fed by the illusory desires found in the ideas of me and mine, in the pride of Life in form, the greater Truth is found in the words of the Apostle John who tells us “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world“. It IS these things of the world which feed the imagination and the thoughts of men and which cause men to lose sight of the greater reality of their own divine nature which IS lost in that vanity which causes men to live a Life in corruption as Paul tells us and which we should understand as that perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 . It IS this vanity, this illusion and this glamour that must be overcome and this IS ONLY possible through the Presence of God, through a man’s realization of his own divinity which comes to him by keeping His words.
This IS the message of the gospels and this IS the message of the apostles in their epistles; and while glamour may cloud the minds of most men yet today, there IS a glimmer of hope as men come to see through some of the archaic and worn our dictates of doctrines and as more men come of age and begin to seek a greater Truth. It IS to the True seeker that the revelations of Truth come and in these revelations we find those weapons which ARE NOT weapons at ALL but ARE the armour that can protect the aspirant and the disciple from the ways of the world.
We leave again our sayings from John’s Gospel which we will try to get back to in the next essay:
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:31-34).
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.
Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.
Live in joy, in health, even among the afflicted.
Live in joy, in peace, even among the troubled.
Live in joy, without possessions.
Like the shining ones.
The winner sows hatred because the loser suffers.
Let go of winning and losing and find joy.
There is no fire like passion, no crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation, no sickness like hunger,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.
Today’s Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada (on JOY)5; a collection of the sayings of the Buddha. These words and ideas ARE much the same as those we discuss in our In the Words of Jesus essays. And what is this freedom but the release of our hearts and minds from loving this life in this world and attaining the Presence of God. This word Joy has many meanings as DOES the idea of Love, but in the context that it IS used here we should see the idea that Joy IS Love, Joy IS health, Joy IS peace and that Joy IS without the burdens placed on a man by the illusion and the glamour of the ways of the world. We should try to see that it IS the antithesis of these ideas in hate, in affliction and in troubles that ARE among the possessions of the carnal man, that ARE among the “evil treasure of his heart” (Luke 6:45) according to the Master.
And it IS in the second stanza above that we see the basic psychic ideas that can eliminate the harm caused by such “evil treasure” as a man looks past himself and at the welfare of others which IS the greater reality of Love as the Master teaches us. It IS in losing such possessions, losing such carnal thoughts and attitudes, that one can truly find the “joy of freedom“….this IS the Truth of deliverance.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
