ON LOVE; PART DCCCXCVIII
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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)
As we conclude our discussion on the idea of strongholds as this IS presented by the Apostle Paul, we should be reminded that the our view on this IS NOT consistent with the more common understanding of the apostle’s words. In the end, the reality of Paul’s thoughts here are rather simple and stretch across most ALL areas of Life: whatsoever one has come to believe IS True IS a stronghold if it IS in opposition to the Truth. In the case of Paul’s words however we must take note that his subject IS spiritual and that it IS thoughts and imaginations which ARE “against the knowledge of God” that ARE his concern. In this we should see ALL things that ARE contrary to the Truth which ARE ALL beliefs that one has formed regarding God that ARE NOT in accord with the Truth of His words. And we should understand here that Truth IS Truth….that there IS ONLY One. It IS here that we should see the role of doctrines in the very creation of their own strongholds which imprison the believer and which obnubilate the Truth of the Master’s words.
The greatest area of this clouding of the Master’s words IS in the reality of keeping His words as the KEY to spiritual reality and that most high ideal of Love that shows how that a man IS keeping His words; we should ever remember that to DO the one accomplishes the other. It IS in the machinations of men; it IS in the convenient interpretations of the words of the Master and of His apostles; it IS in the imaginations of men, as the King James translates Paul’s idea, which ARE “against the knowledge of God” and which become their strongholds, that the Truth of the Master’s measure IS lost. It IS the vanity to which ALL men are subjected, the illusions and the glamour of Life here in this world, that ARE the cause; it IS these that result in the plight of men. And the: perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 as Vincent defines this vanity for us IS what keeps men focused upon the carnal rather than the Truth of Jesus’ words. It IS against these that the Inner man stands: against the vanity, the illusions and the glamour; it IS against these forces that overwhelm the carnal mind and emotions of the “natural man” and which cause many to believe that they ARE already free.
The True freedom however IS found in the Truth of the Master’s words which ARE the eternal Truths of Life and it IS in these words below that He shows us how that we can find that Truth and be delivered from the bondage of sin which IS men’s reliance upon the self in this world and the things of the world. As we remember how that the Master’s words as given here by the Apostle John show us the idea of the slave, the slave to sin, we should see the man who IS in bondage to sin which IS to be in bondage to the ways of the world of men. We repeat the Master’s words again:
“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 should remember as well that it IS in this idea of free that we find the reality of our salvation as this Greek word eleutheroo which IS rendered in Jesus words above as free IS the same word that IS rendered as delivered in Paul’s words which set for us the stage for our understanding of Life in this world and our escape from it. It IS in Paul’s words that we find both the individual and the global reality of our Life here in this Earth and while his words are wholly misunderstood and deemed by many to be a confirmation of the doctrinal view of the fall of man, the greater Truth IS rather clear to the man who can look away from such doctrines. We read the apostle’s words again saying:
“the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope expectation Because that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation glorious liberty in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:20-23).
In this more expanded view than we usually present of the apostle’s words than we usually present we have the reality of the plight of men in this world, the reality of their existence in this perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. We should remember here how that this IS according to the Plan of God, it IS He who “hath subjected the same“, and while we change the ideas of hope and because to expectation and that, we do so according to the reality that this word rendered as hope has the meaning of expectation and the word rendered as because IS more generally rendered as that; to this we add our understanding that here in this context there IS no place for the common idea of hope in the reality of the Plan of God. We should see here how that it IS our deliverance, our being made free from the bondage of sin, that IS the expected end and that in the words rendered as “groaneth and travaileth” we should see the idea of suffering under this subjection to vanity, this Life lost in the illusion and the glamour. And here we should try to see the Master’s example of “A woman when she is in travail” where He tells us that she “hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish” (John 16:21); here, while the context IS different, the result IS the same if we can consider the idea of being Truly “born again“.
Can we see the point here? Can we see how that being delivered from “the bondage of corruption” will end the travail? And while the translators have rendered this idea as sorrow, we should understand the greater idea of pain in this travail in both sayings. In these sayings from Paul we should understand that it IS the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within, that IS “made subject to vanity” by reason of his birth into this world where illusion and glamour reign. It IS in the Plan of God that the expectation of deliverance exists and it IS the Soul, the God and Christ Within, that KNOWS that this IS his destiny: to be freed from the “bondage of corruption” which IS Life in this world under the power of this vanity. We must understand here that this being made free, this deliverance, has its basis in Truth as the Master tells us above and that this “glorious liberty” is in the realization of the man who has found this Truth. We should note here as well how that Paul includes himself and those to whom he writes, his own disciples if you will, among those who “groaneth and travaileth” and this even though they have “the firstfruits of the Spirit” which IS some measure of the realization of the Presence of God in their lives.
And they ARE “waiting for the adoption“. Here IS another Greek word that IS wholly misunderstood from the perspective of doctrines and for which we find great insight from Vincent who, quoting Mr Merivale words from Conversion of the Roman Empire, tells us: We have but a faint conception of the force with which such an illustration would speak to one familiar with the Roman practice; how it would serve to impress upon him the assurance that the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father 4. If we can see this Oneness in the same way as the Master explains this in His words from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, which we repeat again below, saying “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you“, we can then see the deeper reality of the apostle’s intent. And, when we can see how that being made free, being delivered, comes to a man in this same Presence of God in one’s Life, this realization of His Presence, we can then glimpse at the deeper mysteries of Life.
Finally, in the apostle’s words above we have the idea of Redemption. This IS another word that IS not grasped by most ALL doctrines and which IS viewed eschatologically by some. In our view there IS much depth to this word and this idea that we can barely glimpse and which says to us that our work IS finished, that our work in this world through human bodies IS complete. When a man comes to the fullness of the realization of the Presence of God according to the Master’s words, when the fullness of keeping His words IS accomplished in the expression of the man in this world, then it IS this fullness by which the body IS Redeemed. This IS the essence of the adoption as well as we see by the insertion of the idea of “to wit” in the apostle’s words above; this Union, this Unity of the God Within and His expression through the body to the world IS the Oneness of the Christ, the Father and the man in the world. And if we can imaging the end of this process, then we can likely see a glimpse of Truth and begin to understand the True significance of the Transfiguration. We read the Master’s words on the Presence of God in the Life of the man in the world again saying:
“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).
In these words IS the reality of what Paul IS expressing in His sayings above; in these words we find the Presence of God in the Life of the man in the world and it IS as this Presence reaches its fullness, as this Presence overwhelms ALL other senses that the man may have, that we find his full accord with the words of the Master and his full realization of the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. It is here in this fullness that we have the Truth of the adoption and the Redemption of the body; it IS here that a man can Truly “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 our destiny.
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
