ON LOVE; PART CMXXXVIII

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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 last essay we discussed the Apostle Peter’s words which we see as such virtues that ARE the Way of the disciple. While the common understanding IS that the apostle IS admonishing the reader to add these virtues to his faith, the Revised Version, with Vincent’s help, shows us that he IS telling men to supply these things with faith and in this we should see the idea of expressing these in one’s Life here in this world. When we can understand the idea of faith as that sense of KNOWING, that sense of having “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord“, we can then better understand Peters words. And it IS in the words of the Master that we find this KEY to understanding the Greek word pistis which IS rendered as faith as well as the kindred word pistueo which IS rendered as believe.

As we ofttimes discuss, this KEY IS found in Jesus use of the idea of pistis as He tells us that to have such faith as a “grain of mustard seed” will enable a man to DO great things. And while the example IS that one can move the mountain, the reality of this IS to show us the True Power of faith, the True Power of KNOWING the Truth, which comes to men who will keep His Words; this the Master tells us saying “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” (John 8:31-32). When we can understand this idea of pistis and when we can then also understand the kindred idea of pisteuo, then the reality of Jesus’ other words saying “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12) can have True clarity. Here, at this intersection of KNOWING and DOING we must come to understand that to have the “the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord“, to be such a KNOWER, requires that a man DOES keep His words; these ideas ARE inseparable.

We should understand here that it IS in keeping His words that one comes to “know the truth” and that it in IS the fullness of this KNOWING that one can “say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). In this we should try to see the same idea that comes to us from Jesus’ other words on “greater works” and here, in these two ideas, we have the reality of pistis as faith and pistueo as believing joined together as KNOWING. While the rather nebulous ideas of doctrine pervade the thinking of men regarding these ideas of faith and believing, they ARE joined together for us by the Master and His apostles in the way that this idea of moving the mountain IS framed by them to show this intersection. And when we can see how that the “greater works” come to men in this same believing, there can be NO other reality but this same idea of KNOWING. Again we go to Vincent for his understanding of the phrase believe in or believe on the Master; we read:

To believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one’s self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Saviour, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴.

While Vincent may NOT see the underlying reality that one must keep His words in his own explanation above, he DOES allude to that Truth in the way that he shows us that to believe on or to believe in the Master IS to adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. And this IS the message that we get from Jesus in the words that result in what we call the trifecta of spiritual reality….that one must keep His words to receive the Presence of God, have the Truth which comes in discipleship and to be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. This IS the reality of the grace of God as the revelations to and the realizations by the consciousness of a man in this world. And we can ask the question, the question that Jesus poses rhetorically, in much the same way: If we Truly believe in and we believe on the Master; that IS that we believe that He IS Lord, it IS then our duty to keep His words. 

This IS NOT an easy task for a man in this world as he must overcome “the corruption that is in the world by lust” as the Peter tells us in our selection which we repeat again from the Revised Version. A man must overcome the vanity to which ALL men ARE subjected, he must see past the illusion and the glamour, and, in this world of men there IS but one Way which the Master offers us as He tells us to: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). This idea of striving IS clearly that one should try earnestly or, as the dictionary shows us: to exert oneself vigorously; try hard ⁷ and, in the dual meaning that IS attached to this word, we should see as well how that this striving IS: to struggle vigorously, as in opposition or resistance ⁷. Vincent shows us that the Greek word that IS rendered here as strive should be seen as: Originally to contend for a prize in the public games; and thus conveying a sense of struggle ⁴. It IS with these ideas in mind that we should look at the way that agonizomai IS also defined as to fight and labor fervently by the lexicon ². 

It IS in men’s striving that they will achieve and this by the same measure by which they labor fervently and fight to overcome “the corruption that is in the world by lust“, which IS, as the Apostle Paul tells us, the “bondage of corruption“, and which IS the way of men in this world. The Apostle Matthew offers us the Master’s thoughts without the idea of striving; he rather shows the difficulty in DOING what IS required to enter into the gate; we read: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). While the apostles’ approach to this idea seems different, the reality IS the same and we should try to see here how that “few there be that find it” because the many DO NOT strive….they DO NOT labor fervently and fight to overcome “the corruption that is in the world by lust“.

In the doctrinal view that there IS NO need to DO as the Master says, there IS a sort of denial that He IS really speaking to us in what ARE seen as rather harsh terms regarding those things that men believe ARE important in this Life here on this Earth. It IS in this sense of reality that men have ignored the Truths that ARE taught by those who have come to lead them to that “glorious liberty of the children of God“; and while this IS True in most ALL religions, this should be especially clear to the Christian who understands the ongoing plight of the Jews in the Old Testament. Even in Jesus strong words against carrying the way of the Jews forward into the New Dispensation, there has been little or NO regard given to His intent as doctrines have tried to meld and merge the Old and the New to their own convenience and still DO so today.

It IS in the reality of Jesus’ words on the “treasure of the heart“, in His separation of the ways of God and of mammon, in His ideas about what one should attend to as He tells us to “take no thought“, that we can find the deeper reality that Peter presents to us and that Paul tells us of. It IS in their clarifying and amplifying of Jesus words that we can find the Truth of the dichotomy that must exist between the carnal and the spiritual….a separation that will allow men to understand their own deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And we should remember here how that this idea of deliverance IS the same as Jesus own words on discipleship, that it IS by keeping His words that one will come to “know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“.

While we often show how that this Greek word eleutheroo IS the same word that IS rendered as free in Jesus’ words and as delivered in Paul’s, we have NOT looked at the result that Paul shows us….the sense of liberty. The Greek word rendered as liberty here, eleutheria, IS the noun and IS from the same root word as IS eleutheroo which IS the verb. In this we have the cause and the result found in that sense of freedom that the Master speaks of and while Paul speaks in most general terms that say that ALL men will be freed from the vanity, from the illusion and the glamour that plague them, the reality of how IS found in Paul’s many other words that show us the same idea as DOES Peter who tells us that we must supply ALL virtue in our faith….in our KNOWING of the Truth. While we use the word virtue to show the sum of ALL of Peter’s points that men must express in Life, some translators use it as a separate idea from the rest of his list. We can try to see this Greek word arete as goodness as some other translators do or we can see this as Vincent shows us, as: vigorous action ⁴. We read Peter’s words again from the Revised Version:

“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue; whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge; and in your knowledge temperance; and in your temperance patience; and in your patience godliness; and in your godliness love of the brethren; and in your love of the brethren love. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble: 11 for thus shall be richly supplied unto you the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1-11). **

Vincent explains his thoughts on arete saying that this sense of virtue IS: Not in the sense of moral excellence, but of the energy which Christians are to exhibit, as God exerts his energy upon them. As God calls us by his own virtue (2 Peter 1:3), so Christians are to exhibit virtue or energy in the exercise of their faith, translating it into vigorous action ⁴. In this use of arete we should see the same idea that we take from Jesus telling us through Luke that we should strive, that we should fight and labor fervently. We should understand as well that Vincent’s point IS that this IS NOT in regard to morality IS valid as we can see in the other places that Peter uses this Greek word. He uses it in the above selection saying that men ARE called “by his own glory and virtue” and whether we see this as God or as the God Within the effect IS the same: that there IS a glory and a arete of God which has naught to do with morality as this IS ONLY part of “the corruption that is in the world“.

Further, Vincent gives us yet another reference from Peter where arete IS rendered as praises by the King James translators which we read as: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). In this usage the whole idea of morality in our subject verses above should be greatly diminished and here, in this passage, various translations show the word arete rendered as: “proclaim the excellencies“, “proclaim the wonderful acts of God“, “show forth the excellencies“,  and, of course, others use the idea of virtue as they here render arete.  Our point here IS that morality IS NOT the issue and whether we see arete as goodness or as vigorous action, there IS a note of DOING in Peter’s words, a note that IS shown to us by Paul in many ways and especially in his saying that:

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:17-24).

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.

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 these 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
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
• ** Revised Version text from http://ebible.org/eng-rv/