ON LOVE; PART CMXLIV

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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 continued our discussion on the way that some of the Greek words ARE rendered into English, and likely into most other languages, and how that men’s common understanding of the rendered words fails to show the intent of the Master and His apostles. We have cited our primary examples of sin and evil, and lust and corruption on the negative side, and we have cited Love and Peace on the positive side, as words that ARE NOT seen in their True intent by the doctrines of men and how that there IS an apparent purposefulness in the doctrinal interpretations and usage. We have noted as well that there IS also a purposefulness in the rendering of some words as many ARE translated according to the doctrinal bent of the translators as we saw in the rendering of the first three words from our selection of the “works of the flesh” that the Apostle Paul gives us; we read his words again:

“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).

While most ALL translations paint these words in as strictly sexually deviant way, the reality IS NOT as they make it appear to be. While the sexual aspect may be a part of the overall message, the deeper ideas ARE found in the way that a man approaches God, that he be focused upon the Lord and the things of the Lord and NOT upon the things of the flesh. Thus we see in both adultery and in fornication the underlying ideas of fidelity and the idea IS presented for us so that we can understand that to follow after the carnal rather that the spiritual IS adultery and it IS fornication as men choose the objects of their desires and lusts as the idols that they worship; and, in this idea of worship we should see the idea of reverence and recall Jesus words on the “treasure of the heart” (Matthew 12:25)….for this IS what men Truly worship.

From this perspective we repeat our rhetorical question from the last post asking: what ARE idols but those things that men focus their lives upon and what IS worship but the intent of this focus. Can we see how that these ideas of adultery, fornication and uncleanness ARE more that the sexual morality issues that men paint them to be and we should try to understand that the deeper Truths ARE revealed for us in the various ways that these Greek words are used by Jesus and His apostles. We can see this in the Master’s reference to an  “adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39) and in the Apostle James’ calling out of men as “Ye adulterers and adulteresses” when speaking about their desires for worldly things instead of the things of God. Can we see the deeper ideas of adultery in these and can we see then how that fornication reveals similar ideas as this too refers to that infidelity that the man, whose focus should be God, IS focused upon the self and the things of the self. Here the lexicon defines this word for us in part as the worship of idols ² and when we can relate this to a man’s focus upon the lusts and desires for worldly pleasures, we can see the greater point. In most every use of this word, save for Paul’s words about “that one should have his father’s wife” (1 Corinthians 5:1), the Truer meaning of this word should come through and even in these words from the apostle we should see the idea of DOING that which IS contrary to the Truth for the fulfillment of one’s own pleasures.

In the apostle’s use of the idea of the word rendered as uncleanness we have a common understanding that follows along with the doctrinal view of fornication and of adultery thereby according it the same sexual tone in the doctrinal teaching and in men’s common view. This IS despite the usage of the word as we see in the lexicon’s defining akatharsia as: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living ², these ideas again go to a man’s desire for pleasure, not sexual specifically but pleasure generally. And when we tie this to Vincent’s analysis of the Greek word, we find that its usage can be more in regard to a spirit of selfish desire ( πλεονεξία ) which is the spirit of covetousness ⁴. It IS in the deeper ideas of ALL these words that we find that Paul IS echoing the Master’s call that we keep His words as in His word there IS ONLY focus upon God and the things of God….it IS His injunction that men should “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). It IS this perfection for which men should strive and ALL else IS adultery, fornication and uncleanness in varying degree. And this IS the gist that we should take from the Master’s words that give us our trifecta of spiritual reality which we repeat again:

• “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).
• “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
• “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 14:21-24).

While it may be easier for men to see Paul’s ideas in the ways that this IS rendered by various translations of the Bible, ways that highlight ONLY the sexually deviant behavior of men, the greater Truths ARE ever in one’s willingness and ability to keep His words. Ideas like that men should refrain from “illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity” as the God’s Word Translation frames this or as The Message Bible offers saying “repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness“, while a matter of moral rectitude, ARE NOT the True focus of the man who Truly seeks God. This man’s focus IS found in Jesus words as we read above and NOT in the machinations of the many doctrines that men have created.

These ideas from these translations, and others of a similar nature, include our next word from Paul’s list, lasciviousness. This IS another Greek word that IS misunderstood and misapplied by its translation and the common understanding of the English word. Here in Galatians the word IS rendered as lasciviousness while elsewhere it IS rendered as wantonness. Vincent tells us this regarding aselgeia as it IS used by the Apostle Mark: Derivation unknown. It includes lasciviousness, and may well mean that here; but is often used without this notion. In classical Greek it is defined as violence, with spiteful treatment and audacity. As in this passage its exact meaning is not implied by its being classed with other kindred terms, it would seem better to take it in as wide a sense as possible – that of lawless insolence and wanton caprice, and to render, with Trench, wantonness, since that word, as he remarks, “stands in remarkable ethical connection with ἀσέλγεια, and has the same duplicity of meaning” (“Synonyms of the New Testament”).

While lasciviousness IS seen ONLY in a sexual context, the idea of wantonness IS much more broad. We read in Webster’s 1828 dictionary a broad range of meanings ranging from the sexual to extravagant and luxurious ¹ and if we combine this with Vincent’s words above regarding the Greek word itself, we can come away with a view of Paul’s intent that corresponds with the other words regarding the focus of one’s Life. Here, with this in mind, we should try to see how that ALL of these words may include some sexual note but that this IS NOT intended as the ONLY feature; we should rather see how that the apostle IS showing us the basic divergence between one’s lusts and desires for the things of the world as opposed to one’s striving by desire for the things of God. The things of God IS the natural objective of everyman and it IS in his Life spent chasing after the carnal and worldly things, NOT evil things by the common understanding but rather ALL things that ARE NOT found in one’s True focus upon God, that IS by measure adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness as these ideas ARE intended to be understood.

The Truth of this segment of Paul’s ideas IS found clearly in our right discernment of his words and when we see his ideas as a whole rather that as words and phrases we can come to understand that to be Truly led by the Spirit will ONLY come at the expense of ALL worldly things and ideas and this regardless of how spiritual one may believe that his worldly things and activities ARE. In this we must come to see that it IS ONLY in keeping His words that those things as we find in our trifecta come, or rather become, the revelations and the realizations of Truth and grace. And it IS ONLY in seeing Paul’s ideas as we ARE presenting them that we can come to the same conclusions as ARE clearly shown us by the Master in His words above; DOING any of these ideas that Paul lists IS NOT according to the “will of my Father which is in heaven“, nor ARE any of these found in the Life of the man who DOES “continue in my word” and, most certainly, NONE of these can be DONE by the man who “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“.

We need ONLY to look at the Great Commandment to understand the reality here and KNOW that to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” means that ALL thoughts, ALL attitudes and ALL activities of men in this world should be on God and NONE upon the self and the things of the self in this world. In this we find the Truth of Paul’s words above saying that “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” and this IS NOT unlike his words that we used in the last essays saying to the Romans: “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live“

This IS the essential message of ALL the apostles and while much of doctrine contorts this and confounds these Truths, the message remains for men to see. None of this IS hidden from view and most IS rather clearly stated; it IS ever men’s sense of self however that refuses to see the basic reality that IS offered to us by the Master and His apostles; and most ALL have exchanged the idea of keeping His words for the doctrinal ideas of atonement, free grace, and those most nebulous ideas found in faith and believing.

Paul’s words on the intended dichotomy between the carnal and the spiritual ARE clear in these sayings above but it IS the minds of men that have interpreted his words to say that the ONLY men who “live after the flesh” ARE those who DO NOT believe according to their doctrines and to believe, even in the absence of keeping His words, IS to “be led of the Spirit“. We should remember here the Apostle Peter’s words that we recently discussed and understand the deeper Truths that he shows us saying that to “be partakers of the divine nature” one MUST have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

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

• 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