ON LOVE; PART CMLXXIX

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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 several posts we tried to show how that it IS the idea of factions as the divisions of men along most any line of thought and attitude that creates the strife which results in the hatred and the wrath and the emulation and the dissensions that the Apostle Paul speaks against in his list of the “the works of the flesh“. We have tried to show how that it IS the factious behavior of men that Paul IS speaking against moreso than the result of those behaviors which ARE the normal and carnal action of men in this world. The resulting actions of men in hatred, wrath, emulation and dissensions ARE ALL contrary to that Love that the Master teaches us as He too speaks against the ideas of factions albeit in a much more parabolic way. Jesus shows us how that we should see ALL men equally in many ways and perhaps the clearest IS in His words saying:

“I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 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 5:44-47).

That these words ARE NOT seen by doctrines in the way that we ARE presenting them DOES NOT matter as here again His words ARE clear but difficult for the man whose focus IS in himself and the things of the self to see and to understand. Indeed these precepts ARE difficult for any man who DOES live here in this world and these ideas ARE closely tied to His other admonition: that men should “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat , or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6:25). In these words ARE the crux of the True Christian journey to Truth and in these words IS the deeper vision of that faith that the Master speaks of; that KNOWING that what Truly matters IS the spiritual self which IS His reference in saying “Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?“.

We should try to see here how that most any view of another with any sense of division IS carnal and that the True disciple will see ALL men as Souls, as spiritual beings, working out a Life through the diversity of forms and circumstances that exist in this Earth. The Apostle Luke captures these same thoughts in a slightly different tone but the same reality should be seen, the reality that ALL men should be seen as the same and treated as such as we look past ALL carnal ideas which ARE inherently found in the factions and the divisions that Paul speaks against. Luke tells us the Master’s words as:

“I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 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. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:27-35).

Again, we should see how that these words ARE NOT seen by the doctrinal churches as that they ARE commandments; they ARE rather seen as suggestions for living and with the belief that this frame of mind, this sense of DOING, IS NOT required of the saint, or of the disciple of the Lord. It IS in this type of men’s wrangling with the words of the Master and His apostles that the greater Truth has been lost over the centuries; lost to doctrines that rely upon “the commandments of men“. Here again we have the warning that IS found in Jesus own repeating of the words of the Prophet Isaiah saying “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9); a warning that IS deemed to NOT be in regard to everyman but to the Jews in Jesus time ONLY.

ALL of these ideas ARE however His words; in the sense of equality that He offers us we have His words and in the warning against believing and “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” we have His words. And while ALL of this goes unseen or unheeded by the masses and their teachers, it IS still the Truth that the Way of salvation IS found in keeping His words as we read again in our trifecta.

• “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).

We have been repeating these words from Jesus as the trifecta of our spiritual reality in most every post because it IS in these words that the One Truth of salvation exists and this Truth IS simply that men DO keep His words. Again we should understand that this begins with striving toward that goal which IS: to exert oneself vigorously; try hard; to make strenuous efforts toward any goal ⁷. This IS the way that Jesus uses the Greek word agonizomai, which IS rendered as strive: in regard to the Kingdom as He says “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). The lexicon defines agonizomai metaphorically as: to contend, struggle, with difficulties and dangers; and also as to endeavour with strenuous zeal, strive: to obtain something ². In this we should see the greater KEY to ALL spiritual reality: that men strive toward the goal despite the plethora of doctrinal ideas concerning works and grace and atonement and the idea that He DID for us what we CAN NOT do for ourselves.

We should try to see how that factions and divisions ARE spoken against by the Master in His words from Matthew and Luke and how that in each of these versions of His words Jesus shows us how that this IS the Way of the Father, that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) as Paul also shows us. And Jesus’ point IS that men should live this same Way which we read in the next verse from each gospel saying “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36). While many can be confused by these two different views of the Master’s words, the reality IS that there IS a great affinity between them. Many doctrinal interpretations play down the idea of perfect and show it to mean mature but this idea CAN NOT hold in this particular saying which speaks of God. In In the Words of Jesus part 1122 we discuss these different approaches at length and here we present a portion of our ideas again:

It IS this reality of perfection that drives us as aspirants and disciples; it IS the idea of being complete and True disciples that IS our goal and the objective of our lives as there IS NO other place where this reality can come to be True…..as Souls we ARE perfect and it IS by grace that this perfection becomes our realization and IS our revelation of Truth. Why this IS offered by Luke in terms of being merciful CAN NOT BE clear unless we understand the Truth behind this word mercy, that this IS the expression of Love in the world of men. Can we see here that this expression IS perfection? Can we see here that the “command” IS to be merciful “as your Father also is merciful“? Can we see that to express the Love of God, the Love that IS God, as He DOES, IS perfection as it IS in this Love that ALL things are considered? When we can understan that ALL things ARE found in our expression of Love we can come to a greater understanding of these ideas and of the reality of perfection and Paul helps us here as he tells us that “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). The clarity here should be deafening yet the ideas of doctrine DO NOT see this Truth and they confound the apostle’s intent in speaking about the law and the “curse of the law” (Galatians 3:13).

While this ALL may seem to be apart from our discussion on the factions and the divisions of men as the causal factor of those human thoughts and attitudes that ARE against Love, our point here IS to show how that this teaching on the equanimity of ALL men IS first prescribed by the Master and then by the apostle who IS telling us that to be “be led of the Spirit” IS to see past the differences and to see ALL men as the spiritual beings that they ARE….to NOT have “respect to persons” (James 2:9). This idea IS lost in the common understanding of Paul’s words where the idea of sex clouds the first segment and the results of factions and divisions cloud the second. It IS these erroneous doctrinal assumptions that prevent men from seeing the reality of what it Truly means to “be led of the Spirit“; that this IS to have the Presence of God by measure in one’s Life through striving to keep His words. We read the apostle’s words again saying:

“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).

In Paul’s words saying that “if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” there seems to be much confusion which IS clarified in the idea that the man who IS Truly “led of the Spirit” IS living in that Love, that agape, as the Master teaches and in this “all the law is fulfilled“. In the reality of agape there IS NO need to attend to the dictates of the law as such as there IS NO division in which things contrary to the law can afflict the man. We should understand however to be Truly “led of the Spirit” IS to have by measure the realization of the Presence of God and to KNOW the Truth that frees us; both of these, and the realization of the Kingdom, come in the trifecta.

We close today with some thoughts on the word from Paul that IS rendered as manifest. This Greek word, phaneros, IS rendered in other translations according to the doctrinal ideas of sex, idolatry, witchcraft and their ideas of hatred and wrath apart from the reality of factions and divisions. It IS with these doctrinal ideas in mind that many render phaneros as clear, obvious, evident and even perfectly evident as though one should KNOW that these sexual and other things ARE the subject and ARE wrong. However, when we apply the greater Truth of infidelity toward God and the divisions of men to these renderings they fall short because these things ARE NOT clear or evident, especially to the common man.

In the idea of manifest however we have a different dynamic that works here as well as in the other uses of this word phaneros in the New Testament. This IS a difficult word which IS used by Jesus to say that He “will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21) which we understand as that the man who keeps His words will realize His Presence as we see above in our trifecta. This word IS also use by the Master as He explains the healing of the man born blind saying that the reason for this man’s birth this way IS “that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). The ideas of clear, obvious, evident and perfectly evident DO NOT work in these sayings while the idea of manifest as to become KNOWN offers us a clearer understanding. Here we should try to see that to the man who IS “led of the Spirit” these things ARE KNOWN….they ARE manifest, realized and Truly understood. It IS this idea of realization that we should try to see in these things that ARE manifest as “the works of the flesh“. Vincent helps us here by saying of this word phaneros that: You have a clearly defined standard by which to decide whether you are led by the Spirit or by the flesh. Each exhibits its peculiar works or fruits 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.

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 – 2016