ON LOVE; PART CMLXXXVIII

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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 showed the relationship between the words of Jesus regarding the idea of fruit and the words of the Apostle Paul who gives us his list of what IS “the fruit of the Spirit“. While the Master speaks much about fruit without ever Truly defining what this idea of fruit should mean in specific terms, it IS rather clear that it IS to be simply simply understood that fruit, as Jesus uses this word, IS the reality of the Good, the Beautiful and the True….the things of God in the Life of a man. Jesus speaks about “good fruit” verses “evil fruit” and about “good fruit” versus “corrupt fruit and shows that in these words he speaks of the Life of a man in this world; we read: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit” (Matthew 12:33). We should try to see how that in His own parabolic way the Master IS showing us how that it IS by the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions that we can KNOW that the expression of the man IS the things of God or the things of the world.

We should understand here that the idea of “good fruit” IS ever tied to the deeper realities of spiritual Life and that in the idea of corrupt fruit IS the idea of fruit that IS tied to the worldly Life of a man. We must of course look at these ideas and the Greek words from a spiritual perspective; the words that ARE rendered as corrupt, meaning rotten and stale, ARE the opposite of good and here we should see that same dichotomy between the carnal and the spiritual that we have been discussing. Similarly, while the idea behind the words that ARE rendered as corruption have the meaning of physical decay, the spiritual meaning IS easily seen in such ideas as Paul’s words that we often discuss which tell us that we “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

It IS in this sense of good and evil that we should understand spiritual versus carnal and see that in His words saying that “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit” (Matthew 7:18) there IS this same separation. The tree IS the Life of the man which IS either expressing the good, spiritual,  fruit as in Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit” or it IS the Life of a man which IS expressing evil or corrupt fruit which IS contrary to “the fruit of the Spirit” and IS therefore “the works of the flesh” as Paul shows us in our selection from Galatians which we repeat here 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).

And this idea of fruit IS linked to the very Truth of discipleship; if we can tie His words saying “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8) together with His words on the disciple from the trifecta below, we should be able to see the deeper reality: it IS in keeping His words that one will “bear much fruit“. Here we should see the equanimity of the ideas; we should see that to “bear much fruit” and to “continue in my word” both yield the same result which IS the reality of True discipleship. We read Jesus’ words that ARE our trifecta again 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).
• “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).

Perhaps the clearest view of fruit from the Master’s perspective IS found in the Parable of the Sower. While the words vary from gospel to gospel the idea behind the Greek word karpophoreo is that of bearing fruit ² and from Jesus’ words in this parable we can see the spiritual idea that IS at play. The seed “sown on stony ground” produces NO fruit, nor DOES “that which fell among thorns” nor that which falls by the wayside. It IS only the seed sown “into the good ground” which produces fruit and in Jesus explanation of this idea to His disciples we can understand the whole of His message regarding fruit. We list the three variations of Jesus’ words:

• From Matthew’s Gospel we read: “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:22-23)
• The Apostle Mark gives us Jesus words this way: “And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:18-20).
• Luke frames Jesus’ words this way: “And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:14-15).

We should remember here that the seed itself IS the object of this parable and that the fruit IS the result of the sown seed. As the Master shows us “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11) and in these words of the Parable of the Sower we should see the very same idea which we have above in Jesus words according to the Apostle John: it IS in receiving and keeping His words that one will “bring forth fruit” and so be a True disciple of the Lord. We should note here as well that the idea of measure IS implied in the words of both Matthew and Mark and we should see how that it IS by the measure of one’s focus upon the things of God that revelation comes and it IS this revelation that IS the precursor of the fruit. This sense of revelation and one’s realization of Truth IS the same idea that we take from the trifecta where, without the idea of fruit, the Master’s message IS the same….it IS in keeping His words that we have by measure the realization of the Presence of God and come to KNOW the Truth while seeing oneself in the Kingdom of God and NO longer a part of the ways of world.

In ALL of these things it IS the same idea of keeping His words that IS the KEY and it IS in striving to DO so that we can find our own spiritual reality and KNOW the deeper reality of Paul’s words saying “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts“. One CAN NOT Truly be Christ’s without keeping His words and it IS a measure of this reality that comes to the man who Truly strives. The fruit that the Master speaks of and the fruit that Paul shows us IS the very same spiritual reality. It IS the expression by the man in this world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True, the expression by the man in this world of the reality of Love as agape. We should note here that Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit” IS NOT things or even acts….Paul’s list IS the thoughts and the attitudes of the man in the world and the expression of these to ALL.

The first word in Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit” IS agape which IS here rendered as Love. Vincent offers us a rather long breakdown of the different Greek words used to denote Love from both the Septuagint and the New Testament in his commentary on these words from Galatians which tell us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith“; the full text of his words can be found online for any who should wish to understand his view. Our point here from Vincent IS much simpler as he tells us at the end of his dissertation that: Love, in this passage, is that fruit of the Spirit which dominates all the others ⁴. This IS of course based in the way that agape IS used throughout the New Testament and especially the way that Paul uses it.

Through New Testament ideas like “God is Love” (1 John 4:8) which shows us the supremacy of the very idea of Love, of agape, as well as Paul’s own words just prior to our selection that tell us that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14), we should be able to see the point….that it IS Love that IS the primary expression of “the fruit of the Spirit“. ALL of the other ideas in the apostle’s list must perforce fall squarely under this as variations in one’s expression, the totality of which equal the singular idea of Love. If we can understand this reality and if we can see how that it IS Love as outlined in the Great Commandments that IS the True KEY to our spiritual reality, we can then more rightly see how that to Love as Jesus teaches us IS to keep His words. And in this we can then see the greater reality that IS presented to us as faith and as grace.

We should try to see this rather nebulous idea of faith as that KNOWING of the Truth of Life and of the Kingdom which DOES come by measure to the man who will strive to keep His words; this IS the essence of the first part of the trifecta above. And it IS grace that comes with the reality of faith: as a man strives to keeps His words, as part of his measure of KNOWING, there comes the realization of His Presence and it IS this revelation that IS the grace of God….this is the reality of the third part of the trifecta. It IS ONLY in one’s right understanding of the Kingdom of God that one can also see in these ideas that it IS this reality of KNOWING, the Truth of faith, which comes in the Presence of God in one’s Life that IS the Way that one can Truly “enter into the kingdom of heaven“. ALL of this IS accomplished in agape, in a man’s expression of Love.

In understanding this dynamic allows us to also see that this IS a KEY to understanding much of the words of the apostles regarding these ideas of grace and faith. In the simple words from the Apostle Paul we have much confusion based in the doctrinal views of the denominations and their translations of the New Testament and by example we can look at this verse from the apostle’s Epistle to the Romans: “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name” (Romans 1:5). The common understanding here IS that it IS by the grace received and apostleship that men can bring others into the faith but this misses the whole point of faith and grace as Paul intends these ideas. The common understanding is easily seen in this from the New International Translation; we read “Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake“.

If we can see the idea here as that it IS through grace, through the Presence of God in one’s Life, that one IS an apostle and that in this realization of His Presence called grace we ARE obedient to those things which we have come to KNOW as the Truth and we ARE obedient among ALL people expressing that never ending Love as agape to ALL, we can then see the greater Truth. It IS this obedience to one’s own sense of Truth that IS the hallmark of True faith and it IS in this idea of DOING that we keep his words which DO include that such men, as apostles, DO “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). The emphasis here should be upon the DOING and upon Jesus’ closing statement in His own words.

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