ON LOVE; PART MIV
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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).
At the end of the last essay we began our look at the Apostle Paul’s next word on his list of “the fruit of the Spirit“, the Greek word pistis which IS most always rendered as faith and which IS rendered in this verse as faithfulness and as fidelity by others, and we should note that Vincent calls this trustfulness 4. It seems interesting to us that the Darby Translation chose to render pistis here as fidelity and while we ARE unsure of how this idea IS intended, there IS a certain way that this idea DOES work in relation to God as we have discussed in our study of Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh“. Overall however the ideas of faith and faithfulness, as these ARE generally understood, align themselves along carnal lines of thought and believing and there ARE few who seem to Truly grasp the extent of the ideas embodied by this Greek word nor by the kindred word pisteuo which IS rendered as forms of the idea of believing, of commitment and trust 2.
For many the ideas of faith and of believing carry a rather nebulous air although the deeper Truth of these words IS presented by Jesus Himself. It IS Jesus’ sense of this word that IS Truly a fruit of the Spirit because it DOES come from the Spirit rather that from some assentation of the mind. In the Master’s words that we cited in the last essay there IS the essence of the reality of pistis and while this may seem to be elusive in the parabolic way that He presents it, his idea IS clarified by the other gospel writers. In the end the Truth of pistis IS that KNOWING that comes to a man in the trifecta of spiritual reality, a KNOWING that IS based in the revelations and realization of the man who keeps His words and, by measure, to the man who Truly strives to DO so. It IS this KNOWING that sets in motion the Life of the disciple of the Lord who NO longer merely believes as this word IS commonly understood but who KNOWS of a certainty that the flow of the Power of the Spirt through his Earthly being IS his True sense of Redemption. We read again our trifecta of spiritual reality:
- “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).
There IS a great intersection between the ideas of the trifecta above and the reality of pistis and pistueo as regards the objective result of faith and believing. If one’s faith and believing brings a person to Truly see Jesus as Lord and the words of God as they ARE….the words of God, then the ONLY logical Way of Life IS according to His words. As IS easily seen around the world, there ARE few who have this sense of commitment to the Truth and this has likely ever been the case from the very beginning of the Judaeo-Christian era. This IS the reality that we should see in the Prophet Isaiah’s words that ARE repeated by the Master for us ALL and NOT ONLY to the Jews in those days. Jesus tells us “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:7-8) and while His comments go on to show the idea of reliance upon doctrine rather than His words, the message for us here IS in regard to the heart, to the consciousness of the man that attends ONLY to carnal matters under the guise of religion.
The indictment here IS that men DO NOT keep His words according to that sense of KNOWING that He IS Lord but rather because the ARE the law and even in this most ONLY ever see the doctrinal interpretation of that law. This IS of course what Paul writes against and while many doctrines teach that Paul’s words ARE against the dictates of the law and for the reality of faith, their very understanding of this faith provides little or NO foundation. In our current selection from the apostle we have a KEY to his True intent as he says that “if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” and it IS unfortunate that his idea of being “led of the Spirit” has become so diluted by the doctrines that have taken authority to teach the Truth. The reality of having one’s heart close to God as the opposite of one who “draweth nigh unto me with their mouth” IS simply to keep His words from the perspective of KNOWING that these ARE Truth and that one’s carnal existance IS intended ONLY to expand one’s spiritual realizations and to express these to the world of men as “the fruit of the Spirit“.
This IS the reality of the Master’s words and of His rhetorical question that asks “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). The Apostle Luke offers us a rather straightforward view of this idea which Matthew gives us in the trifecta above but the reality IS the same. Jesus asks simply that if a man Truly believes that He IS Lord, if a man Truly has such faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, then that man would keep His words based ONLY in this believing and faith. In this we should see the role of the illusion and the glamour in which men live in this world, the vanity as Paul shows us, and understand that it IS that sense of KNOWING that is missing….a KNOWING that comes from the Soul and which ONLY comes as one strives toward keeping His words. In this IS the reality of Repentance and in this we should try to see how that a man MUST answer the call of his own Soul which IS ever prompting him to the Good, the Beautiful and the True…..the things of God.
Matthew takes the rhetorical question from Luke and expands upon it to include much of what IS found in the words of Isaiah that Jesus repeats above as he shows NOT only the reward of DOING “the will of my Father which is in heaven” but also the reality of those whose Life and doctrines reflect the way that men DO “draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me“. It IS with this view of Truth that the product of men’s minds goes forth and results in Jesus saying that “in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). And it IS in this same sense of Jesus presented Truth that we should understand His words as Matthew expands them saying: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23).
Of course there ARE likely NONE whose Life IS governed by doctrines that will admit to their own inclusion in these ideas by the Master yet the reality of Jesus words remains and it IS this reality that is so bluntly captured by the Apostle James as he says that men should “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). In ALL of these ideas we have the deeper reality of pistis and of pisteuo, a reality that says that if one Truly believes that He IS Lord and if one Truly has faith as this is commonly understood in that reality, then the ONLY logical result, the ONLY result that IS NOT governed by illusion and glamour, the ONLY result that IS NOT found in the idea of “deceiving your own selves” IS to keep His words. And this IS Paul’s message as well as he offers us his lists of “the works of the flesh” as those things that the spiritual man will NOT DO but which are more easily hidden within the doctrinal approach to God, and “the fruit of the Spirit” which shows that man the Truth of the thoughts, attitudes and actions of one who IS Truly “led of the Spirit“. Repeating the apostle’s words we read:
“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).
Whether these words that the apostle offers us ARE seen in a carnal view or in the intended spiritual view there DOES remain one Truth, that “the works of the flesh” should be avoided and “the fruit of the Spirit” should be pursued. In the carnal view the avoidance of the hatreds and the wraths and those things that ARE perceived to be against God and His church must perforce be according to the law as ARE the carnal ideas that ARE rendered as adultery and the other sexual sins of men as well as those that show his drunkenness and rioting. And the carnal view of “the fruit of the Spirit” comes down to some doctrinal ideas regarding his words where Love IS often seen ONLY in its relation to God and to Christ; joy IS seen in regard to the Holy Spirit; Peace IS seen as some inner peace that comes in His blood and in the doctrinal idea of justification, and so on through the list. In NONE of these ideas which we take from the writings of John Gill 8 IS there any sense of fruit as we see this idea in Jesus words….as the expression of the man to the world.
It IS in the spiritual view that we can better see the apostle’s ideas regarding the law and how that to be Truly “led of the Spirit” IS to be “not under the law“. Here we should understand that to be “led of the Spirit” that the spiritual Life, the things of God, IS become the focus of one’s Life and that in this reality the carnal ideas of “the works of the flesh” have been largely overcome. This man has a new agenda and a new series of battles which ARE covered by the reality of the Great Commandments and it IS in this reality that “the fruit of the Spirit” Truly blossoms and blooms. The fruit then IS the natural evidence that a man has planted himself in the the word of the Lord; not by order or dictum, but by the most natural action of living the Life of the True man, the Soul, through his form in this world….this IS the man who IS “led of the Spirit“. In this spiritual view the apostles list of “the works of the flesh” ARE his caution to everyman who IS fighting these new battles; his caution to NOT show infidelity toward God through focus upon the things of the world and to NOT let one’s thoughts and attitudes have any “respect to persons“; it IS both of these that ARE contrary to the Great Commandments which we have again at the top of our essay.
And this brings us back to pistis and to the kindred word pisteuo. In the rather diluted ideas that we get from these words as the translated ideas we have the same duality where they can be understood carnally or spiritually. Carnally these ARE as they ARE presented in the dictionary and the meaning IS rather clearly that one IS convinced of the veracity or the person and in our use here this would mean that one IS convinced that Jesus IS Lord, that God IS God and that heaven IS what it IS portrayed to be and the Bible IS the word of God. However, it IS the spiritual side of this that must be understood as a “fruit of the Spirit“. On the spiritual side this pistis is that fruit which comes into the Life of the man in the world who strives to keep His words as we read in the trifecta; in this sense of faith a man NOT ONLY is carnally convinced that He IS Lord but he answers Jesus’ rhetorical question through His expression of the rest of what the apostle shows us as “the fruit of the Spirit“.
And it IS this expression that comes in the True faith, the Truth of pistis and pisteuo, where the man KNOWS the Truth, or some measure of it, as his own realizations that ARE based in the revelations that come to him in the Presence of God in his Life….that Presence and that KNOWING which comes in keeping His words. Faith and believing as the ideas rendered from pistis and pisteuo ARE the KNOWING that comes in His Presence and it IS in this reality that the man who Truly seeks the Lord can fulfill the words of the Master who says “Verily, verily, I say unto you, 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). It IS in these “greater works” that we find the fullness of “the fruit of the Spirit“.
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.
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.
We repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
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
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
