ON LOVE; PART MXIII
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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 with our discussion of the ideas behind the Greek words pistis which IS rendered as faith and the kindred word pisteuo which IS rendered as believe. Just as the Greek words ARE related, so ARE the English words but their depth IS NOT seen in the common understanding of the ideas. Faith IS become a nebulous affair as this IS portrayed by doctrines and believing lacks the totality of the intent; in spiritual terms both words contain that sense of conviction that fully relies upon the object of that faith or belief. The fullness of faith and believing is found in the reality that the man who DOES so “shall not doubt in his heart” (Mark 11:23). This IS the deeper intent of the ideas behind the Greek words that IS hidden by the nebulous approach as IS the True intent behind the Master’s words which we call our trifecta of spiritual reality; we repeat Jesus words 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).
It IS in the fullness of keeping His words,which implies also that one will “continue in my word” as Jesus frames this, that we find the reward, the grace that IS the realization of the Kingdom of God and of His Presence and it IS this realization that IS the Truth which “shall make you free“. In this IS the link between keeping His words and that KNOWING that IS the essence of faith and of believing. We should be able to see here how that it IS in the fullness of faith and in the fullness of believing that one can “say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). And we should see how that these ideas ALL DO work together. If one has the fullness of faith and believing, that he DOES “not doubt in his heart“, then this man will also “know the truth” as one who DOES keep His words. It IS in the fullness of KNOWING that one has “not doubt in his heart” and this fullness ONLY comes to a man who will, as Jesus tells us, “continue in my word“. It IS important to remember however that this fullness IS the Way of the man who IS the True disciple of the Lord, the man who has overcome and who has “crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” as the Apostle Paul shows us in our selection from Galatians where he lists faith for us as a “fruit of the Spirit “; 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).
It IS when we can see how that this KNOWING, which comes in keeping His words, that we can understand how that faith and believing ARE intended to be understood by the Master and His apostles. We should try to see how that True faith and True believing DO NOT come from the carnal mind an emotions….these ARE NOT products of the flesh. True faith and True believing come from the Soul, from “the anointing which ye have received of him” (1 John 2:27) which IS the same as that which Paul tells us IS “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27); in this idea we should see the Greek word elpis as expectation rather than hope which IS itself found in KNOWING. To KNOW then IS faith, it IS believing and to KNOW IS to have the Presence of God, the Christ Within, directing one’s Life. To KNOW IS to have the realization of the Truth of God and His Kingdom; to KNOW IS to see behind the mysteries of Life and glimpse the very Plan of God. This IS the reality of faith.
From the human perspective this IS the end point of one’s long journey through Life as a man and his freedom then from the illusion and the glamour of Life in form….from the vanity as Paul frames this. This IS that freedom which IS men’s being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). We should understand here how that this comes to each man by measure; that it IS in proportion to one’s measure of striving toward the fullness that a man achieves some measure. And it IS as one continues to strive that he finds an ever greater measure of that KNOWING which IS the Presence of God in his Life….this IS the grace that IS the revelation of the Truth to the consciousness of the man in the world.
It IS this sense of measure that we should get from Jesus’ words. It IS in the idea of measure for measure that He tells us as “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you” that we should see the measure of fruit and it IS in this idea of faith as one’s fruit that we should see the expression of that KNOWING by the man in the world….a measure which Jesus shows us as “some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:20, 24). It IS in the sense of measure that men should see their Path forward and this IS the growth of the Kingdom of God Within. It IS in this sense of measure that a man should understand the growth of the Presence of God in his Life and this IS the measure of grace, the measure of the revelation and the realization of Truth.
In the reality of faith and believing, which IS the reality of KNOWING, the man who Truly seeks God strives. And we should see that the very basis for striving IS found in Jesus’ rhetorical question which asks “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Here, while we could go into the more religious ideas presented in the Apostle Matthew’s Gospel regarding those who feign His Lordship by NOT being “he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven“, our point IS most clearly made logical terms. If we believe that He IS Lord, if we have faith He IS God or have faith in His word as God, it certainly behooves us to keep His words. This logic would dictate that in the absence of keeping His words or striving toward that goal even the common ideas of faith and believing ARE moot.
Returning to the words from the Book of Hebrews saying that “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), we should see how that there IS naught here that supports the rather nebulous ideas that faith carries in doctrine. This IS especially True when we see the writers words through the other ideas which ARE found within the Greek words used by the writer. We ended the last essay with a comparison to the Greek words from the first part and here we should be more specific before we continue onto the second part:
- First IS pistis which IS rendered as faith. According to Strong’s this word has several related uses; we read that pistis IS: persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension, the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:—assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity. While the bolded words ARE the defining terms, the balance of the entry IS the doctrinal approach which the author offers. Pistis IS endered in King James Bible as: faith (239x), assurance (1x), believe (with G1537) (1x), belief (1x), them that believe (1x), fidelity (1x) 9.
- Next IS hypostasis which IS rendered as substance. Strong’s defines this word as: a setting under (support), i.e. (figuratively) concretely, essence, or abstractly, assurance (objectively or subjectively):—confidence, confident, person, substance . Hypostasis IS rendered in King James Bible as: confidence (2x), confident (1x), person (1x), substance (1x). faith (239x), assurance (1x), believe (with G1537) (1x), belief (1x), them that believe (1x), fidelity (1x) 9.
- And the last word IS elpizo which IS rendered as hope; this Strong’s defines as: to expect or confide:—(have, thing) hope(-d) (for), trust . Rendered in King James Bible as: trust (18x), hope (10x), hope for (2x), things hoped for (1x), vr hope (1x) 9.
It IS easy to see how these Greek words ALL intersect in ideas of assurance, of trust, and of confidence and it IS in this relationship that the statement should be seen as as a straightforward statement of fact. In the idea that KNOWING IS our assurance of what IS expected, we should try to see ONLY spiritual ideas that ARE based in His word, based in the words of Him that we call Lord. While several bible translations DO render these words according to our view here, most ALL do maintain their sense of doctrine as regards the carnal nature of the ideas and in this the way of faith remains a nebulous one. When we can understand the intent of the Greek word pistis as that KNOWING that IS shown us by Jesus, that KNOWING that comes to a man who strives to keep His words, we can then see how that it IS in this KNOWING that we ARE assured of the Truth of His words which IS the reality of what the spiritual man DOES expect.
In this we eliminate the nebulous ideas attached to pistis and we remove the carnal implications which doctrines have inserted; not into Jesus’ words, but into their own unsupported view of Life itself where faith can bring a man carnal rewards. We have discussed these ideas many times in our blog along with the reality that there IS NO consistency found in this idea of faith bringing carnal rewards, an idea that DOES NOT bring reward to some while it brings reward to others and to many who have NO faith whatsoever in doctrinal terms. Entire denominations have dedicated their teaching to these carnal ideas of faith and many base their doctrines firmly in Old Testament ideas of covenant relationships between God and His people who believe according to doctrine. In the True reality of pistis as that KNOWING that comes to the man who Truly stirves to express his measure of the “fruit of the Spirit” ALL of these carnal ideas DO fail…..this KNOWING comes, according to the Master’s words above, ONLY to the man who will “continue in my word“.
While many bible commentators DO see the reality of this idea, that the object of such faith IS ever spiritual, the teaching by many denominations continues to be directed at carnal rewards. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Whole Bible, gives us the more spiritual view albeit one that IS restricted to his own sense of doctrine; we read in part that:….in all special blessings: it is described as “the substance of things hoped for”; and which, in general, are things unseen, and as yet not enjoyed; future, and yet to come; difficult to be obtained, though possible, otherwise there would be no hope of them; and which are promised and laid up; and in particular, the things hoped for by Old Testament saints were Christ, and eternal glory and happiness; and by New Testament ones, more grace, perseverance in it, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life . In Mr. Gills view these ARE the promises for which we have faith and hope or, in the case of True faith as we see it, these ARE the promises that we KNOW and expect and of which we ARE assured by such KNOWING.
Despite the doctrinal ideas of resurrection and the doctrinal view of eternal Life and grace, Mr. Gill DOES show us the working of these words from Hebrews in more spiritual terms than those who preach about carnal rewards. It IS unfortunate that those who DO preach this carnal approach DO gain much following as their ideas of promise in carnal terms IS a great attraction to the men and women of this world who ARE yet caught in the illusion and the glamour of Life….caught in the way that they ARE “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20). When we can relate this idea of faith, of KNOWING as pistis, to the reality that this IS a “fruit of the Spirit” and to Jesus words on one’s expression of this fruit, we can easily see how that this carnal approach IS NOT valid.
And it IS in this reality of pistis, this reality that it IS this KNOWING through which we ARE assured of the Truth of His words, this reality of what the spiritual man DOES expect, that we should see the Gospel story of the centurion as well as several others who have such faith as to expect whatsoever they required from the Master. In this idea we should NOT forget how that there IS little or NO randomness in the way that certain of the people in that day became a part of the teaching of the Master; we should understand that most ALL have their interactions with Jesus as a part of their own personal destiny and as a part of the Great and Awesome Plan of God. The best view of this IS in the Life of the apostles; these ARE NOT randomly chosen individuals nor are the specially gifted by the Lord; these ARE more advanced Souls who came as a part of the Plan to help usher in the necessary changes which the Master DID bring to the world. We close today with the story of the centurian:
“And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said , Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel….And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour” (Matthew 8:5-10, 13).
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
- 9 Strong’s Concordance and Dictionary on blueletterbible.org
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
