ON LOVE; PART MXXXVIII
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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).
Through the Apostle Paul’s words with saying “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts” (Colossians 3:15) with which we end our essays, we came upon the idea of the good man as part of our discussion of this idea of “the peace of God“. This sense of Peace IS for us the reality behind the apostle’s inclusion of this attribute of Love in his list of “the fruit of the Spirit” and we should remember here how that by virtue of its being a fruit, this Peace IS an expression by a man in this world. This Peace IS the third word in Paul’s list that begins with Love and we should see Love as inclusive of ALL the other ideas in this list where the Greek word chara IS second. In chara we DO NOT see the idea of joy as happiness or gladness as this IS portrayed by doctrines; we see this word in terms of grace which IS rendered from the kindred word charis; and both of these have the same root in chairo.
When we view the uses of charis in the New Testament we should be able to see those things which come from God and the same ideas should come to mind in the kindred words. That this word charis IS misrepresented in parts of the New Testament IS apparent by its rendering as thanks and as favor in the King James Bible and we should try to see here how that the ideas presented by the Master and His apostles concerning charis ARE NOT understood in spiritual terms. If we can see this joy in spiritual terms and link this to Paul’s other uses of this word where IS comes from God, we can then see the reality of this as a “fruit of the Spirit“. An example can be found in this saying from Paul to the Romans where both the ideas of joy and Peace are joined together. We read: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost” (Romans 15:13).
If we can read this as Paul’s asking that the God Within fill the man who strives with the expectation of such joy and Peace, which IS the grace of God that brings that Peace which IS ONLY found in KNOWING the Truth, so that he may abound in that expectation through the Power that IS the God Within, we can likely understand the deeper ideas that the apostle IS trying to impart. Here we can see that this idea of joy IS that grace which IS the things that come from the Godhead as revelations and realizations of Truth and that this Peace IS the realization of the freedom that IS found in pistueo which IS KNOWING the Truth as we see again in Jesus words that ARE the first part of 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).
This IS the reality of joy and of Peace which ARE rendered from chara and eirene. In this sense it IS easy to see how that these ARE attributes of Love when these ARE become the expression of the man who Truly seeks God. Chara flows through the man of God as water flows from a spring and eirene IS the outward psychic nature of the man who stands free in the Truth….free in KNOWING the Truth. Remembering that ALL of these ideas ARE essentially spiritual ideas, we can also see how that in one’s expression of Love according to the Great Commandments there IS a great freedom from ALL carnal concerns and matters and it IS in this freedom “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) that True joy and Peace IS found; both ARE products of and ARE the grace of God.
A companion saying to this that we often use from Romans IS found in the chapter from Galatians from which we take our selection. Paul tells us “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1) and here we have that same intersection between liberty and freedom which ARE rendered from the Greek words eleutheria and eleutheroo. Eleutheria IS always rendered as liberty while eleutheroo IS rendered as make free as we have in Jesus words on Truth in our trifecta above and as deliver as we have in Paul’s words to the Romans. Both of these Greek words have the same root word elutheros which IS rendered in terms of freedom and liberty.
Our point here IS that it IS this idea of freedom and its operation as liberty that IS the necessary component of the whole idea of Peace and joy when we can see these ideas from a spiritual perspective. While the common idea of joy DOES NOT give us the True sense that this IS the activity of the grace of God in the Life of the man in the world, we use it for lack of a better word to portray the expression of this grace by the man who DOES receive it. Perhaps we can sense the reality of this idea of chara in Jesus’ instruction to His disciples saying “freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). While this rendering of freely IS from a different Greek word, this DOES add some strength to our ideas on that sense of freedom from which a man CAN express both Peace and joy or, better, Peace and chara. The important point remains: this list of “the fruit of the Spirit” IS a list of those spiritual ideals that a man must express if he IS Truly “led of the Spirit“. We read Paul’s 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).
Love then, as agape, IS the outward expression that encompasses ALL the ideas that follow and it IS in this expression of Love that we DO keep His words which Truth the apostle gives us saying: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). In these words that ARE a part of the whole text from which we take our selection above and the apostle’s words of freedom and liberty, we should be able to see the totality of the idea of Love and understand that to “love thy neighbour as thyself” also positions a man to KNOW that he does “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“.
In whole or by measure this IS the reality of True spiritual Life and this IS the True meaning of being “led of the Spirit“. In this we should be able to see how that the many men who DO express some measure of the reality of agape have then some measure of being “led by the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:14). We should see as well that this leading IS NOT from an outside source but it IS rather the leading of the Inner man, the Christ and God Within, which the Apostle John shows us as the unction and “the anointing which ye have received of him” (1 John 2:27). While doctrines paint these ideas as that they apply to the simple believer and even to those who DO NOT express some measure of the Truth of agape, the Truth IS found ever found ONLY in such expression.
And while doctrines teach that this idea of anointing IS ONLY available to the believer according to their several doctrines, the Truth IS that the anointing, this unction, IS inherent in Life and IS the True being of a man….it IS his Soul. It IS the man who Loves that realizes some measure of this anointing as the very source of his KNOWING his measure of the Truth and it IS this that also brings to him some measure of chara and Peace. It matters NOT what religion a man may follow or what doctrines may be impeding his way; it ONLY matters that his expression IS some measure of agape. It matters NOT that it IS a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist, or even an atheist that Truly expresses some measure of this Love, ALL have “the anointing which ye have received of him“, of the One God, and ALL will realize some measure of the Truth which this unction brings into his Life.
Jesus tells us that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16) and while this idea IS offered in a negative way and against the man whose teachings ARE NOT the Truth, the greater reality IS that this IS a far reaching idea. Just as one can see the false teacher by his expression so also one can see the man who Truly expresses some measure of agape. How then IS this fruit of agape seen? It IS seen in the True ideas behind the Greek words that we have been studying in the apostle’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit“….it IS seen in one’s expression of chara which for us IS the flow of grace and Truth according to Jesus’ admonition that “freely ye have received, freely give“.
We should remember here that the very idea of grace in doctrines and in common understanding IS at best nebulous and without True meaning and that for us grace IS ALL that comes from the Godhead and thereby from the unction. It IS one’s expression of this as a “fruit of the Spirit” that IS chara and in this we can see how that the rendering as joy IS wholly inadequate. Part of the expression by the man who strives then IS seen in the reality that whatsoever he has received of the Lord flows through him and can be seen as a “fruit of the Spirit” by the keen observer. Similarly we should see the idea of Peace which again IS NOT a personal sense of Peace but rather an expression of it.
As we have noted above and in previous posts, the idea of Peace IS found in that freedom that comes in the chara which IS the product of one’s expression of agape and in this we should see how that these ALL DO work together. Peace IS this state of being free from the burdens imposed by the illusions and the glamour of Life here in this Earth; free from the vanity which Paul tells us ALL ARE subjected to. It IS in one’s measure of this freedom that one can express the Truth of agape and this because he IS free from ALL that separates a man from His brother; and it IS in one’s measure of KNOWING, which comes in the grace of God, that he realizes that ALL divisions ARE carnal and ARE error.
The expression then of Peace IS an extension of one’s expression of Love as IS one’s expression of chara. The expression of Peace IS perhaps best seen in the steadfast demeanor of the man whose thoughts and attitudes ARE in accord with the Master’s most misunderstood injunction: that men should “Take no thought for your life” (Matthew 6:25). Can we see the expression of Peace in the Life of the man who Truly DOES “Take no thought“? Can we see how that the totality of “the yoke of bondage” IS lifted from the expression of the man who Truly keeps His words and, by measure, from the man who Truly strives. And can we see how that the very idea that Jesus presents to us in saying that men should “Take no thought for your life” IS a companion idea to the words of the first part of the Great Commandments which say that “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“.
That these ideas ARE missed by the doctrines of men IS of NO moment; what IS important IS that the man who DOES express some measure of agape will realize some measure of this freedom and the Peace that it brings. While he may NOT understand the flow of grace that IS unleashed by his expression of Love and while he may NOT see such a flow of Truth and its freedom, he DOES at the same time express it according to the prompting of his own Soul….his own True anointing. Our last few essays have turned into a review and an expansion of the ideas that we presented on Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit” and with this we will continue on to the next words: makrothumia which IS rendered as longsuffering; chrestotes which IS rendered as gentleness; agathosune which IS rendered as goodness and pistis which IS rendered as faith.
Like the ideas of agape, chara and eirene which we have been discussing, these next words ARE NOT seen as the apostle intended these to be understood and, as we complete these, we will then take on the last two words which we have NOT yet discussed: praotes which IS rendered as meekness and egkrateia which IS rendered as temperance. It IS when we can see and understand that most ALL of the Master’s and His apostles’ words ARE intended for the man who can see past his carnal existence and past his own doctrinal orientation that we can then grasp the Truth of spiritual living as it expresses “the fruit of the Spirit” according to the measure of one’s focus upon the Godhead.
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
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
