IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1404

ON LOVE; PART MXLIII

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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).

We ended the last essay with the words from a Bob Dylan song about serving and in his words we should be able to see the Master’s words on “God and mammon” most clearly. Dylan tells us that a man must serve one or the other, that IS that he must serve the devil or the Lord, and this IS clearly Jesus’ message albeit one that IS NOT taken as it IS intended. Much of Jesus’ intent IS lost in the common understanding of the Greek word mammonas which IS rendered mammon but which IS understood as riches. Jesus says: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).

We should understand that this idea of mammon IS NO more about money, riches and worldly goods than the idea of treasure in Jesus’ previous words. If we can see mammon as ALL things carnal, as ALL thoughts and attitudes and things that ARE men’s bondage, we can then see Dylan’s idea of serving either the devil or the Lord. Furthermore, Jesus shows us that one CAN NOT serve both and while this is a seemingly difficult idea, the reality IS found in the words of the Apostle James who tells us that “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

While Jesus tells us that one “cannot serve God and mammon“, this DOES NOT mean that one CAN NOT try and James shows us the result, from a spiritual perspective, of trying. Jesus’ point IS that the man who DOES try will NOT be successful at either and here we should remember and understand that the Master’s teaching IS that we should keep His words which includes the Great Commandments. We should try also to see how that Jesus’ mammon, Dylan’s devil, and the idea of sin ARE ALL the same and we can link this ALL together through the Master’s words saying “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). And these words follow closely upon Jesus’ words that ARE the first part of our trifecta which we repeat again; Jesus says:

• 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 should try to see how that one’s service defines one’s Life and we should try to see here that duality that we discussed in the last essay. This connection IS most readily seen in the use of the Greek word douleuo which IS rendered in Jesus words on mammon as serve which IS also the way that this IS rendered in Paul’s words on liberty from our selection below. This same word IS rendered as “be in bondage” in the verse that follows the Master’s words that ARE the first part of the trifecta and while we have here another link between bondage and service we also have this idea contrasted with being free as the Jew’s say to Jesus “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” (John 8:33).

This word free IS rendered from eleutheros which IS the root word for the word rendered as free in Jesus’ words above, for the word rendered as liberty in our selection below, and as delivered from Paul’s words to the Romans where he says that men “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). Here again we find that link between bondage and freedom and when we connect this idea to that link between bondage and service, we can likely understand the overall intent of both the Master and Paul more clearly.

In the intersection of these ideas we should try to see how that the idea that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” IS intended to be understood. In this service IS bondage and in this bondage IS the very idea of being a slave. While service DOES NOT give the full force of the idea, being the slave and being bondage DO show the unilateral commitment of the man to whatsoever path he may choose. This idea IS picked up in several translations of the Bible; where the King James renders as servant in John’s Gospel above, the New King James, the NIV and others render as slave. While slave DOES offer clarity in the relationship, servant IS the better idea as it shows the willingness as well as the commitment when this IS viewed against both “God and mammon“.

While much of the Master’s intent could be solved by understanding the reality of His idea of mammon, this IS NOT how that His point IS taken as men have ever confined this idea to riches and possessions. This IS NOT unlike the common understanding of Jesus’ use of the idea of treasure; this IS equally misunderstood and it IS ironic that even through the misrepresentation of these ideas that men still DO NOT heed Jesus’ words and warning. And this IS NOT unlike the way that most ALL doctrines treat the words and ideas that the Apostle Paul gives us in his lists of “the works of the flesh” and “the fruit of the Spirit“. Here, as in the ideas of Jesus on mammon and treasure, the renderings and the understandings ARE limited to the carnal ideas as we have been discussing for some time, and then largely ignored. Repeating the apostle’s words we read:

“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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 this disjointed approach to Truth that began in the early church which continues to delude the well meaning masses of people and it IS likely that many would look toward that Truth if it were not hidden behind the convenient doctrines of men. This IS of course the reality of the illusion and the glamour in which we live, the vanity as Paul shows us that ALL ARE subjected to as men in this world. It IS this delusion that the Apostle James warns against as he tells us to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). It IS Jesus’ words that ARE Truth and NOT the interpretations and the wranglings of the doctrines which men create and which ONLY serve the carnal ideas of men.

And it IS with this disjointed approach to God in mind that that we should read these words which were spoken at a recent political convention; words that show us a basic Truth of ‘religious’ and political Life today. Reverend Doctor William Barber said: that is why I’m so concerned, about those that say so much—about what God says so little, while saying so little—about what God says so much. And so in my heart, I’m troubled. And I’m worried about the way faith is cynically used by some to serve hate, fear, racism and greed.

This IS an indictment of men whose personal agendas have superseded their search for the Truth as they go about their ‘business’ of religion. Can we see how that it IS this type of thinking in the church today? How that so many ARE speaking loudly on their ideas about what God says so little while largely ignoring those things about what God says so much. Can we see how that this has become a barrier to the Truth for the millions of people that rely upon what they may hear from those that they have elevated to authority?

And we should understand here that while these same ‘teachers’ place themselves into Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit“, that the reality IS that they ARE caught in “the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21) which IS the greater reality of “the works of the flesh“. This IS of course ALL according to the reality of the Plan of God; not that men should act contrary to His words but that men DO act in the illusion and the glamour which IS Life in this world. It IS this illusion and glamour from which men must escape. The Apostle Peter shows us this idea in its fullness as he says: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).

To be clear, we DO NOT accuse such ‘teachers’ of partaking in the carnal view of Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh” but rather in the spiritual view of men who have NOT yet see the reality of his words. Men who have NOT yet understood how that these words from the apostle ARE intended to show the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions that ARE contrary to the very heart of the Great Commandments. It IS the Truth of the apostle’s words that we have spent so many words on which we summarize in the idea that the first group of words IS reference to man’s infidelity toward the Godhead while the second group IS Paul’s reference to men’s failure at Love according to the second of the Great Commandments. This IS of course ALL clearly stated in our past essays.

It IS this corruption that IS the mammon of which Jesus speaks and this IS ALL things carnal….this IS ALL that IS sin. Again, we must come to see the very idea of sin as this IS intended in scripture: that while this DOES include those gross offenses that men may commit, the fullness IS found in ALL things, in ALL thoughts, ALL attitudes and ALL actions that ARE contrary to the word of God which Peter shows us come from our own carnal desires. It IS man’s tendency to place his thoughts and his attitudes into the realm of what it is that he wants as a man in this world that must be overcome by the lust, the strong desire, for the Truth which IS God.

ALL men want to be “partakers of the divine nature” but we should understand that this IS ONLY possible for the man who Truly overcomes the carnal instinct into which he IS born and then nurtured and indoctrinated according to his place on this Earth. In this we should see that it IS ALL things carnal that must  be overcome and this regardless of ANY of the separating ideas applied to men; this IS regardless of race, religion, nationality or inherited customs. In Peter’s idea of escape we should see the more intentional idea of overcome and understand that in the context of the apostles’ words these ideas ARE the same. It IS when we can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) that our work of Redemption IS DONE.

And with this we can return to Paul’s list of “the fruit of the Spirit” where our next word IS chrestotes which IS rendered as gentleness but which carries a definition of goodness according to the lexicon ². This word IS rendered by most ALL translations as kindness or as gentleness (the Douay-Rheims renders as benignity) while the next word, agathosune, IS rendered as goodness. We should note that this word chrestotes IS ONLY used by Paul. We did discuss these two words in some detail in In the Words of Jesus Part 1362 and here today we can refine our ideas on the way that these work together and how that both ARE intended to show the idea of goodness.

We DO KNOW from Jesus’ words that the very idea of good IS to be God-like which idea we get from His words saying “there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matthew 19:17). If this IS the reality of good which here IS rendered from agathosune, then we can certainly understand how that this IS an expression of fruit by a man in this world. Then what of chrestotes? How should we see this in terms of a  “fruit of the Spirit“? Perhaps we can see these words in terms of the measure of them in the Life of the man in this world. Perhaps we can see how that the idea of chrestotes IS the flow of the quality of goodness through the Life of a man which includes gentleness, kindness and benignity, but which IS in reality so much more. We must NOT lose the idea that these ARE both “fruit of the Spirit” and in this understand that these DO come from the God Within and that these ARE both expressions of that Love which IS the universal fruit in which ALL these others DO exist.

If we can see how that the first idea, chrestotes, IS the flow of the quality of goodness through the Life of a man, a flow of that aspect of Love which we see in our defining ideas of Love above as the ‘disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good’, we can then perhaps better understand the apostle’s intent. We can then see how that these ideas of kindness, gentleness and even benignity must come from the heart and not be merely human courtesies.

By contrast then we have the Greek word agathosune which we define from Jesus’ use of this as we read above. We should understand that this word has multiple uses and it IS where it IS used in regard to persons that we should apply Jesus defining ideas to it. Additionally we should try to see that when there IS NO person in the context of this word, the idea of good from agathosune can then be seen in James’ words saying “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). If we can reinterpret ALL uses of this word agathosune in these two defining ideas, we can then see much of the more spiritual intent that IS the words of Jesus and His apostles.

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 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 from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com