ON LOVE; PART MXLVI
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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 some thoughts about those words on faith that seem to be an anchor of doctrinal Christianity. And this idea of anchor has two meanings. First those words from the writer of the Book of Hebrews ARE used to show the Power of faith in the Life of the man who has this nebulous advantage with some denominations teaching that it IS by such faith that one will receive carnal reward. And second, this IS an actual anchor that keeps so many bound to their sense of doctrine as they use the hope that they see in faith as their tool toward a better tomorrow.
In the greater reality of faith as that KNOWING some modicum of the Truth, which IS the privilege of the man who will strive to keep his words, IS a striving that IS intimately tied to Jesus’ other admonition that men should seek. We find this in such sayings as “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). It is this seeking and asking and knocking that ARE at the heart of Jesus’ message of striving.
We should note here that the defining ideas for both aiteo and zeteo, which ARE rendered as ask and seek, ARE similar; Strong’s defines aiteo as: ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require and zeteo as: to seek (literally or figuratively); specially, (by Hebraism) to worship (God), or (in a bad sense) to plot (against life):—be (go) about, desire, endeavour, enquire (for), require, (X will) seek (after, for, means) 9. As we see, there are several English words that cross between these Greek ideas.
Particularly interesting IS the Strong’s idea of worship and the lexicon idea that this word means: to seek after, seek for, aim at, strive after 2 where a link to our idea of striving IS found. Additionally, Strong’s refers the reader to pynthanomai, which IS rendered as ask, demand, enquire, and understand, as part of their definition of both aiteo and zeteo and a part of the lengthy definition of pynthanomai tells us that this word means: to question, i.e. ascertain by inquiry (as a matter of information merely; and thus differing from G2065, which properly means a request as a favor; and from G154, which is strictly a demand for something due 9. G154 IS the Strong’s number for aiteo.
It IS in the combination of these ideas of aiteo and zeteo that we should be able to see the ideas of both striving and of asking for that which IS essentially ours. And, if we can connect this to our trifecta, we can likely see how that the method of asking and the Way of seeking IS to be in accord with His words which IS ever the gateway to that Truth that IS the subject of the seeking and asking and knocking. This IS also the reality that we should take from Jesus’ other words on seeking and especially His saying that men should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) which IS the Way of the trifecta which we repeat 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).
We should ever understand that True faith comes to the man who will seek it and if we can see the idea of striving in the Master’s words on seeking, we can better understand the responsibility of the man who Truly seeks God….that he will strive toward that goal. ALL else IS simply the carnal endeavors of men in this world. It IS this faith that comes in striving “to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24) that IS the KNOWING that comes through keeping His words as we read in the trifecta and it IS this KNOWING that IS the revelations and the realizations of the man who has the Presence of God through DOING so.
And it IS this sense of faith about which the writer of Hebrews says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). As we discussed, when we can see these ideas apart from the nebulous nature of doctrinal faith, we can then understand how that his words ARE better seen as “KNOWING IS the assurance of what IS expected“. In this idea we can more clearly see our idea from the last post saying that: In this KNOWING is our assurance that what we expect according to His words WILL come to pass; that IS, that if we keep our part of the dictates of the trifecta, we expect, and we will have, those things of which He tells us.
We should add here that we will KNOW that what He says, what Jesus Truly says, will come to pass. Here we should not look at the parabolic ideas that to this day defy interpretation but rather to the simple ideas that ARE clearly stated including the ideas in the trifecta above. And this includes the idea of “greater works“, the idea behind moving the mountain, and so on into ALL types of spiritual ideas which ARE the ONLY reality of the grace that comes in this faith. In the final analysis we must come to see how that ALL things that ARE desired by the disciple, and in measure by the aspirant, ARE spiritual things and ARE the ever increasing KNOWING of the Truth of Life; or so much of this Truth as the personality IS able to express.
And this expression IS “the fruit of the Spirit“; this expression IS our spiritual reality, and this expression IS NEVER about the self and the things of the self in this world and this regardless of how that one may convince himself that his motives ARE spiritual. And this expression of KNOWING IS the very “the evidence of things not seen” which we can see then as the Power of the Christ Within, the Power of the Soul, flowing freely through one’s Life in this Earth thereby preventing one’s lapse into the carnal Life so long as he WILL “continue in my word” as the Master shows us.
It IS against this lapse that the Apostle Paul gives us his list of “the works of the flesh” which ARE those personality ideas that can overtake the Truth and pull a man back into ideas that ARE for the self and the self in this world. It IS these works that can pull a man away from the Great Commandments, away from his fullness of focus upon the Godhead, and away from the great Truths of Love which ARE his expression of “the fruit of the Spirit“. It IS Paul’s caution against glimpsing the Truth and then allowing the personality to regain control that IS the apostle’s warning that we repeat again in our selection from Galatians; 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).
As we closed the last essay we left with the words from Hebrews that come after the writer’s definition of faith, words that can show us the reality of KNOWING. He says: Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Hebrews 11:3) and, if we can analyze this idea apart from doctrine we can perhaps glimpse the whole of the writer’s intent. First we should try to see that the Greek word noeo that IS rendered here as understand has a usage and an meaning that IS the same as our idea of KNOWING. While there ARE many words that ARE rendered in terms of understanding in the New Testament this idea of noeo is from nous which IS from ginosko which means to KNOW.
This idea of noeo IS used primarily in Jesus’ words to His disciples as He asks them if they understand many things and whether they lacked such understanding. Several times Jesus says to them such things as “Do not ye yet understand” (Matthew 15:17, 16:9), “How is it that ye do not understand” (Matthew 16:11) and “Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive” (Mark 7:18). In these we should try to see how that this understanding and this perceiving IS that KNOWING that IS faith and here we should see the relationship between the Greek ideas of pistis and noeo or nous.
If we can see how that pistis IS the spiritual component of these ideas, how that pistis comes in revelation while noeo IS the realization of that faith, we can then see the True intent of these ideas in scripture. And to the point, pistis brings to the personality the KNOWING of the whole of the creative process without the most baseless doctrinal theories that are based in few words from Genesis….words which are written for the minds of men thousands of years ago. It is by faith then that we come to KNOW, as men, all things and this idea IS NO different than that offered by the Apostle John who tells us that “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20).
We should try to see how that this unction, this anointing, this idea of the Christ Within, IS the very source of faith as we should understand this idea in the New Testament…..this IS the very source of KNOWING the Truth of which Jesus tells us “the truth shall make you free“. Here again we should try to see that this freedom, this deliverance, “from the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21) IS our freedom from the constraints of human thoughts and attitudes which ARE the motivators of Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh“. And should we have this understanding, it IS then an easy reach to see how that one’s expression of “the fruit of the Spirit” simply comes into the Life of the man who KNOWS.
We should also see here that the ideas of framed, of worlds and of His word ARE not as simple as these ARE portrayed to be according to the King James translation that we read. In the Greek word katartizo we have a word that IS generally rendered in terms of perfection by the King James translators; ONLY here is it rendered framed. Others render this idea as created, as fixed, as prepared and as called into existence which may be the more accurate view. While NONE of these ideas shows perfection, we can see this sense from the spiritual perspective and then we can perhaps understand the idea “that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear“.
If we can see this in the same terms as we look at Jesus feeding the multitudes which we read as He “took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children” (Matthew 14:19-21), we can then perhaps see the dynamic of creating physical things from spiritual matter. And perhaps we can also see how that in that KNOWING which comes in keeping His words, in that faith and believing in the Truth of God and the Master, we too have these several abilities that Jesus includes in those “greater works“.
Seeing framed as called into existence and viewing it spiritually in the perfection that it IS before it too “was made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20), which IS the corruption that IS physical existence and the illusion and the glamour in which ALL things physical DO exist, we can then see the greater idea of aion which IS rendered as worlds. Vincent tells us that aion is literally the ages and goes on to say: The world or worlds as the product of successive aeons 4. This idea IS rendered in terms of time in many of its other uses by the King James translators and is rendered by others as the order of events, the universe and the ages and this cross between time and physical things can only create confusion when seen from a physical perspective.
If we can see the ideas here of some of the world’s great thinkers, we can perhaps see how that some sense of these realities has come through them. From Einstein’s theory of relativity to Emerson’s radio we have men using the unseen to work for the betterment of ALL men; we should see in these things how that the unseen can work into what IS seen. If we could but see the streams of data that float around us constantly today they would perhaps appear as a solid mass. Mankind has come a long way from the superstitious and barbarous ways of ages ago and just as the man in Abraham’s time could NOT see reality of God as those in Moses time DID so the man in Jesus time was able to see the more spiritual idea that He presented.
In this we should try to see how that the benefits to the man who followed the Lord were of a physical nature throughout much of the Old Testament while the benefits of the New Testament ARE spiritual. In place of long life and prosperity we have the Presence of God and His Kingdom and while the Truth was the guiding Light for both, man’s ability to see that Truth in thought and attitude has greatly increased. Doctrines that cling conveniently to only parts of the Old Testament DO NOT see or pretend NOT to see this evolving nature of humanity that builds upon the Truth.
The last idea here IS the Greek word rhema which IS rendered here as word. Much IS said in the many doctrinal approaches to God of the idea that “god said” and in this they offer a perception of a God who speaks words and that it IS His words that cause action. The Truth IS NOT so simple however as God DOES NOT speak as men speak and if we could see the “the word of God” as His own expression of His Being, we could perhaps glimpse some of the deeper Truths. This universe and these ages ARE called into existence as the very expression of God.
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 from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 9 from The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
