ON LOVE; PART MLXXV
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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 began our last essay with some thoughts on the confusion presented by the various bible translators regarding the words used by the Apostle Paul in his list of “the works of the flesh“. We discussed how that these ARE seen in the preconceived ideas that were taken up by the Church Fathers as they tried to balance the reality of Life in this world with the precepts taught by the Christ and amplified and clarified by His apostles. The result tended much more toward the side of the reality of Life for the masses and somewhat more toward the Truths that Jesus teaches us for the clergy, but this tendency has been somewhat lost over the centuries. While we can see that the cause of this IS the way that the church bureaucracy came to operate as the authority, not only in regard to the masses who learned ONLY the “commandments of men“, but in regard to most ALL things as the church ‘sold’ and bargained with ‘God’s forgiveness’.
It is this ‘selling’ of indulgences which gave rise to the Protestant Reformation and while we DO NOT wish to get into the disputed history of Christianity, we DO wish to show how that these ‘indulgences’ were never the purview of the church nor its leaders. The Protestant part of the church largely freed itself from the traditional sense of clergy though NOT for the part played by the leaders on most every level, leaders who still exercise authority over the masses through their doctrines. While the original church DID NOT teach the masses the Truth of Jesus words and while the clergy turned His words into doctrines and ceremony, it IS the Protestant part that has splintered the words of the Master into the many factions and which established doctrines that could be seen as the opposite of the original Roman Catholic rites.
This IS of course a broad brush approach to the history of the church and we mean here to offer two points. First that the factions and the divisions of Christ’s very nature and His teachings have a long and sordid past and here we use this word NOT in regard to the immoral as this is commonly seen but in regard to the: meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary 7 ways of men who ARE lost in the vanity which IS their illusion and their glamour. It IS this reality of the ways of men that Paul cautions against in his epistles and with his words that ARE commonly interpreted as immoral and sexual ideas; words such as aslegeia and akatharsia, which ARE part of both the apostle’s words to the Galatians and to the Ephesians as we have been discussing.
Add to this Paul’s use of the word pleonexia and we have his words to the Ephesians which ARE rendered as lasciviousness, uncleanness and greediness as he tells us of the way of the man in this world “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness“. In the reality of the apostle’s words we can see his caution against what DID happen in the early church and which continued through the Protestant Reformation where the reality of Jesus’ words of Truth ARE sadly lost. It IS in their own sense of guilt perhaps that these Greek words are continually seen in the immoral and sexually deviate way rather that the self-condemning ideas that show akatharsia IS the apostle’s reference to the desires and the lusts for carnal things over one’s True striving toward the Godhead in the absence of selfish desire, and aslegeia, which IS rendered as lasciviousness, which IS the similar idea of wantonness where one’s desire for the things of the world overwhelms the desire for the things of God.
And when we add the idea of covetousness as the better rendering of pleonexia we should be able to see Paul’s predictive caution against the sordid ways of the church that was seemingly more interested in their own sense of right and in support of their own doctrinal approach to God than in the Truth of His words. This IS of course the effect of that glamour which IS based in the illusion, the vanity, in which men live in this world. This IS of course the ways of men at play in the lives of those who had taken authority over the religions of men and we should see here how that the sexual deviation and immoral view of the apostle’s words IS secondary to the reality of men’s focus upon the self and the things of the self in this world. It IS the very ways of men that have lost sight of the Truth while at the same time replacing that Truth with “commandments of men” and it IS these same ways that Paul speaks against in his words to the Ephesians saying:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24).
While most will NOT relate the apostle’s words to those who had and who have taken authority in the churches, there IS a reality that they, among most ALL men, ARE they that DO “walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart“. It is when we can see this as the normal and natural way of men that we can begin to understand just what it IS that we must escape from and what it Truly means to be “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). It IS this “glorious liberty” that IS those “exceeding great and precious promises” which the Apostle Peter tells us will come to the man who has “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
It IS this corruption that IS founded in that vanity that Paul shows us afflicts ALL men….it IS ALL of creation that IS referenced in his saying that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20). It IS this vanity and this corruption that has “the understanding darkened“, it IS this illusion that makes men “alienated from the life of God” and it IS the grip of glamour that enhances “the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart“. This IS the affliction of ALL men and it IS this from which men must escape. And it IS this that Paul speaks of as he cautions ALL men against the aslegeia and akatharsia, against the pleonexia and the porneia, which ARE the propensity of men to be meanly selfish, self-seeking, or mercenary as they live their lives in that vanity which Vincent shows us IS: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4.
But men have lost sight of the True intent of the apostles’ words; a loss that IS the product of their own inability to see themselves at the heart of Paul’s cautions. And it IS this inability that has formed what ARE the preconceived ideas which lead to the common understanding that the apostles ARE speaking against immoral and sexual deviation that has obnubilated the Truth and caused “the blindness of their heart“. And if we can see through the doctrines of men and understand the Truth of the Master’s words, we can then see how that most ALL doctrine IS what Paul speaks against as “another gospel“. As we read the apostle’s words to the Galatians again, we should try to tie his ideas together and understand that it IS “another gospel” that IS the doctrines and the “commandments of men” which ARE formulated to “please men” and leave them comfortable in “the vanity of their mind“. We read:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:6-12).
“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).
We should remember here that in Paul’s words about “another gospel” there ARE NOT many alternate messages aside from the Master’s own words and the clarifying and amplifying words that Paul has given to them in his teaching to them, teaching that IS NOT a part of his epistles. While we DO NOT KNOW what it Truly IS that Paul had taught the Galatians, doctrines assume that it IS the full context of the apostle’s writings. To be sure, Paul’s teaching was NOT his own doctrinal approach to the Lord but his own amplification and clarification of the actual gospel….the actual ‘good news‘ that Jesus brought to humanity which IS neatly summarized in the Great Commandments and in His words that we call the trifecta. The Great Commandments ARE at the top of our essay and we repeat the trifecta here 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).
In the reality that it IS the words of the Master that ARE the ONLY True gospel, all of the “commandments of men” should pale in comparison; in the presence of the vanity however, in the presence of the illusion and the glamour that afflicts men, they DO continue in their ways “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men“. In Paul’s words then we have the predictive story of the ways of men through the centuries and the fading of the Truth that the Master brought, the True gospel if you will, into the unfathomable way of keeping His words. It IS Jesus’ words that ARE His Truth and in His words we find the “good news” that IS “the truth….and the truth shall make you free“.
In his words to the Galatians the apostle shows us the choice that the purveyors of doctrines faced and he shows us as well the choice that he himself made. As he asks “do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ“, we should see the reality of the way that doctrines seek to persuade God that their ways ARE Truth. We should also see that the way of doctrine, the way of convenience that IS more pleasing to “the vanity of their mind“, perverts men’s ability to “be the servant of Christ“. And the clarity of this idea goes directly to Jesus’ own words which Paul IS amplifying and clarifying, to the words of the Master which admonish His disciples to be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20) and NOT to be “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).
As we have often discussed: it IS in the illusion and the glamour of Life that the doctrinal man, the teacher and the student, will NOT see the reality of our words against the doctrinal teachings of salvation and atonement. Nor will this vanity allow men to see themselves as the subject of so much of the words of the Master and His apostles. They DO NOT see themselves in the role of everyman, in the role of the “natural man” of whom Paul tells us that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Men have NOT yet connected the dots….they have not seen Paul’s words through the prism of the Master’s words that show us that the Truth, the Presence of God and His Kingdom come ONLY to the man who will keep His words.
This IS the message of the trifecta which we repeat in every essay; it IS in keeping His words that men have that spiritual discernment that comes in the revelations and the realizations of Truth which in turn come in the Presence of God….which in turn comes to the man “that hath my commandments, and keepeth them“. And we should ever remember the Power of striving as it IS in such striving toward keeping His words that we gain measure upon measure of the realization of Truth and the accompanying ability to receive “the things of the Spirit of God” which “are spiritually discerned“.
While the doctrines of men have been formulated to “please men” and to allow men to be men in this world, and while their doctrines can be seen, in the light of day, to be attempts to persuade God that by their “long prayer” (Matthew 23:14) and sermons and by their ceremony that they ARE holy, the Apostle John captures for us the greater Truth. John tells us “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:2-3). It IS in the illusion that His words ARE grievous that we find the reluctance of men.
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
- 7 Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
