IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1467

ON LOVE; PART MCVI

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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 our trifecta and our thoughts on the Way that IS outlined in the trifecta. It IS through the trifecta that one gains a measure of Truth, a measure of KNOWING what IS the Truth, and, since this comes to the man that Jesus says will “continue in my word” we can be rather sure just what this Truth IS. This Truth IS the revelations and the realizations that come to a man who IS in His words; NOT by merely hearing them but rather as the Apostle James shows us as he says “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). It IS ONLY in DOING that one can Truly “continue in my word” as the Master instructs and it IS ONLY to the DOER that revelation will come.

It IS these revelations which include one’s measure of His Presence and His Kingdom that become the realizations in the mind of the man who strives to keep His words and it IS these realizations that ARE the primary cause in the ongoing process of Repentance and Transformation. This IS the journey of men: from carnal living to realization of spiritual Life through Repentance and Transformation. And this IS the idea behind Paul’s words that show us the duality of Life in this world which we have been discussing. We should remember here that Paul IS NOT speaking about the death of the body but about one’s conscious leaving the Life that IS attentive of the desires of the body behind and taking up that “building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens“.

Paul IS showing us that as spiritual men, as men who ARE Truly striving toward His Kingdom, that we ALL DO “groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven“. In this we should understand that we ARE to bring into the Life, the actual Life in this world, the Light, the Love and the Power of the Soul that IS the product of being “present with the Lord“. It IS in this bringing of Light that the mind can realize that Presence and some measure of the Truth and it IS in this way that we can be “transformed by the renewing of your mind“. Repeating the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians again we read:

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

As the apostle begins a section of his Epistle to the Romans regarding the need for unity among those who ARE the followers of the Truth and who have achieved some measure of it, Paul shows us again the Way of the disciple and the relationship of this to the mind of man. He shows us two things here; one IS that men leave off of their focus upon the carnal self as they “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” and in this we should see again the KEY to enlightenment….we should see that this change in focus, this Repentance, IS but the “reasonable service” of the man who Truly strives.

Secondly the apostle shows us the way that this change of focus can Truly occur in the Life of a man as he tells us to “be not conformed to this world“, to NOT follow in the way of men. If we can connect this idea to that which we were studying, to Paul’s admonition “that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind“, and understand the idea of gentiles as other men whose focus IS yet carnal, we can perhaps see much of his intent which IS to NOT DO nor act nor think as they DO.

Third the apostle shows us the reward, the grace received by the man who DOES Truly Repent, the grace that IS his Transformation through “the renewing of your mind” and the expression of the Truth of Love in this world. Finally, as a segue into his words of Unity he tells everyman that he should NOT fall prey to the illusion and the glamour that IS easily attached to one’s psyche while it IS still in that transitive stage; to NOT fall back into the mental ways of carnal men who each see themselves in the center of Life. The apostle tells us that:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith (Romans 12:1-3).

While doctrines see these words in a purely worldly way, we see the spiritual intent of the apostle. Paul IS telling us to “be not conformed to this world” and while this idea works on many levels, we should understand that those to whom he writes ARE already past the gross human behaviors that doctrines see here. He IS speaking of the more subtle ideas the will hinder the Truly spiritual man’s progress; he IS speaking to men of whom he says that “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8). And a great part of this hindrance IS the lack of Unity in the vision of the man who DOES “think of himself more highly than he ought to think“. Here we should try to see that the continuation of the apostle’s words goes from this Unity to the idea of Love and then to the idea of awakening to that Love and that Unity; Paul then goes on to those specific human failings which ARE the result of NOT DOING as he says here which IS to “think soberly“. These ideas we have discussed in some detail over the last several posts.

What we should see in Paul’s words that follow the verses above IS the True end of agape which the Apostle James presents to us as having NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9). We should try to understand that much of the failure in men’s having NO “respect to persons” IS tied up in the way that one DOES “think of himself more highly than he ought to think” and that this failure IS also the cause for Paul’s caution and admonition, which we also discussed in some detail, saying “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:13-14).

The reality of the Greek words here IS again the result of NOT heeding the apostle’s caution here to “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly” and we should try to relate the ideas here of soberly and drunkenness to the workings of the mind rather than to the common idea of imbibing strong drink. Doctrines DO see the idea of being sober of mind but they DO NOT see the same relationship in the apostle’s use of the Greek word methe. The drunkenness here and the soberness ARE speaking again about the same idea of the mind and the reality of thought for the self….the thinking that one IS better or more spiritual or above others.

Paul offers us a list of several positive spiritual ideas upon which men should “think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” and here again we should try to see the idea of pistis as KNOWING and NOT as the nebulous doctrinal idea of faith. If we can see his guidance in these spiritual idea as based in KNOWING from Jesus’ own words, we can then understand his point of soberness and the opposite of this in drunkenness. The apostle begins his list saying “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith” (Romans 12:6) and here we should note that the words “let us prophesy” ARE added by the translators and ARE added parenthetically in most other translations as well. Young’s Literal Translation however renders thus: “And having gifts, different according to the grace that was given to us; whether prophecy — `According to the proportion of faith!‘”.

The ideas of “to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” and “According to the proportion of faith” ARE the common theme through the first part of this list of gifts which also includes ministering, teaching, and exhortation. In ALL these one should NOT “think of himself more highly than he ought to think” as in the carnal mind but he should “think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith“. Again, it IS ONLY in understanding pistis as KNOWING that we can get the apostle’s point; the point which the Master makes in the first part of our trifecta which we repeat again saying:

• “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).

There IS NO spiritual KNOWING that IS NOT the Truth and we should see here that this KNOWING, one’s measure of this KNOWING, IS NOT given to men by God in an arbitrary way nor IS it given in a way that disregards the idea that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). One’s “measure of faith“, his measure of KNOWING, IS the grace that IS the revelation and the realization of the man who keeps His words and this grace comes in the same proportion by which he DOES so. In each of these categories, if we can use that word here, we should try to see some idea of the coordination of the Soul and the flesh and understand that the flesh includes the faculty of mind and the emotional set of everyman.

We should note here that the Greek word charisma which IS rendered as gifts IS closely related to the kindred Greek word charis which IS most always rendered as grace. Grace however IS another rather nebulous Christian idea which IS NOT seen as one’s reward or wages although this IS what IS implied in much of its uses. Grace IS ALL things that come from God, from the Godhead and thereby from one’s own Soul which IS his link to ALL things of the Spirit. In this we should see that grace IS the revelations and the realizations of Truth and that grace IS the Presence of God in one’s Life here in form, a Presence that IS see in its expression to the world of men.

The gift then IS the grace of God that comes into the Life of a man by the same measure by which he will strive to keep His words….the gift then is one’s measure of KNOWING. Coming to KNOW some measure of the Truth IS the process of which the apostle speaks saying that men should “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” and here we should try to see clearly the idea of measure and Transformation. Being Transformed IS a process and the end result IS to be Transformed, to be in Union with the Lord which IS to be expressing, through one’s Life in this world, the fullness of the Presence of God which IS the fullness of the “fruit of the spirit” (Galatians 5:22). Paul shows us the Union and calls it “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

It IS in the process of Transformation that the gifts, the grace that comes by measure, come into one’s Life and here the mind IS the tool by which this grace IS expressed. We should try to see here that it IS based in the ability and the proclivity of the mind of every individual to process this grace that one will be able to express some part of it; and in this we should see the categories that Paul presents. In the end, in the fullness of this grace, ALL things, ALL gifts, become the ability of that man in this world. However, we should look at these gifts through a greater understanding of the Greek words rather that their ofttimes inadequate translations which most often follow the doctrinal slants of the translators.

First we have the grace of prophecy which has taken on a Christian meaning that DOES NOT show the full reality of this Greek word propheteia. In the reality of this word we should try to see the ability of the mind of the man in this world to realize and express the ‘thoughts’ of God. The most simple definition of prophecy in English IS NOT the primary definition found in today’s dictionary; the primary IS in regard to future events which IS the more common understanding of the word while the secondary idea that prophecy IS: a divinely inspired utterance or revelation ⁷ goes largely unnoticed.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary has a similar sense of prophecy listing the primary definition as: A foretelling; prediction; a declaration of something to come. As God only knows future events with certainty, no being but God or some person informed by him, can utter a real prophecy ¹. We should see the doctrinal view of the writer here and perhaps try to understand how that doctrines have inflicted themselves into secular culture; a secondary definition here seems to rely upon the Book of Proverbs and says: Preaching; public interpretation of Scripture; exhortation or instruction. Prov.31 ¹. Here the definition goes against what True prophecy IS as we read in the opening line that this IS “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him” (Proverbs 31:1) and this IS based in the Way that prophecy IS divinely inspired.

While we most always look to the older dictionaries to give us the better perspective on a word, here the opposite IS True as it IS the newer definitions that give us the better sense, and this perhaps because they ARE better researched and intentionally secular. Our point here IS that it is a function of the mind seeing what Truth IS revealed from the Soul, the Christ Within, that gives prophecy as a divinely inspired utterance or revelation; ALL else that poses as prophecy IS but the working of the carnal mind. And what IS the apostle’s idea here but that a man should ONLY offer in prophecy, in divinely inspired utterance or revelation, whatsoever was his measure to receive and NO more as whatever more that man has to say IS from his carnal mind, from his own thoughts and attitudes.

We should understand here that there IS a dilemma in this that will be faced by ALL who DO reveal Truth and that IS that it IS difficult to discern where the revelation ends and one’s own thoughts begin. This IS a dilemma that we face in every essay that we write and NO matter how careful we may be there IS  certainly some degree of opinion and our own thoughts in our statements which we present as Truth. Perhaps the ONLY fallback position here IS that ALL that we say IS based in the deeper sense of Jesus’ words and the words of His apostles and ALL IS tied to Love and to keeping His words.

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