ON LOVE; PART MCXLII
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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).
In the last essay we continued our discussion on the idea of salvation from the Greek words sozo, soter and soteria. These words ARE rendered as save, savior and salvation in most translations except where the taken idea lends more to healing. The whole idea of being saved and attaining salvation has taken on a definitely doctrinal tone and adds more to the many nebulous ideas that ARE conjoined under the most nebulous idea of faith as this IS doctrinally understood. The other word, soter, IS most often rendered as savior and used in regard to the Master as the Savior which activity varies among the many denominational approaches to God.
Both sozo and soteria ARE used quite often in the Protestant branch of Christianity as the gift of God to the True Christian which IS also a nebulous idea as the True Christian IS defined differently by denomination and sect and within each as well. The essence of ALL of the nebulous aspects of religion become in effect the degree of faith that anyone might seemingly have. In this we should see that one’s being convinced that he IS saved IS a matter of thought and emotion which IS in turn based in the indoctrination that one has accepted as Truth.
We have often said that in the very divisions of Christianity IS the evidence that NONE have the Truth and here we should understand that the various ideas of salvation ARE just that, ideas. They ARE most ALL based in human reasoning and a carnal approach to the whole matter and most ALL fail to realize the Power of the words of Jesus who shows us the ONLY Truth. His Truth IS the ONLY True doctrinal approach to God but few if any can see this past their own doctrinal views. Few see that the words of the apostles, especially Paul, DO NOT create doctrine and ARE NOT intended to DO so….their words ARE ONLY intended to amplify and clarify Jesus’ own words.
And we should understand here that what we can say about the failures of Christianity we can say as well regarding ALL True world religions. ALL begin with the essential Truths presented to a culture and in a time from a perspective that IS intended to bring that people closer to God. Be that approach devotional or one of Wisdom or of Love, ALL have, as their singular objective, bringing men out of the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world and into the reality of the greater Life of the Soul..,.the True spiritual man.
To the Jews the message was brought as rules and commandments that, if they were followed, would bring the Promises, and if NOT would bring the curses; but even this most straightforward idea IS misplayed by the minds of men. The Lord says through Moses that “if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). These words are followed by many verses that proclaim the grace of God that would be the possession, the salvation if you will, of the Jews.
But we KNOW that the Jewish people DID NOT keep His words and this despite the words of the Lord that showed them the consequences of such failure; we read “if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:15). This IS then followed by many verses that ARE the opposite of the blessings and if we should look at these ideas we will see that the failure of the Jews to step above the carnal Life resulted in the full force of Life in this world overwhelming them as a people and a nation.
Here we should note that the idea we use, that it IS as a people and a nation that they are overwhelmed, IS NOT hard to see. Individually countless Jews have prospered and this regardless of their individual approach to God. As a people the entire mindset and their sense of Truth has been directed at Life here in this world as their doctrines misplaced divine reward, and the Truths behind the blessings, with the carnal ideas that became their guide to Life in this world. And we should NOT forget here that the commandments of the Old Testament include the Great Commandments of the Lord which we have again at the top of our essay and that in these IS the essence of Truth as Love, the same Love that Paul shows us accomplishes ALL. We read Paul’s words again saying:
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:8-11).
We should see here one more idea that IS missed by the doctrines of men yet today; we should see that in the ideas of keeping His words as these ARE presented in Deuteronomy there IS one other section which Paul cites as he offers the idea of salvation, that idea which IS misrepresented by so much doctrine that teaches that it IS the confession and the affirmations that save a man. In Deuteronomy we read:
“If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:10-16).
In these words we should see again the quid pro quo that IS found throughout much of the Old Testament; the idea of ‘if’ as the determinator of the fate of the nation and of the whole of the people. The Lord tells them and us that His commandment IS clear and that there IS NO need to search for it and this IS the same commandment that Jesus shows us as the first of the Great Commandments. The point here and in Paul’s words to the Romans IS that “it is not hidden from thee” and here we should understand that to get caught up in parsing the words by which this idea IS described has led to its further hiding.
In the reality that “the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it“, whatsoever mystery of the meaning should be broken for the man who has begun to “turn unto the LORD thy God“. This IS our striving, this IS our realizing the prompting of the Soul to the Good, the Beautiful and the True. But this has been hidden from the doctrinal Christian by their wrong interpretation of the words that follow in Paul’s repeating of the greater point which IS that men should keep His words; not merely as commandments, but as the result of one;’s “turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul“. Paul, speaking of the Jews as he begins, frames these same ideas as:
“I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:2-13).
His observation of the Jews IS, of course, from his own personal experience and here we should see his point as that they DO NOT KNOW God but ONLY “have a zeal of God“….they think that they KNOW Him through their doctrines which “establish their own righteousness” over “the righteousness of God“. From Jesus perspective this IS a settled fact and here Paul IS reminding ALL of “the righteousness which is of the law” which IS “the righteousness of God” and that the Jew, as a people and a nation, IS “ignorant of God’s righteousness“. In contrast there IS the idea that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness” for Christ IS the full manifestation of the law and Truth and Love to men….again, by His teaching and His example.
The Truth here IS lost in the understanding of pisteuo as that nebulous idea of believing rather than the Truth of KNOWING; it IS the man who KNOWS Christ that KNOWS the “righteousness of God” and we should understand here that to Truly KNOW Christ IS: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. Paul goes on to use the same basic ideas as DID Moses to show that the Truth “is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off“….”The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. It IS the word of the Lord as ARE these words that follow as 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).
Both Paul and Moses ARE offering the same equation and the same reasoning albeit in different terms and to different people. From Moses these words ARE intended for the nation while Paul offers them to the individual; both show us that the Truth “is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off” and both show us that there IS NO need to search far and wide to find them, albeit in different terms. While Moses combines the idea of heaven and the sea, Paul uses the idea of heaven and the abyss which IS rendered as “the deep“. Both ideas ARE similar thoughts although Christian doctrines have made the abyss to be Hades or some similar idea.
The main point IS that the word that “is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart” and the Christ ARE the same idea here….there IS NO sea change in the logic. The Christ IS the “the word of faith, which we preach” and if we can see pistis here as KNOWING to the point where one will accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4, then we can better see Paul’s point as well as understand Moses’. Both ARE saying that the grace of God comes to the man who will keep His words; Moses by way of the promises given to the nation and Paul by way of individual salvation. And, if we can understand this we can then understand most ALL of Paul’s ideas on faith and works, a point that IS so ably defined by the Apostle James.
Moses teaches that it IS the words of the Transcendent Lord that must be in one’s heart, that must become the conscious awareness of the man and the people as a whole; and this IS likely the ONLY message that would have been accepted by the barbarous and superstitious people that he taught. Jesus, some 1500 years later, teaches the words of the Immanent God and how that both the Lord and His words of Truth must be in one’s heart; it IS this theme that IS shown us by Jesus and repeated by His apostles. Many DO NOT fully understand this idea including some of Jesus own apostles as we read in John’s Gospel; this IS a new and a different view of God and it IS in this view that the ideas of pistis and pisteuo become so very important.
If one can believe in God, that there IS a God and a Christ, then he can begin his journey. This believing IS but the starting point that brings a man to the point of KNOWING God and understanding both His Transcendent and His Immanent nature. Moses point above IS clearly that the Jews should KNOW the word that “is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart” and Paul’s point IS that they DO NOT; that they have allowed their doctrines to dilute and change the Truth to which the apostle says “I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God“
We should try to see that the source of their ignorance IS NOT in NOT KNOWING the law but in KNOWING the law in words….”in thy mouth” and NOT “in thy heart“. The Jews DID NOT heed the words of the prophets which ARE intended to mollify the strictness of the law and to transcend the ignorance by putting the words and the logic of His words “in thy heart“. We should also see in the words of the prophets the steady movement of the objective of obedience; to the teaching for the nation, the people as a whole, to the teaching of the individual. This IS a movement that IS completed by Jesus.
ALL that befalls the Jew from Moses to Jesus also befalls the Christian and the Muslim and the Buddhist and the Hindu; ALL have allowed their doctrinal approach to God to obnubilate the Truth of the word and, for the Christian, much of this IS based in the misunderstanding and the misapplication of pistis and pisteuo. This brings us back to the idea of salvation from the Greek word soteria of which sozo IS the root idea. Doctrines have applied their ideas to these words and have related them to their teaching on heaven and hell and, if we could see that reality of being saved and of salvation in regard to our spiritual lives here and now, we could then better understand the overall point.
If we could see the lexicon’s idea of sozo in spiritual terms, according to Jesus words that “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25), we could perhaps better understand the whole idea of salvation….that this IS a personal choice that affects one’s Life here and now. So long as men rely upon their doctrinal ideas of salvation and see this ONLY as their opportunity to go to an eternal heaven, they ARE themselves in Paul’s words to the Jews saying: “they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God“.
And what IS the righteousness of their doctrines? For some it IS reliance upon the doctrinal idea of being saved by confession and affirmation, an idea that IS taken out of the context in which it IS offered and tied to an altogether different idea….being “born again“. This being “born again” IS the claim of so many millions of men who DO NOT see the True criteria for such in Jesus own words that ARE the second part of our trifecta above. For others salvation relies upon rites and rituals and sacraments and for still others being saved requires some combination of these ideas.
None seem to understand the Truth of righteousness and the idea of striving toward this as Jesus shows us saying: “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And if we can see Jesus words through Paul’s we can better understand the full impact of the Master’s point; Jesus says “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
We should understand here that Jesus speaks much about “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” in the gospels and ofttimes points to their faults but Paul puts the idea in clear terms as he says “they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God“; in this we should see what type of righteousness the man who Truly seeks God must have. We close today with these words from Paul:
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:15-18).
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.
We change our Quote of the Day today to the words from Solomon on Wisdom along with our thoughts on them from the original postings of them in In the Words of Jesus parts 46 and 556. These words ARE a testament to those things that we should be asking of the Lord and which are representative of the Holy Ghost. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge which will lead us to understanding the fear (reverence and respect and awe) of the Lord and the knowledge of God so that in this world we can understand righteousness and judgement and equity and be preserved by discretion and understanding. Thus are we in a position to treat everyone as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Since we are centered on the ideas of Wisdom today we offer the following from Proverbs as our Quote of the Day. Solomon, who is KNOWN for his Wisdom, which we read in the story of his Life was His gift from God, a gift that he receives because he does not want for the things of the world. But Solomon gains as well the things of the world in plenty and as his Life story proceeds we can see clearly that it is his Life in the world that is to his detriment. The wisdom however produces for us the writings of the Book of Proverbs and it is this that he is remembered for. His Life is interesting reading and is well documented in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
….incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee (Proverbs 2:2-11).
