ON LOVE; PART MCXLIX
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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 discussed the way that Christianity has become, from the beginning, an admixture of the Jewish religion and the doctrinal ideas that were gleaned from the words of the Master and the writings of His apostles. We noted that this was contrary to the teaching of Jesus and that this also ignored the way that Jesus modified the tenets of the law in ways that make men more responsible for their thoughts and the attitudes….that it was NO longer ONLY one’s actions that mattered. We ARE taken to this theme by the words of the Apostle Paul who repeats in more ‘Christian’ terms the words of Moses and the prophets and how that doctrines have taken his words out of their context in order to build their doctrinal approach to the Lord. Our clear example of this IS in this selection from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:
“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” (Romans 10:9-10).
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:13-18).
Doctrines have misused Paul’s words that replicate those of Moses whose intent IS to show that one must keep His words; words which ARE “very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it“….words which ARE NOT “hidden from thee, neither is it far off” (Deuteronomy 30:14, 11). The doctrines of men have made these the central point for salvation of many denominations and sects. Paul’s intent however IS NOT the creation of a saving doctrine; his intent IS the same as Moses, that men should keep His words by professing the Truth that one KNOWS in his heart through his expression on this Earth.
The apostle IS showing us a great Truth that IS missed by too many who claim Christ as their own. The Truth IS that in one’s heart, in one’s consciousness apart from the influence of mind and emotion, a man KNOWS the Way of righteousness and, when a man makes this KNOWING the confession of his mouth, his expression in this world, then he IS Truly saved….then he can Truly rescue his Life from “the bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21) to which it IS subjected by way of Life in this world. This IS the reality of being saved: to rescue one’s Life in a spiritual sense which Jesus frames for us saying that “whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35).
This IS the reality of salvation: saving one’s spiritual Life here and now. Salvation IS loosing the grip of the vanity, the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world, through True Repentance which IS to change the focus of one’s Life off of the things of the self and the self in this world and onto the things of God. It IS in striving to DO this that one can reap the True benefits of salvation which ARE to “know the truth“, to “enter into the kingdom of heaven” and to have His Presence which Jesus frames for us as that He will “manifest myself to him” and as “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” as we read again in the 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).
In the end of the last essay we discussed the covenant as the Way to gain the promises of God and here we show again those same promises which were offered to the Jews as a nation and a people albeit in most personal terms. To the Jews some 1500 years earlier the promise was that “all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” and here in Jesus’ words the promise IS the Truth, the Kingdom and His Presence if one will “shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” which IS to keep His words.
There IS ever a covenant with the Lord but this has been diluted by the doctrines of men to be a confession and an affirmation plus, for some, the added burden of the ritual of baptism. But there IS NO magical formula for salvation and the salvation of doctrines IS but a nebulous picture of some future state of being based in the imaginations of the purveyors of doctrines, both the Jewish and the Christian. Thayer’s lexicon shows us salvation: the present possession of all true Christians 9,2 which idea IS strictly doctrinal as most define the True Christian in their own terms, and most according to the confessions and the affirmations that ARE taken from Paul’s words.
Thayer also shows us what this possession entails as: future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God 9, 2. In this most nebulous idea of doctrinal salvation men have built much of their theology and in so DOING they have shut the door to the Truth which Jesus tells us “shall make you free“. Not only free from the “the bondage of corruption” but free as well from the hinderance of doctrines which presume to KNOW the Truth but which ONLY KNOW their own doctrinal version of that Truth, versions that vary by denomination and by sect.
Doctrinal thinkers seek to change the idea of the covenant and replace this with the comfort that they alone see in their interpretations of Paul’s words. As we discussed in the last post this replacement IS NOT done in response to the words of the Master that allow for such replacement; nor IS any idea of such replacement found in the words of the apostles except in terms of Love and how that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). We must understand here that the law IS men’s part in the ancient covenant which takes that law into Moses’ words saying “thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments” (Deuteronomy 28:2, 1).
Somehow the doctrines of men DO NOT see this as they interpret the apostles’ words and make them to say that their nebulous ideas faith and believing ARE ALL that IS necessary for salvation; here we should see that in this doctrinal approach leads ONLY doctrinal salvation which will be realized as some point of confidence that one will go to heaven at some future time upon which there IS also NO agreement. In the reality of the New Testament where the words of the apostles ARE intended to clarify and amplify Jesus words, both spoken and unspoken, which, in turn, modify and enhance the ancient covenant and bring it to be everyman’s personal responsibility, there IS ONLY one actual idea of replacement which we read again in the apostle’s words 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).
This IS the replacement idea for men’s covenant with the Lord and we should see here that this IS NOT a magical formula as IS the doctrinal idea; this IS based in the fact that if one DOES Love as the Master and the Old Testament teaches us, there IS NO opportunity to live contrary to the law…..one will perforce ever strive to live according to the law. And we should see this idea as the common thread that binds ALL of Paul’s ideas regarding that line between faith and works. While the doctrinal interpretation of Paul’s taken out of context words DO lend themselves to be understood as doctrines portray, in their context they speak about a very different reality.
In his Epistle to the Ephesians Paul writes that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9) and it is these words that ARE also become a Christian mantra. But these words CAN NOT be properly understood outside of their context and without understanding the reality of the words charis and pistis which ARE rendered here as grace, and faith. If we can link this idea to Jesus words that ARE our trifecta, we can then understand the reality of grace and understand as well how that one can receive this ‘gift‘.
And, if we can understand faith as that KNOWING that also comes to a men according to Jesus words we can better understand the dual dynamic that IS at play: that such KNOWING IS one’s grace and that this grace ever leads to more revelations and realizations of Truth. Before Christ a man came to such state of KNOWING by keeping His words….by his ability to “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments” and the difficulty here IS evident in the apostle’s words to the Romans saying “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone” (Romans 9:31-32).
Here again we need to understand that pistis which IS rendered as faith IS a man’s measure of KNOWING some part of the Truth that guides men through the law; it IS this KNOWING that IS missing among the Jews who turned the Truth of the words of God into doctrines that DID NOT reveal the deeper idea of Love. Whatsoever trying that men DID they DID according to the literal ideas of the law and in this view it IS impossible to Love; it IS this same Truth that IS carried forward into Paul’s words above; men’s works according to the literal law ARE fruitless because they DO NOT rest in KNOWING the ultimate value of agape.
We should understand here that the idea of boasting IS NOT as we commonly understand this word; kaucbaomai which is rendered as boast has the greater meaning of to glory in 2 and in this there need be NO outward expression. If we can see here the futility of one’s own glorying in the idea that he IS keeping the literal commandments, we can then see the plight of the Jews which has been, to a large degree, transferred to the Christians who glory in keeping their doctrinal tenets. Paul gives us the reality of this as he shows us the futility of works above in regard to Israel which believed that their salvation was in keeping the tenets of the law as their traditions taught and it IS this that Jesus rails against in His words saying:
“Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:6-9).
The point here IS clear and it IS this that Paul IS explaining in his epistles; in the idea that “This people honoureth me with their lips” we should see the idea of works, the things of the law DONE because they ARE the law that can be seen and heard of men and, both then and now, this IS what men DO glory in. It IS however the part of Love that IS missed here and while men may speak of such Love, they DO NOT KNOW Love as agape according to the teaching of Moses and the enhanced teaching of the Master….and it IS this KNOWING that IS the pinnacle of faith and the Truth of pistis.
And such IS Paul’s message that “by grace are ye saved through faith“: men’s salvation comes through the realization of the Truth of Love and it IS this realization that IS grace and that becomes the expression of the man who comes to KNOW the Truth that “shall make you free“. But doctrines DO NOT see this reality as they separate themselves from the words of Jesus, seemingly against the Jews doctrinal practices on the one hand while duplicating their error on the other through the erecting of doctrines and interpretations that fail to correct the plight of the Jew. And NONE see the reality of Love, NONE see the True force of agape which the Apostle John tells us IS the very nature of God as he says “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16).
Doctrines fail in explaining just what IS the “love of God” which idea has become a cliché that IS most always attached to the doctrinal understanding of John’s words saying that: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16)….and this while ignoring the greater Truth concerning men that John also gives us saying “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3). Many commentators differentiate between these ideas saying the former IS God’s Love and the latter IS our Love for God but IS there really a difference?
John helps us to understand the relationship as he also tells us that “whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” 1 John 2:5) and if we can measure ALL of these ideas against the third part of our trifecta, perhaps we can better see the interrelationships. Perhaps we can also see the idea that while “God is love” and while “God so loved the world“, there IS ever the need for this to become the realization of everyman, a realization that IS the grace of God which comes in that KNOWING which in turn comes in keeping His words and, by measure, in striving to DO so.
We should try to understand agape as so much more than the common understanding of Love. We should understand that if we believe that God IS Love and if we believe that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) IS a Truth, then we should be able to see that we ARE essentially that same idea of Love. Here perhaps we must begin with the idea of believing, NOT pisteuo as this IS KNOWING, but rather the simple idea that in our carnal minds we can see these ideas as True. It IS upon this basic belief that men can grow and it IS upon this basic idea that we can come to see that the spiritual Life that we ARE IS the True Life.
In understanding the far reaching Truth of agape we can begin to look past the carnal view of Life that IS so firmly indoctrinated into Life in this world. When we can look past our nurturing and our indoctrination and glimpse the purpose of most ALL world scripture, we can then see that the intent of ALL IS to bring men out of their carnal shell and into the reality of the Kingdom of God. While this IS a purely Judaeo-Christian idea, it DOES have its similarities in the teachings of other religions and it IS unfortunate that so many ONLY see this as one’s destination after the death of the physical body.
The reality IS that this is the destination for ALL men at the death of the purely carnal Life, NOT the death of the body, where one comes to realize the greater Truth that IS put before us in the words of the Master and His apostles. In most ALL of their words on death the physical body IS NOT the object; most ALL speak of the death of the spiritual man which death IS his continued existance in the “bondage of corruption“…..in the vanity, the illusion and the glamour. This IS our tomb if you will; it IS this state of being which the death of the body releases us from but this IS NOT so good a thing for the man who has NOT Truly found God.
Much of doctrine teaches us that at the death of the body one will be with the Lord and this based upon Paul’s misunderstood words on death saying that “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Based in their archaic view of Life and their detestment for such ideas as rebirth and reincarnation, doctrines DO NOT realize that the sole proving ground for everyman’s ability to overcome the carnal nature IS here in this world and that NONE will Truly see the Lord save he enter into His Kingdom of which Jesus tells us “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
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).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
