ON LOVE; PART MCC
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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 of the Apostle Paul’s words on Love from the thirteenth chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians as we refocused our attention on the first two defining ideas for the Greek word agape. While these ideas are quaintly rendered and understood as Love IS patient and Love IS kind and used in regard to the common idea of Love, there IS a deeper spiritual Truth here that IS missed by most ALL who read the apostle’s words according to their doctrines. ALL three of the words involved, Love, patience and kindness, ARE but carnal reflections of the deeper Truths offered to us in the Greek words agape, makrothumia and chresteuomai.
In these ideas we ARE speaking about the very nature of God and to confuse this Truth with the carnal ideas DOES NOT provide us with the intended result which IS to understand that Love, that agape as a spiritual value, IS the singular Way to True salvation….the singular Way to having that Truth that “shall make you free“. And what IS this freedom but being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). In these ideas IS another view of the way that the translators of the bible rendered many words according to their own doctrinal leanings; here the Greek word eleutheroo, which IS rendered in the Master’s words as “make you free“, are rendered in Paul’s words as delivered and each of these ideas has a different connotation.
The idea of “make you free” IS most easily seen as the result of KNOWING the Truth and the idea here IS that this freedom IS here and now for the man who will gain that Truth by keeping His words. In contrast, the idea of being delivered suggests an outside agent, the Lord, who will deliver the man without any specific idea save for those doctrinal precepts established by men. There ARE many other diversions from the Truth and the importance of these words from Romans as we ofttimes discuss but our point here IS made in the simple idea of the rendering of words rather than the misunderstanding put forth by the doctrines of men.
And so it IS with makrothumia and chresteuomai which should be understood here as defining principles of agape and therefore explanatory ideas on the way that God operates in regard to this world and to the men that inhabit it. We should also see here that whatsoever we see as these explanatory ideas should be the Way of the man who expresses such agape while at the same time understanding that such an expression IS the Way of the man whose focus IS Truly upon the things of God. We must ever look for the spiritual component behind the rendered words. Repeating Paul’s words, again without rendering agape into Love or charity, we read:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not agape, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not agape, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“Agape suffereth long, and is kind; agape envieth not; agape vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Agape never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Remembering that we ARE looking here at the very nature of God of whom the Apostle John says “God is love agape” (1 John 4:8, 16) should enable us to see the deeper aspects of the idea of makrothumia and chresteuomai which we have been discussing and enable us to see how that the remainder of the apostle’s words show us how that these two ideas work out in Life. It should be clear that in the end the whole of the intention of Life IS that men would have the same vision and view of Life as the Master which IS but a reflection of the vision and the view of the Godhead.
This IS the direction that ALL scripture leads to but while this direction IS rather clear, especially in Jesus’ words, this message IS obnubilated by the machinations of men who ARE ever trying to find a different direction in which they can live their little lives in this world with impunity. This IS in many ways the state of religion; this IS the way of men lost in the vanity, in the illusion and the glamour of Life, and this IS why men, after ages of indoctrination into their doctrinal ideas, refuse to see the Truth that lies in the words of that man whom they DO profess as their God. We repeat again our trifecta which IS, from our perspective, the three most succinct ideas that should have been able to shatter the illusion and dispel the sense of glamour that men seemingly hold so dear; we read:
- “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).
While even doctrinal thinkers should be able to understand these simply phrased ideas as they ARE intended to be understood, most ALL DO NOT as their doctrines of atonement and salvation render them moot. And this IS the most basic Christian problem: they have adopted the fantastical ideas of doctrines in place of the clearly evident Truths and this based upon the authoritative words of the church fathers, the reformers and the individuals trained in every generation according to their words. Such doctrines teach that the Truth which “shall make you free” IS the doctrinal precepts that ARE held as Truth even though there ARE so many different versions of that Truth. In this we should see that each denomination and each sect believes that they have the singular Truth; this IS the epitome of glamour.
And such doctrines also teach that the Way to heaven, as a final destination at some time after the death of the body, IS found in a variety of different ideas; the Catholic idea, the several Protestant ideas and then the ideas of the many other denominations and sects. ALL fail to see the great Truth in Jesus’ words saying “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21); many dismiss this by a different rendering of the idea while others, in their pomposity, see themselves as the holders of the keys to some version of this heaven….most of which include some sort of a continuation of this Life albeit without care.
Both of these, the Truth that “shall make you free” and the Way to heaven ARE succinctly covered by the Master in our trifecta and there should be NO doubt that the Way IS to keep His words. As we discussed in the last essay, there ARE some who DO teach the need to keep His words but this IS NOT for salvation; it IS rather to enjoy some idea of grace and blessings here in this world. But Jesus tells us clearly what IS the result of keeping His words; above we have the Truth and His Kingdom awakened and alive within one’s Life here and now and we have the final part of the trifecta which shows us the relationship between Truly having the Presence of God and keeping His words.
But doctrines teach that one has this Presence by way of the doctrinal ideas of affirmation and confession according to the doctrinal approach to being “born again” (John 3:3). Many believe that it IS this doctrinal process that brings the Christ or the Holy Spirit into one’s Life and that it IS in this that one can ask God for whatsoever one IS ‘believing for’. They similarly believe that God IS now guiding their lives, that He has a plan for everyone’s Life and that the Holy Spirit IS communicating this to everyman who IS “born again” according to their several doctrines.
Much of this IS but illusion however for the man who DOES NOT keep His words and while this may be a more beneficial form of illusion than afflicts the man who DOES NOT follow doctrine, this IS illusion nonetheless. Paul tells us above that if I “have not agape, I am nothing” and if this Truth has such effect upon the apostle, one can ONLY imagine the effect upon everyman. Can we see that in the absence of keeping His words, in the absence of one’s expression of agape universally to ALL men, that one CAN NOT have more than the apostle….that the man who follows his own sense of doctrine IS also nothing without agape? Again, we must come to understand just what this idea of agape IS and perhaps the first idea that men must grasp IS the equivalence of expressing agape and keeping His words. Repeating the apostle’s words on this we read:
“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).
If we can accept the idea that “God is love” and take our own attention off of the nurtured and indoctrinated ideas that place men into this world as men with souls, we can then perhaps grasp the deeper idea that men ARE Souls living in this world of illusion and glamour. That men as Souls ARE “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20), and that the True Way to salvation, for lack of a better word, IS found in the instructions for Life that have been since before the time of Moses. We should remember however, as we have discussed in past posts, the ideas about God that we garner from the Old Testament narratives IS contrary to the idea of God that we find in the New Testament.
If “God is love” then the Old Testament must be more than merely God speaking to a people, it must perforce include the attitudes of the men who wrote it, attitudes that ARE framed by their own nurturing and indoctrination as well as the nature of the times in which they live….barbarous and superstitious times to be sure. Today we see that “God is love” as the Apostle John tells us plainly and as He IS alluded to by the other New Testament writers. And we can add one more point here: “God is love” and when we combine this idea with the idea that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), we should see that this IS our nature as well. Additionally, even the doctrinal Christian should agee, that if they have the Presence of God, the Holy Spirit, or any other Aspect of God in their lives, that they too would perforce have that same quality of Love as agape.
Returning to our ideas of on Paul’s defining words for agape, his defining words for the very nature of God, we should be able to better understand that patience or longsuffering and kindness DO NOT suffice to define this idea that “God is love“. It must be more. And when we can see the steady teaching of the Master IS in terms of this Love, this expression of agape, we can perhaps see that makrothumia and chresteuomai must relate to the way that agape IS expressed by both God and man. Thus makrothumia IS NOT merely patience nor IS it simply longsuffering; it IS the innate sense of God and man that shows ALL through an understanding of the basic idea behind mataiotes , which IS rendered as vanity, and of which Vincent tells us that: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4.
And this IS the point of makrothumia as the reality of that understanding, as the reality that when men can somewhat break away from this vanity, this illusion and glamour, that they can then understand and more clearly see the plight of their brothers. This IS the reality of one’s True expression of agape; and it IS through such expression that the whole idea that should be conveyed by agape as a spiritual concept can be better understood. And we should understand here that the basis for such understanding IS innate….it flows from the Soul in the promptings and the sense of conscience that the Soul, the True man, provides.
It IS these promptings and this sense of conscience that ARE missed by most ALL men as they become hidden behind the carnal ideas of men; ideas that begin in one’s nurturing and indoctrination which overwhelm a Life from the time of birth until such time as one can begin to overcome the effects of that nurturing and indoctrination through a focus upon the things of God. It is when a man can listen to such promptings and sense of conscience that he can Truly begin to make spiritual progress. It IS the easier road of continuing in what was one’s nurtured and indoctrinated attitudes that keeps most ALL men back and we should understand here that it IS such attitudes, combined with one’s experiences, that continually deflect the need to change and this especially in the absence of hardship.
Men’s idea of the easier road ARE the result of the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, that ARE in turn the product of one’s nurturing and indoctrination which fix the mind and the emotions upon whatsoever path one IS on. And we should try to see her that this vanity afflicts ALL men, the religious and the irreligious, the Christian and the Jew or any other religious leaning, the liberal and the conservative, male and female; there ARE NONE that ARE free from this “bondage of corruption“. There IS a Path to such freedom however as the Apostle Peter shows us saying:
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:2-4).
These words must be compounded with the words of John who tells us the Way to have “the knowledge of God“. While those who claim to be “born again” also claim to have “the knowledge of God“, the greater reality is found in Love, in agape, which the apostle tells us IS the ONLY Way to have such KNOWING; John says that “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8).
Peter’s words then show us the course; first that “Grace and peace” come to us “through the knowledge of God” which IS in turn through one’s expression of agape. Second we should try to see that this “Grace and peace” ARE “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” and that these ARE, through “glory and virtue“, those “exceeding great and precious promises” by which “ye might be partakers of the divine nature“. Finally we should see that to be “partakers of the divine nature” we must first escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust” which IS simply to overcome the effects of one’s nurturing and indoctrination through a focus upon the things of God.
This idea of escape IS an important one; Strong’s tells us that pheugo, the verb form of Peter’s word apopheugo, means: to run away (literally or figuratively) 9a and in this we should see a purposeful action to change the focus of one’s Life away from the vanity, the illusion and glamour which IS the essence of the corruption, and onto the things of God in understanding that the primary part of “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” IS Love….IS agape. It IS in agape that one comes to KNOW God and it IS in agape that one can be made free “from the bondage of corruption“.
This brings us back again to the question of just what IS agape….what IS this foundational Love that IS the very nature of God? The answer brings us back again to makrothumia as the Way to see and to understand the Truth of what Peter IS saying and to understand as well the plight of those who DO NOT yet have “the knowledge of God“….those who have NOT yet realized that the spiritual values ARE the one’s that Truly count, and have NOT yet chosen to be among those who have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust“.
And this idea of escaping IS a central part of the Master’s message as well. He tells us to keep His words as we read in our trifecta and He tells us from the very beginning that we must Repent. We should try to see how that to escape IS to Repent rightly understood; Repentance IS that dynamic change in the direction of one’s Life which puts a man firmly upon the Path and we should understand here that this change, this change of focus, IS essentially away from the self and the interests of the self and onto Love, agape, as the guiding principal of one’s Life.
We should NOT forget the other of Paul’s words that defines agape, chresteuomai and its root chrestos. This word chresteuomai, while rendered in terms of kindness, IS the expressed attitude of the man who Truly expresses agape….it IS in effect that expression. Can we see the idea of kindness and of Strong’s example of benevolence 9a in the expression of that Universal Love that IS agape? We should remember that Paul’s words tell us that makrothumia IS the nature of Love or that agape IS makrothumia and when we combine this idea with the ages old idea that men “shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” we can then get the extended idea that in such agape one DOES Love ALL equally….as one DOES Love thyself.
From this perspective it becomes easier to see this idea of longsuffering and a deeper meaning of patience in that attitude of understanding that ALL men ARE “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” and that ALL men ARE thereby in the same situation here in this world. This IS of course the spiritual perspective and NOT the carnal one which sees ONLY the differences between men; this IS the reality of agape. And this IS the nature of True agape: to NOT see the differences but to see the Unity in Diversity, a Unity which perforce brings about the idea of chresteuomai which IS the universal expression of agape, in kindness and benevolence and with NO “respect to persons” whatsoever.
These ideas barely scratch the surface of the depth of agape and ARE rather an effort to show what men have ever failed to see the Truth in the words of the Master which ARE alien to the ways of men in this world. “God is love” or, better, God IS agape, and if we can see this as the cohesive force for ALL of creation perhaps we can get a glimpse of the way that ALL that IS works together save for the carnal thoughts and attitudes of men yet caught in the vainity, men who yet remain focussed upon themselves.
When we think that Paul IS speaking about someone else in his words telling of men “who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever” (Romans 1:25), we should remember such vanity afflicts ALL men. And we should understand that we ARE ONLY freed from this illusion and glamour by Love, by agape, where the most central point, which IS expressed in makrothumia and chresteuomai, IS the reality that we should have NO “respect to persons” whatsoever. It IS the man who Truly sees this that KNOWS the reality of the idea that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) and sees his own relationship to God who “is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34).
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
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
