ON LOVE; PART MCCXXXIX
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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 a more serious look at the Greek words that have been pieced together to form the various doctrines of atonement through which the Christian religions find the essence of their various theories of salvation. We noted that the word atonement appears ONLY one time in the entire New Testament; rendered from the Greek word katallage, this entry in Romans IS the only place this word IS so rendered as in its other three appearances katallage IS rendered in terms of reconciliation. In atonement we ARE brought to the doctrinal ideas that ARE based in the Apostle Paul’s words saying “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3)….died so that ALL men can be forgiven. Most ALL of these doctrines of atonement ARE based in the Old Testament ideas established by Moses where the sacrifice of animals IS the prescribed remedy for sin, both individually and corporately.
It IS this reliance upon the Old Testament treatment of sin plus the misinterpreted words of Jesus’ apostles and some isolated New Testament phrases as “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) which IS attributed to John the Baptist as he sees the Master approach, that have built these various doctrines. Add to this the Jew’s doctrinal ideas of and their expectation of a Messiah, and we have the foundations upon which these ideas ARE built. We should try to understand here that if the world had believed and DONE what the Master prescribed, their sin would have been taken away and this idea IS as True yet today as it was in the beginning. From the beginning it has been the vanity, the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world, that has obnubilated the Truth and has kept men on that path of their: perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 as Vincent defines mataiotes which IS rendered as vanity and in terms of futility and frustration by other translations.
From the time of Adam and Eve till today men have always sought after what IS their desire as men in this world; by birth they ARE separated from God, separated from KNOWING their own nature as spiritual beings….as Souls that have taken on human form. Most ALL men identify themselves ONLY with their personality which IS ever a part of the flesh and which lives in that condition that IS considered as perishable and decaying from the perspective of the Soul which has been “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20). We should try to see that it IS the Soul that IS trapped in the vanity of Life in this world; it IS the Soul that IS lost as he IS born into a infant which CAN NOT yet think rationally, that has NO ability to express his thoughts and attitude….that has NO thoughts and attitudes.
We should understand here that this IS ALL by the Plan of God; the Soul IS NOT a willing participant according to Paul’s words but we should see this in the larger picture of our Transcendent and Immanent God. Because God IS in ALL and ALL IS in God Souls must perforce participate in the Plan; in this view this idea of “not willingly” should ONLY seen as this pertains to the individual Soul who must take birth and thereby become separate from God. If we can see this as one of the great mysteries of which the Master and His apostles speak, we can begin to glimpse and perhaps understand some small part of the Great and Awesome Plan of God, a Plan which culminates in two realities. The first outcome IS that “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and here we should understand again the the subject, as it applies to everyman, IS the Soul….the True creation of God.
It IS the Soul that IS His creation which IS then, as we read in Genesis, made into the living being of a man in this Earth. It IS the Soul that IS the creation in the first chapter and it IS this Soul that becomes the man in the second chapter where we read that “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). We should understand here that despite the way that doctrines have ever tried to show that man, the man in this world, IS made “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27), this IS ONLY literally True if God IS viewed as a man. But God IS NOT a man….”God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) as the Master tells us. This idea of “in the image of God” has been debated for millenium and most always from the perspective of the man in this world; from ancient writings there ARE many diverse opinions of what Imago Dei means and some more modern day doctrines try to show that it IS Jesus that IS spoken of as the ‘image’ against which men ARE created.
We must remember that these words were presumed to be written 3500 years ago and ARE attributed to Moses; they ARE written for the consumption of the man in that day, a barbarous and superstitious man to be sure. It IS NOT the Soul that IS barbarous and superstitious, it IS the inherent nature of the personality of that man, his mental capacity and emotional set, through which the Soul must express the Truth….essentially the same Truth that he must yet express today. Doctrines, both the Jew’s and the Christian’s, however DO NOT see this save for the more esoteric parts of each religious movement which were summarily denounced as heretical by the mainstream doctrinal organizations. It IS the authority taken by the religious leaders that has always obnubilated the Truth which lies beneath the literal understandings that have evolved and which yet today try to fight against any and ALL statements of fact that ARE contrary to those literal doctrinal precepts. That “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27) IS a Truth and this IS especially True of these words in their original language.
Our point in ALL this IS to show the reality that the Soul, the manifestation of Spirit that IS man, IS the True man in regard to his existance in this world; it IS this Spirit that IS “breathed into” the physical man which “the LORD God formed….of the dust of the ground“. It IS NOT our intent to get into a lengthy discussion regarding the Truth of creation but ONLY to show that there IS so much more than the literal ideas found in these few words from Genesis. There ARE two creations here and if we can look past the idea of the ‘seven days’ that doctrines see in this process, we can perhaps understand that the animal man which science KNOWS IS the precursor of the more modern man into whom the Lord “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life“, IS a man who was capable through evolution to sustain and express the sentient Life of the Soul. We should remember there one more thing: there ARE NOT male and female Souls, there ARE ONLY Souls; in this the reality of “male and female created he them” takes on a very different meaning.
From this idea of the beginning it has been the objective of every Soul that comes into this world to be able to express his True nature through his form….it IS the Soul’s obfective to overcome the vanity and to be freed from “the bondage of corruption” that IS the Life of everyman in this world. This IS the first outcome; this IS the realization of a man that he IS in “the glorious liberty of the children of God“. This realization, this KNOWING of one’s True nature, IS “the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18) a ‘glory‘ that IS one’s expression of the Truth and Love to the world. Can we see the point here? Can we see how that ALL IS a matter of expression and of the prerequisite focus upon the things of God? Paul tells us that “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:13-14) and while many DO believe that they ARE “the sons of God” because they have mortified themselves against the ‘mortal’ sins and certain sexual sins, they DO miss the whole point of sin which IS founded in the vanity of Life in this world.
This first outcome IS that one has “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4); it IS this escape that provides one’s ability to be ‘made free‘ which IS the primary rendering of the Greek word eleutheroo that IS rendered here as delivered in the King James Bible. Eleutheroo IS rendered as ‘made free‘ elsewhere including the first part of our trifecta where we learn what DOES make one free. While the idea from Romans IS generally attributed to being delivered or set free by God, this IS NOT the intent; this IS easily see in the words of the Master saying “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” as well as in the need to escape as we see in the words of the Apostle Peter. Paul shows us that in making oneself free one can enter into “the glorious liberty of the children of God” while Peter tells us that by our escape we can be partakers, have a share in, “the divine nature“; both of these ARE the same outcome which comes by measure to everyman who will strive to keep His words. It IS the Truth, His Kingdom and His Presence that come to everyman through our trifecta which we repeat 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).
The second outcome found in overcoming, in the lives of those who through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body” which IS to Truly be “led by the Spirit of God“, IS the carnal finality of “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” which Paul tells us that even he IS “waiting for” (Romans 8:23). Strong’s tells us that this idea of waiting, from the Greek word apekdechomai, means: to fully expect 9a; this IS a kindred word to ekdechomai which IS used by the Apostle James who tells us of the waiting of the husbandman (James 5:7), a waiting that IS self defined in the idea that the husbandman DOES ever work toward what he DOES fully expect. And so the Apostle Paul who diligently works as he waits for, in full expectation, “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. Like atonement this idea of Redemption IS seen through the doctrinal eyes of men who DO NOT understand that this must be worked toward and here we should try to see that the reality of the at-one-ment IS the reality of the adoption.
This IS the final outcome for the man who has “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust“, the man who has made himself free from “the bondage of corruption” which IS the vanity to which the whole of creation IS subjected. This at-one-ment IS found in Vincent’s commentary on the adoption as he tells us that: We have but a faint conception of the force with which such an illustration would speak to one familiar with the Roman practice; how it would serve to impress upon him the assurance that the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father” (“Conversion of the Roman Empire”) 4. Can we see the relationship here between at-one-ment and adoption?
This Oneness however IS NOT along the doctrinal lines but IS in the form of the idea of expression; this Oneness IS when the man in this world can fully KNOW and express the Truth and the Love of God, His “divine nature” if you will, and become, as Jesus, a conduit for the Love of God, the Love that IS God, in this world. In this IS the body Redeemed, NOT in terms of atonement but rather in terms of at-one-ment and of adoption; NOT in the common view of doctrines which fold Peter’s words saying “ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” into the Jewish ideas of atonement, but in the reality of “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:18-19, 23).
Peter’s point here IS found in the way that Jesus death and resurrection serve to form the impetus for a man to begin to believe and to KNOW; it IS in this way that our Redemption IS by His blood and NOT in the common ideas of atonement that place His death as the ‘ransom’ for our forgiveness. The apostle makes this point as he continues to tell us that the Christ “was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:20-23). In this we see the work of the husbandmen whose harvest IS “the fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22-23); we see his patient expectation of the at-one-ment and the adoption where IS the final Truth of being “born again“. Peter defines for us the idea of “obeying the truth” as he relates this to “unfeigned love of the brethren” and here we should reflect upon this idea from two essays back where we discuss the incorporation of this philadelphia into one’s diligent expression of Truth which IS rendered as faith (2 Peter 1:5, 7). From the fullness of his sayings here we should see that the way of the man whose expression IS becoming that of the “divine nature” IS founded in agape and its expression in this world in philadelphia.
Peter tells us earlier that “as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Peter 1:15-17). This IS the work by which men ARE Redeemed and the apostle makes it a point to show us that his IS universally applied to ALL men….that it IS the work which matters. Corruption IS the vanity and it IS men’s bondage while incorruption IS that “glorious liberty of the children of God” which comes as we become partakers, have a share in, “the divine nature“; and while doctrines see this idea of incorruption mostly in eschatological terms, it IS the Truth of Life for everyman who can escape. The apostle’s point here, while muddled by the doctrines of men, IS one of the difference between corruption and incorruption; the former IS of this world and the latter IS founded in “the word of God” which must become everyman’s work.
The eschatological view of this idea IS perhaps founded in the Apostle Paul’s words on the ideas of corruption and incorruption. Speaking about the types of bodies “celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial” and then that “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon” and on to the difference between the “glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory“, the apostle sets the tone for what follows as he tells us that “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15: 40, 41, 42). It is the doctrinal view that a man IS this body and this personality that feeds the idea that Paul IS speaking of the death of the body of a man, this IS then related to their various theories of resurrection and to the their idea of the ‘rapture’ of the church.
If however we look at this as that being dead IS being entombed in the vanity, trapped in “the bondage of corruption“, we can then see that resurrection IS men’s freedom from this vanity….that resurrection IS one’s escape from “the corruption that is in the world through lust“. The idea of being dead has two distinct meanings in the New Testament; the one IS the death of the body and the other IS the spiritual death that IS suffered by the man who IS dead because of sin. When we measure the idea of sin against the fullness of New Testament uses, we can see that this Greek word hamartia IS NOT intended to cover ONLY what men believe sin to be; sin IS the froward thoughts, attitudes and actions of a man….ALL that IS NOT in accord with the Truth of His words.
While this may seem like an overly broad way to cast this idea of sin, this IS the way that the idea IS defined for us in scripture. In the Old Testament the Lord DOES NOT give men a choice as to which ‘laws’ to obey; His word says that “it shall come to pass, 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” (Deuteronomy 28:1) and here the idea was and IS intended to be “all his commandments“. This IS for the blessings of the Lord and a similar idea IS given in regard to curses; He says that “these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee” if they “wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes” (Deuteronomy 28:15).
These words may also seem to be overly broad and we should understand that we DO NOT KNOW the outcome for an individual’s sins; except in some strange cases as with Aaron’s sons, as the historical view IS grounded in the idea that the nation, according to its king, DID good or DID evil “in the sight of the LORD” (1 Kings 15:34). Our point here IS that the idea of sin in this regard was against ALL of the law and NOT selected parts and we should note that the most noted offense in the history of the Jews IS fornication, NOT sexual fornication but one that IS defined as that “they went a whoring after other gods” (Judges 2:17). We should note as well that this Old Testament reference IS NOT singular, as this IS repeated many times in the historical record and the writings of the prophets. This IS the primary basis for many of the uses of the idea of fornication in the entire bible, a basis that has been subverted to reflect ONLY sexual sin by the doctrines of men and this despite the way that on so many occasions the idea of sexual fornication IS NOT regarded in terms of an egregious sin in the Old Testament.
Remembering that the Old Testament people were for the most part a backward people, and this NOT ONLY in regard to our modern societies but also in regard to Jesus’ times. The thought processes and the emotional set of the Jews in the time of their Roman subjection CAN NOT be compared to the Jews in Moses Day and before nor can they be seen the same as during the times of the kings before the Jews captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Little IS KNOWN biblically regarding the time after this captivity begins or regarding the more that 500 years which elapse before the Advent of the Christ. The Jews that emerged from this captivity emerged into a different world which IS rather well documented in recorded history but, to be sure, these were still barbarous and superstitious times and people. These ARE perhaps times which had a keener moral compass under the stricter moral guidance of the evolved doctrines of the Jews; doctrines that had been separated from the True ‘direction’ of the Lord through the prophets for centuries.
The captivity by the Assyrians and the Babylonians leads into the Persian Empire and through most constant wars we eventually see the Roman Empire; NO doubt it IS this exposure to these ‘gentiles’ that leads the Jews out of their own dark past and into the world in which the Christ IS born. Into this still barbarous and superstitious world comes the Christ who IS Himself free from these aspects of vanity and who sees clearly the ways of the world in those days. Jesus makes it clear to ALL that the True Old Testament idea of fornication IS unchanged as He shows us the Great Commandment which we repeat again at the top of our essay. In this it IS the Lord that IS first and foremost; it IS the Lord that should take the fullness of one’s thoughts and attitudes which we read as “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“.
While anything contrary to this IS sin, this IS NOT the way this IS viewed by doctrines which have always pigeonholed the ideas of sin and evil to ONLY include the most egregious offenses and, when we add to this the total misunderstanding of both agape and the Hebrew ahab which ARE seen ONLY in the common view of Love, we should be able to see the grossness of doctrinal error. It IS this error that the Apostle James shows us using the second of the Great Commandments as his example of the greater reality of sin. While he frames his point according to the ways of men who look upon the poor and downtrodden as less than the “man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel” (James 2:2), this IS NOT to be seen in terms of rich and poor but rather in the diversity of men….a diversity that can be applied in most any way. The idea here IS in regard to “respect to persons” and that the apostle frames this in terms of the rich and the poor has enabled the doctrinal approach of men to Truly limit the value of this idea. That “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) IS an attribute of the Lord that had been taught from the time of Moses whose words we read saying “Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great” (Deuteronomy 1:17) as he instructed the Jew’s judges.
James shows us this as a most KEY component of the Truth of Love; without understanding this idea of having NO “respect to persons” it IS impossible to Truly understand the meaning of agape and, without seeing the Truth of fornication in men’s relationship to God, it IS impossible to understand the True meaning of sin. James seeks to tie these ideas together for us as he tell us “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:8-10). Here again IS the relationship between the law and the Truth of agape; and here IS also the great equalizer that shows us that men’s failure to Love IS as great as any sin and that the doctrinal views of sin ARE grossly misguided. We close today with Paul’s words which equate the idea of agape with keeping His words:
“Owe no man any thing, but agapao one another: for he that agapao 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 agape thy neighbour as thyself. Agape worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore agape 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 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 |
Quote of the Day:
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
