ON LOVE; PART MCCLVIII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
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).
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
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
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
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 with our thoughts on the way that the old covenant and the new covenant ARE laid out as a series of stages that build upon each other to form the message to humanity at any given time in history. In a similar way carnal revelations are seen and understood in stages and if we can see how that Einstein’s theories could only befuddle the man in Moses time, we can then perhaps see how that the deeper teachings on Love, on agape, befuddled that same man. This same IS True of the man in Jesus’ day and while Einstein’s theories may be understood by the few today, they were largely incomprehensible to the majority when he espoused them; they ARE better understood today ONLY because men ARE educated with his postulates in mind.
This same IS happening in the realm of Love albeit NOT because of the teachings of the church. Some ARE coming to see and to understand Love, compassion and mercy as vital to human survival while most ARE yet bound to their own carnal views of self and one’s own self interests. It IS in education that the Truth of Love will be understood and this despite the current trend towards protectionist attitudes across the world. Much of the problem with the teaching of Love falls to the church which deems itself the teacher of things spiritual but which at the same time exhibits the same protectionist tendencies as the populace that they seek to guide. Add to this the reality that the church DOES NOT understand the Master’s intent regarding agape and the church’s failure to understand the stages of revelation and how they build upon each other, and we have the current state of religion today.
There IS a steady unraveling of the Truth from a spiritual and religious perspective just as there IS a steady unraveling of the Truths of nature which science IS continually discovering and using. In religion we have the ideas of covenant as the ‘agreement’ between God and man which begins with Adam in our Judaeo-Christian culture and progress though the new covenant brought by Jesus. We should understand here however that the terms of ‘agreement’ have NOT really changed save for the way that they ARE presented and the human view of the promises that they reveal; we should also understand the carnal human family has always found a way to fail. Adam symbolically eats of the forbidden fruit and loses his spiritual self in the carnal abyss that becomes his “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21) and, in the simplicity of the Genesis story, the whole of the human family IS then lost in the same way as the great flood removes the promise to ALL.
But Noah carries on the hope which generations later falls to Abraham with whom further covenant IS made. In Adam the failure IS to put the carnal self above the spiritual or, better, the self before God and this IS the same reality that we should see in the Life of Abraham who, from the age of seventy five, hears and heeds the spiritual motivation to leave the carnal self behind. While the idea IS NOT spoken as a covenant, Abraham’s ability to leave his heretofore carnal Life and heed the direction of the Lord brings him the promises which ARE shown to us in his abundance and which leads us to the next covenant of circumcision which takes the personal into the more universal arena of the people. ALL ARE circumcised and ALL become then part of the covenant that leads this particular group through to Moses.
Again we should understand that there IS yet NO law by which to measure a man’s accord with his part in the covenant and, at the same time, there IS NO real promised reward revealed to Issac, Jacob nor his twelve sons….the whole of the seventy persons that enter into Goshen, except a repetition of the promise to Abraham. We should try to see here that ALL live under the covenant given to Abraham and that despite their shortcomings as men, they ARE living lives according to the times, the barbarous and superstitious times in which they live. From the perspective of the Lord, the covenant that should be followed IS circumcision and we should add to this the latent idea from the covenant with Adam, that the Will of the Lord be done which Will in this time IS circumcision. In return the promise of the Lord was twofold; first that Abraham would “be a father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4) and second that He “will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:8).
We should try to see that through the symbolism of circumcision there IS the intent that for a circumcised man “it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you” (Genesis 17:11), a reminder if you will, of the relationship between man and God. Abraham IS NOT perfect nor ARE his descendants through to Joseph; ALL held their onto their carnal lives along with their circumcision and the occasional altar and sacrifice as the few noticeable references to God. Here we should try to see and to understand that this was ALL that was expected in this barbarous and superstitious time and we should try to see as well the many lessons that ARE painted from these ancestors in the writings of Moses who brings forth the next covenant. While the doctrines of the Christians hold onto every word idea from the Old Testament, they miss the whole idea that the covenant between God and man was ever that men will keep His words, DO His Will as this IS understood in the simplicity of Life, and that uniformly, save for circumcision, most ALL have failed.
It IS here perhaps that we should try to understand that Abraham’s KNOWING God and being “the Friend of God” (James 2:23) can be “imputed to him for righteousness” as he had DONE ALL that was expected of him and this regardless of his carnal actions. Abraham kept the circumcision in his generations and he passed his own spiritual trial in his willingness to sacrifice even his son. We should understand here that it IS the Will of God, be it circumcision or any other human endeavor, that IS the KEY to the covenant and that beyond this circumcision Abraham’s descendants DID little else to enhance their own righteousness before the Lord. In the steady unfurling of the reality of that Will, the idea of righteousness changes however and we should try to see here that Moses brings to the world the next revelation, the next stage of covenant, to the Jews as a people.
We DO NOT KNOW what the pre exodus Jews in Egypt thought about their religion nor DO we KNOW what effect the combination of Jacob, his sons, plus the addition of Joseph who had been in Egypt for many years has on the religious thought of the people. We ONLY KNOW that from Adam to Jacob the whole idea of God IS that there IS but One and this IS NOT the same One that IS worshiped by the Egyptian people. Of the simplicity of the people’s religious thought, we KNOW little save that they were perhaps expecting the One God to deliver them from their bondage and in this IS a large part of our point regarding the way that the Old Testament IS viewed. We KNOW the Egyptians of that day by the things that they left behind for us to find and while we DO NOT understand how that they were able to DO as they had DONE based in the science of the day, we DO KNOW what they DID.
While the Christian world takes the stories of the Old Testament as verbatim Truths, they yet fail to understand the singular message: that there IS but One God and it IS in His reality that one must live their lives. In this we have from the beginning the idea of focus; focus upon the things of God rather than the most meaningless things of man and this IS the covenant: if one will put his focus upon God, ALL other things, ALL things of the world, will be in that man’s or that nation’s control. This IS the promise from the beginning which, unfortunately, becomes the actual things of the world rather than one’s ability to access such things through one’s own, or one’s groups, spiritual Power. Moses offers us this journey through the ideas of the covenant which he brings, a covenant that IS clearly stated in the quid pro quo that he offers from the Lord and we must remember that he IS, as a personality, a part of the barbarous and superstitious people to whom he writes.
There should be NO mystery in the recorded words but men have ever picked out the parts they like as they relegate the rest to oblivion. We read Moses words again saying: “And 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 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). This is the covenant that Moses brings as he shows the Jew’s NOT ONLY “these blessings” but goes on to similarly list the cursing which they will endure if they DO NOT “observe and to do all his commandments“; and why this message IS so quickly lost IS the simple result of the vanity in which men lived then and still live now.
But the message IS delivered and while its Truth IS ONLY seen by the few, the message endures. Moses’ vision of the covenant IS the law and the added ceremonial and ritual components of the law by which the man in his day can be helped to “observe and to do all his commandments“. Again we must understand that the evolved state of these men 3500 years ago DOES NOT allow for him to understand the logic of it ALL and it IS with this in mind that we should see the ideas of circumcision, the dietary laws and the ceremonial sacrifices and rituals that the man Moses included in the overall body of what has become scripture and that ARE intended to explain the Ten Commandments and to help the man and the nation to accomplish them.
The covenant IS ever a quid pro quo and while this may be denied in the doctrines of men the Truth IS apparent in the words put forth by Moses as he shows us the advancement of the covenant from Abraham to the law. And the quid pro quo DOES NOT stop here but IS continued with the words of the Master which ever show us the same idea of spiritual reward for spiritual action. However, just as the Jews erected doctrinal interpretations and used the ideas of sacrifice that was introduced by Moses to the benefit of men, so the Christian has erected similar doctrinal interpretations which place the Master in the place of the sacrifice for their magical and mystical atonement. The whole of the Jew’s approach became contrary to the intent of Moses words which was for the people to maintain a focus upon the things of God; his words became their way to carnal reward rather than spiritual. The very ideas of the Ten Commandments became subservient to the honoring of selected ancillary commandments which the Master points out as He rails against their use of tradition over Truth.
This same has befallen the Christian religions from the beginning as the men who had taken authority systematically placed their interpretation of the words of the apostles above the Truth of the Master’s words. They created a covenant defined by atonement through their most nebulous ideas of pistis and pisteuo….faith and believing, plus their equally nebulous ideas of grace. While the Jews may have seen the reality of the quid pro quo inherent in their covenants, they had circumvented the Truth of the law through their use of mitzvot which, while enumerated differently by some, ARE the 613 commandments and precepts of the Lord according to their doctrines. While these were codified much later, the Jew’s in Jesus’ day saw the law in much the same way; as a list of things to DO and to NOT DO that falls far short of the intent that IS found in the deeper meanings of the primary commandments.
These deeper meanings ARE the True crux of the Christian religions which IS shown to us in the Master’s words and most specifically in the Great Commandments which we have again at the top of our essay. These commandments ARE NOT unlike the ideas that ARE presented to the Jews….they ARE very much the same as ARE presented in the Ten Commandments and which ARE explained in the ancillary teaching commandments that Moses gave to the people; commandments which set forth the most basic ways that men should deal with each other. In the stratified social organization of the Jews religion however the Truth of Love and of having NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9) IS lost in the rote performance of the mitzvot according to the Jews’ doctrinal approach to God.
Although there have been many attempts to codify and enumerate the commandments contained in the Torah, the most traditional enumeration is Maimonides’ ** and in this we should see an example of the way that the Truth had been diluted. At numbers four, thirteen and fourteen we find the ONLY references to Love out of the 613 commandments listed. At number four we read “To love God” along with its source, Deut. 6:5, which reads “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) in our King James Bible. Here we should see a close match to the way that this IS presented by Moses and the idea retained by the Jews but we should also see the deeper aspects which Jesus shows us saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15) which He expands upon in our trifecta.
Most simply put, the idea of both IS the same as to “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” requires that one’s focus IS upon the Lord and that if one’s focus IS, he will surely “keep my commandments“. The next two mentions of Love however deviate from the True intent of the law as given by Moses, an intent that IS amplified and explained by Jesus. The mitzvot says “To love other Jews” and the source listed IS Lev. 19:18 which reads “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 19:18). While the broadest definition of the Hebrew word rea’ IS that this means: any other person, any other of the human race 9 according to Thayer’s, the more common doctrinal understanding IS much more limited.
The Maimonides’ list IS NOT unlike the view of many Christians who DO NOT yet see the Truth of agape despite the Master’s teaching and especially the harsh reality found in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. The last reference to Love says that the Jew IS “To love converts” and the reference given IS Deut. 10:19 which says “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). Our point should be clear here and while the Hebrew word ger can be defined as guest 9a as we read in Strong’s, there IS NO hint of convert in this idea which Thayer’s defines as a sojourner 9. There IS one other reference to Love in the mitzvot which IS a negative reference that corresponds to this last entry; it IS written as number thirty seven and reads that the Jew IS “Not to love the idolater” and IS associated with Moses’ commandment to put away any who would pervert the law….”thou shalt surely kill him” (Deuteronomy 13:10).
While we see this last idea as one of those ancillary ideas from Moses that IS NOT in accord with the Ten Commandments, the Jew and the Christian likely DO NOT. This idea that punishes the offender, the man who would take one’s focus away from the Truth by leading him to other truths, IS firmly based in the barbarism and superstition of the day and in Moses zeal to have the Jew focus upon the Truth. We should easily see how that such commandments ARE rooted in these things and how that they ARE contrary to the whole idea of agape; we should also see how difficult it may be for the doctrinal Jew and the doctrinal Christian to see the contradictions that ARE intentionally built into the law which Moses presents us.
We should try to see here as well that the Apostle Paul’s words that ARE contrary to the idea of the law ARE NOT contrary to the idea of Love or any other part that IS the Ten Commandments and those ideas that Truly explain them, but rather on keeping the rest of the 613 mitzvot or whatsoever count was understood at that time. The apostle DOES KNOW the reality of the primary commandments and, being a Jew and a Pharisee, he also KNOWS the way that the rest ARE misrepresented and misused in the doctrines of men that had become the Jew’s religion. We should be able to see this in Paul’s words to the Romans regarding Love and how that agape IS equivalent to keeping the law by which idea his intent IS the primary laws as much of the rest IS contrary to these; we read the apostle’s words again saying:
“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).
These words from Paul hold up the crux of the law and show us the equivalency of one’s expression of agape and keeping the most basic Truths of the law. Paul sees past the ancillary ideas that were Moses contribution to the ways of the Jews religion and we should ever understand that his purpose in introducing the ceremonial and the ritual parts as well as the dietary and sabbath ideas IS to help a man to keep the Truly important parts. As we may NOT be able to see this today, the Jews in the ‘rabbinical’ periods of the religion may NOT have been able to see this either as these words were intended for the Jew of 3500 years ago. Over the 1500 years from Moses to Jesus it IS the prophets who served to correct the Jews focus upon the ceremonial and ritual, the dietary and the sabbath and to place their focus back upon the crux of the law….Love and its expression by everyman in every dealing with his fellowman.
The whole of the Truth IS found in many Old Testament sayings but for some it remains hidden in the ideas that ARE interpreted from that Truth. In such ideas as “Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway” (Deuteronomy 11:1) there IS the explicit command to Love the Lord but the reality of Love for everyman IS embedded in this; if one DOES “keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments” one must perforce Love his neighbour as this IS His charge, His statute, His judgment and His commandment. Can we see the point here? And can we see how that this leads us to the words of the Master on Love and His reinterpretation of the Truth to the Jews, a reinterpretation that they DID NOT heed any more than the admonishments of the law to keep His words; We repeat again 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).
Here we should see the Jew and the Christian as both ARE given these same words of Truth and both choose to simply ignore them while believing that they have the KEY to salvation in their doctrines. For the Jews yet today the dietary laws and the manifold customs of the sabbath ARE more important to keep that the crux of the law which IS Love and here we should see that it IS both parts of the Great Commandments that ARE fallen into despair; and we should note here that even the ideas interpreted into the mitzvot ARE NOT kept except by the few. The same IS True of the Christian doctrines that turn “love thy neighbour as thyself” into Love for the fellow Christian; this too IS Truly observed by ONLY the few.
Here we return to our ongoing theme regarding the misunderstood and misapplied ideas that ARE applied by both the Christian and the Jew, nay by most ALL of the world, to the most high idea of Love, of agape. Most ALL see agape as Love and Love as that emotional and mental attraction and attachment between people and between man and things, even inanimate things and one’s own thoughts and imaginations. These however ARE NOT the emphasis that must be placed upon the Greek words agape and agapao….the noun and the verb. The Truth of agape IS spiritual and flows from the Inner Man….from the Soul and it IS in this flow that one IS in accord with the Truth and with His words; any other views of Love are but folly and the Master gives us many tests for this Truth.
In this the KEY IS ever focus, a focus upon the things of God over the things of the world; a focus that IS motivated by conscience through one’s hearing the prompting of his own Soul to the Good, the Beautiful and the True. This IS a most natural thing for the man who will look past his own doctrinal leanings and seek to be in accordance with the Master’s words. We should note here again that the Master’s words ARE but a mechanism by which one can then see the prompting of his own Soul through his conscience which heretofore IS ONLY responsive to the moral and social code with which he was nurtured. In this we should be able to see the burden of nurturing and indoctrination; a person whose nurturing IS into a Loving family without a strong doctrinal leaning should have an easier time than another whose Loving family takes a strong doctrinal approach to Life.
In this idea of doctrine we should try to see much more than religion; we should see matters of prejudices of ALL kinds as well a political and social doctrines which can forge a young mind in much the same way as the apostle Paul’s was forged. Paul tells us “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6) and in this we should see his nurturing and his indoctrination into the prejudices of religion, as well as the political and social leanings of the Pharisees. The apostle also tells us that “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day” (Acts 22:3). It IS presumed that this Gamaliel IS the same as he that is called “a doctor of the law” (Acts 5:34) by Luke.
It IS through his nurturing and his indoctrination that Paul comes to see the Lord through the eyes of a Pharisee and what we should understand here IS that what he reported as “the perfect manner of the law of the fathers” was NOT perfect at ALL. It IS this imperfection of doctrines which ARE deemed by their holders as perfect that the Master shows the Jews and it IS this that brings them to see Jesus as the enemy rather that the Messiah. And here we should try to look forward as a large part of the Christian Church seems to expect the Master to return. Many proclaim that the time has never been more right and we should try to understand that most every generation has the same sense that His return IS imminent.
In today’s Christian mind this sense of urgency IS based in what they see as the moral decline of humanity while in yesteryear the idea was perhaps based in the senseless killing of world wars. As the Master told us, the time IS KNOWN by NO man, and while the church looks for His return according to the various prophecies, from Daniel and Ezekiel to Revelation to the words of Jesus, their various musings ARE but their imaginations at work. So many believe that He will be “coming in the clouds of heaven” (Mark 14:62) and that “every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him” (Revelation 1:7) but, at the same time, NO ONE can Truly KNOW what these sayings mean.
Despite the fact that NO one KNOWS the time, many still predict as the sermons of many teachers ARE centered around eschatological ideas rather that around the Truth. But our point IS more simple; when He DOES return, when He DOES come among us again, who will KNOW Him? He will NOT be teaching the doctrines of men but the Truth which IS still as contrary to such doctrines as it was contrary 2000 years ago. As the Lord instructed the Jews through Moses and as the Master taught the world 2000 years ago, it IS Love, it IS agape, that holds the KEY to the Truth and this will be the central point of His teaching when He comes among us again. And it IS Love ONLY that can make men ready for His return of which He tells us to: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is“(Mark 13:33).
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
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- ** Wikipedia contributors. “613 commandments.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 21 Jun. 2018.
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
