ON LOVE; PART MCCLXV
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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 our ideas regarding the church and the way that the church has devised their doctrinal approach to the Lord based upon the singular idea that men could not possibly become “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) as the Apostle James tells us. We should try to see that it IS in their sense of authority, the authority that the leaders have assumed and have exercised over the masses from the beginning, that their own sense of deception, of vanity, overwhelms the Truth and consumes them in their illusion and glamour just as it DOES ALL men.
While this may seem a harsh assessment of the church and its leaders over the centuries, it IS but a view of men in the church being men in this world….they ARE NOT separated from humanity merely because the profess to believe. Their several doctrinal approaches to the Lord bear out this reality; we should see that it IS the personalities of men at work in the creation of doctrines and it IS the personalities of men that deny their ability to perform their part in the quid pro quo that IS the very nature of men’s covenant with God. We should try to understand that while there have always been self serving men in positions of church authority, men whose agenda was NOT the Truth, the vast majority of those that have come and taken authority over the lives of the masses have been well meaning.
In the beginning these seekers, both the self serving and the well meaning, set out to bring to the world the teachings of the Master but somehow they settled for the doctrines of men as DID the Jews before them. To be sure most ALL purveyors of doctrine were seeking ways to bring people to the Lord that would NOT seem overly harsh nor severely impinge upon the ability of a man to be a man in this world and, to this end, the out of context and misunderstood words of the Apostle Paul served and still serves their purpose. But what of the Master’s words? What of the Truth that the Master teaches us and that His apostles clarify and amplify? How IS the church able to set aside the most basic Truths in favor of their own doctrinal approach to the Lord?
The singular answer IS vanity, it IS the illusion and the glamour of Life here in this Earth where men have NOT yet found their own inner Truth. Yes there ARE glimpses of Truth by many but few of these ARE strong enough to dissuade a man from his own sense of Truth that IS the product of the vanity combined with his nurturing, his indoctrination and his experiences. It IS these things that keep a man bound in his own carnal thoughts and attitudes; it IS these things that deceive most everyman who thinks that he has been “transformed by the renewing of your mind” while he IS yet “conformed to this world“. These carnal forces ARE powerful deterrents to the Truth, a Truth that forces one apart from ALL that he has ever KNOWN and allows him to see clearly that he IS NOT what nor whom he has believed but that he IS the same as his neighbor, the same as everyman, and that this IS the singular force of Love.
It IS in this revelation of Oneness with ALL men that a man can come to realize the Truth of agape as this IS taught by the Master and His apostles; and it IS this realization that IS the Power by which one can be “transformed by the renewing of your mind“. It IS here that one finds the confidence to look past the self while realizing that the True self IS NOT this form with its attendant personality but rather the Soul, the spiritual man that has been lost in the morass of daily living….lost in the vanity which we should try to understand as Vincent shows us, as a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. It IS the True man that IS lost in the vanity and, to be sure, he IS ever trying to get the attention of the personality and to change the direction of the thoughts and attitudes that ARE the product of this same vanity.
When the personality finally allows this to begin we have the start of that sacrifice which the Apostle Paul shows us IS the gateway to being “transformed by the renewing of your mind“, the gateway to seeing past the illusion and the glamour which has heretofore governed the Life. None of this IS hidden from view in the scriptures of the world and the Truth IS especially clear in the Master’s words; unfortunately His words ARE obnubilated by the same illusion and glamour, the same vanity and deception, that they ARE intended to counteract and for 2000 years the world of men, of Christian men, has allowed this to continue. In their cleverly constructed doctrinal approach to the Lord the early church reacted to the Truth in much the same way as did the Jews before them; they codified rules and rites and rituals, perhaps loosely based upon the ideas offered in the gospels, that were perhaps in some ways appropriate for their time, a time where barbarism and superstition yet ruled the minds and emotions of men.
They modeled these doctrines according to their interpretations of out of context ideas gleaned from the writings of the apostles, especially Paul, and the ONLY real changes to these came in the Reformation, more than a thousand years later. Here in these ‘dark’ or ‘middle ages’ it was again men who changed the view of religion and this from the nearly singular view of Catholicism to a place where men were more able to pick and choose with whom they would align; the crux of the belief system however remained unchanged. There have been continued splits into denominations and sects and the worldwide count of these IS more than 30,000 in a 2017 report. While the common idea of the denominational church may be presented as that this IS but the many parts of the one body, this idea IS left lacking through the way that most every part claims the Truth and ofttimes demeans others as wrong.
While this IS NOT intended to present an historical view, we should be able to see the divisions of the One Church that begins with the words of Jesus and which has now fully accepted that it IS the words of the apostles that offer salvation. Most ALL look past the Truth of the Master’s words much as most ALL of Judaism looked past the Truth of Moses commandments; for the Christian it IS their individual doctrines that ARE superior and for the Jew it was the ancillary parts of the law that became their focus. In this we should see that the most important ideas of scripture ARE relatively ignored or used as platitudes and among these ARE the Truths incorporated into the Great Commandments which we have again at the top of our essay.
We must remember that the Great Commandments predate the Master and it IS His affirmation regarding these two commandments that Jesus tells the Jews saying “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). As doctrinal authorities like to separate the ideas of the law from their doctrinal assertion of of salvation by grace, it IS NOT possible to separate the whole of Christianity from these words of the law, these words that ARE the True guiding Light for ALL humanity. The Apostle Mark reports the Master’s words on the Great Commandments as “There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31) but still in the tenets of religion it IS NOT these words that ARE offered as commandments, it IS rather the Ten Commandments which themselves show us the greater idea of Love without ever using that idea directly.
Again, the doctrinal ideas of many denominations downplay the importance of the commandments, the Ten and the Great Commandments, in favor of their ideas on grace and it IS the opinion of many that because of the ‘impossibility’ of keeping these as men in this world, they should be largely ignored. We should add to this the doctrinal idea that in trying to keep His words one IS trying to gain salvation by works which they see as contrary to Paul’s teaching; most ALL DO NOT see that Paul’s ideas on works and the law IS NOT regarding the finer points which Jesus tells us ARE “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matthew 23:23), but rather the rites and the rituals and other ancillary ideas that were brought to the people by Moses who’s objective was for some social controls for the population.
While the ideas of the Ten Commandments and the Great Commandments ARE part of the Old Testament approach to the Lord, the Master DOES make these ideas His own. He DOES this in His words that ARE the Golden Rule as He tells us “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). Here we should pay special attention to the way that He shows us the relationship between this and the second of the Great Commandments by telling us of the Golden Rule that “this is the law and the prophets” much as He tells us of the Great Commandments saying “There is none other commandment greater than these” and “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets“.
The Great Commandments and the Golden Rule ARE put on equal footing by the Master’s words yet men DO NOT teach this nor DO most act in these ways; much of the reason here IS founded in the doctrinal approach to the Lord. This IS despite the way that the Master teaches us the very definition of this Love as He removes from the Truth of agape the idea that the intent in any way carnal. In Jesus’ defining ideas we have concept of forgiveness which should be seen through the prism of the Golden Rule; to forgive another IS what everyman would want from others and therefore it should be offered. Can we see the point here?
In a similar way we should see Jesus’ teaching on agape from the Sermon on the Mount; here we read such things as: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44). No man wants to have enemies nor those that “curse you“, nor DOES any want “them that hate you“; men want just the opposite and because this IS their desire, one should Love, bless and DO good. The Apostle Luke paints ALL this in much more explicit terms; we read Jesus’ words as:
“I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 65:27-36).
Can we see that these words ARE the epitome of selflessness? And can we see how that Jesus’ framing of these ideas makes that selflessness the cornerstone of Love under the Great Commandment and the Golden Rule? While selflessness IS also somewhat required in a carnal Love relationship, it IS essential in a spiritual one where there IS NO equivalent to the mental and emotional attraction or attachment to others or to things. Spiritual Love, agape, requires selflessness under the Golden Rule and the Great Commandment as both of these reduce one’s view of the self to the view that one has for others. In both the comparison IS made to the self; in the Golden Rule one should DO as one desires done to himself and in the Great Commandment one IS to express agape to others in the same way….whatsoever one would afford himself, he should afford to everyman.
This idea of everyman IS of overriding importance; this idea of everyman IS expressly implied in the Master’s words which DO NOT define the neighbor as anyone other than everyman. We should see the same implication in the Golden Rule where that idea IS given us as others which should ever be understood as ALL others and NOT some select group as some doctrinal thinkers assert. Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan should immediately deflate any notion that it IS the Christian brother that IS the neighbor or the other in the Great Commandment and the Golden Rule. This parable shows us that the neighbor IS a perception that transcends the ideas of religion; in this parable it IS the priest and the Levite, the religious of the religious in the Jew’s religion, that walk on by the man in need.
It IS the Samaritan that IS the neighbor to the afflicted man and here we should see that in the context of the New Testament the Samaritan, while technically a Jew, IS NOT seen favorably by the self proclaimed True Jew. It IS the Samaritan that offers the afflicted man what the Levite and the Priest should have KNOWN to DO based in the reality of the Great Commandments and ALL of the words of the law that deal with the relationships of men with men. This priest and this Levite DO NOT understand “the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” but the Samaritan DOES and we should try to see here that in the heart of the Samaritan there IS NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9) in his expression of agape to his neighbor….a random stranger that IS afflicted.
This Samaritan IS expressing both the idea of the Great Commandment, that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“, and the True meaning of the Golden Rule which Luke frames for us saying “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise“. None of these lessons IS properly understood however; most ALL men, most ALL Christian men, DO NOT see the ideas that ARE incorporated in the Master teaching on agape nor in this most definitive parable….few there ARE that Truly understand the nature and the implications of agape as the singular KEY to True salvation. But Paul DOES see this and he tells us of the significance of Love amidst the same words that the doctrines of men cull out of his teachings, words that suit the doctrinal mind and the objectives of men.
Paul teaches us about selflessness in his words that we have been studying; he tells us to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” but the doctrinal thinker DOES NOT see the idea of selflessness that IS incorporated into this idea. In this idea of sacrifice we should be able to see and to understand that if one’s focus turns to the Lord, it IS NO longer on himself nor the things of the self in this world. It IS through this sacrifice of one’s own interests in favor of the Truth that leads to that Transformation which IS founded in allowing the that new sense of focus to renew one’s mind and to change one’s thoughts and attitudes. In this is the reality of the apostle’s words that clearly tell us to “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1-2).
While millions of Christians believe that they ARE renewed and even Transformed and that they can “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2), they ARE but living in their own deception, the deception of which the Apostle James tells us saying “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). In common sense alone we should be able to understand that the “good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” IS that one keep His words and, most importantly, express the Truth which IS agape according to His words. It IS this that the apostle says in those words that the doctrinal thinker DOES NOT cull from the totality of Paul’s expressions of Truth; he tells us:
“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).
At the heart of this idea and the companion saying that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14) IS the intent to tie the Truth of agape to the Truth of keeping His words. One CAN NOT keep His words without the expression of agape and in the Truth of one’s expression of agape IS the essence of keeping His words; these ideas ARE in Truth One and ARE inseparable save for in the minds of men. For the Jews who were essentially under the law as Paul frames this the same was True; that if a man were to express agape according to the law and entreat his fellowman in the ways that the Lord expounded through Moses, he would be essentially keeping that part of law that was intended to seal man’s relationships both with the Lord and with his fellowman.
In the reality of Love with NO “respect to persons” there would be NO adultery, NO murder, NO stealing, NO false witness and NO covetousness of any kind, and in the reality of agape one would perforce honor one’s father and mother and DO so in ways that ARE beyond the common understanding of this idea. ALL of these ARE concerned with the idea put forth in the second of the Great Commandments while ALL of the other parts of these Ten Commandments have to DO with the first which places one’s relationship with God above ALL else as the singular focus of one’s Life. We should try to understand here that in DOING the second, one IS perforce DOING the first and vice versa. This IS the Apostle John’s meaning as he tells us “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (1 John 4:20).
The point in ALL this IS that while the doctrinal thinker believes that he IS ‘saved’ by keeping the tenets of his doctrines which ARE mostly based in the doctrinal view of the Apostle Paul’s words, how can the same doctrines ignore such ideas as the apostles have on Love, such ideas that show us that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. It IS in this same part of Paul’s instructions that we find the Truth that says “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law” (Galatians 5:16-18).
The doctrinal error here IS found in the last idea as well as the first. Too many believe that they “Walk in the Spirit” because of their doctrines and deny that they “fulfil the lust of the flesh” because of the meaning that they affix to lust. Lust simply IS desire and this sense of desire IS for ALL things carnal; one IS NOT free from lust because he DOES NOT desire the grosser ideas that ARE attached to this word. One IS free from lust ONLY in that sense of selflessness which IS one’s lack of desire for things carnal; this idea takes us back then to sacrifice. As Paul tells us that we should “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service“, we should see selflessness as in this one IS giving up ALL that IS of the world; Paul’s reference to “your bodies” includes the fullness of the personality to which he refers in the next verse; here the idea of bodies must be seen in the same context as is flesh.
The Greek words for flesh and for body ARE different and there IS likely a unique meaning to Paul’s use of each, but we should however understand that both reference the same idea which IS the Life of a man as a man in this world….complete with the personality. In terms of sacrifice we should see that it IS the personality that must be sacrificed through “the renewing of your mind“; it IS in this way that the Inner man, the Soul, comes to the motivator of one’s Life when heretofore it was the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, that held the mind captive. The personality IS but a tool, a part of the body proper, and we should try to see how that this tool can be used by either God or mammon and, in the case of some, in a rather alternating cycle.
Jesus tells us that one one “cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and while this IS a great Truth, it DOES NOT prevent men from trying and we should understand here that serving God IS much more than how doctrines paint this….serving God IS focusing upon Him according to the Great Commandment. If we can look at this in terms of the doctrinal error that we discuss above, we can then perhaps see the shallowness of faith when it IS NOT seen in terms of KNOWING and DOING. Believing that one DOES “Walk in the Spirit” and IS serving God should NOT be but a thought that IS based upon the pronouncement of the church any more than the idea of being “born again” should be based in the simplicity of the affirmations and confessions that one may make according to his chosen doctrinal approach to God.
To be Truly “born again” must be much more than a doctrinal position carved out of the out of context, misunderstood and misapplied words of the apostles; to be “born again” must be according to the way that the Master describes this to Nicodemus which IS, at the heart, to be Truly and actively renewing one’s mind with the sole intent of Transformation. We should understand here that there IS NO direct link between the ideas of confessing and affirming which Paul tells us contribute to one’s salvation and being “born again“; this latter idea IS the product of the minds of men who see that salvation IS accepting the atoning sacrifice of the Master as the ONLY thing needed to bring one to a point where he will ‘go to heaven’.
The doctrines of men have taken the symbolism presented by some of the New Testament writers and churned them into hard facts and it IS upon this that they have built their various versions of atonement. That Christ died for our sins IS a matter of fact; it IS the sins of humanity that put Him to death on the cross….it was their vanity, their illusion and their glamour. If the Jews in that day had the moral ability to understand and believe what was happening before them, they would NOT have put Jesus on the cross; it was their own illusion and glamour, their own belief that they did “Walk in the Spirit” if we can apply that idea here, that prevented them from seeing the Truth that was before them and here we should note the predictability of the human condition through the words of the prophets that seemingly allude to His death.
Men have never come to understand that the symbolism that links Christ to the Jew’s and to Israel, the symbolism of the sacrifice for sin being chief among these, DOES NOT make Jesus the atonement for the sins of ALL people for ALL time; it simply carries on the idea of sacrifice in the hearts of some New Testament writers who use it in a sermon sort of way to make the case for Jesus’ to the Jews. These ideas, these sermons written nearly 2000 years ago, took root in the minds of the church fathers who carried them forward in their theology as they surmised just what the original writers mean as they worked these ideas into the doctrines of men. Some have taken such words as “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22) to show that their doctrinal ideas ARE the requirement of God….that even the God must work according to the law.
Much of these ideas that tie Jesus’ death to the law and thereby offer the idea of atonement come from the Book of Hebrews which, while widely accepted as cannon in the early church, IS written by a person unknown. There ARE many theories regarding the source of this text and while we DO NOT dispute that the ideas ARE Truly inspired and scriptural, we DO see the whole of the writing’s purpose IS to make Jesus the new substitutionary sacrifice in a way that the religious Jew would understand. Much of doctrine IS based in the words of this unknown writer and this epistle contributes greatly to the diminishing of the words of Jesus and the Truth that one’s salvation IS NOT found in His death nor one’s affirmation of it, but rather in striving to keep His words and the expression of Love. We close today with His words from our trifecta, words that most clearly show the Way.
- “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).
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
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
