ON LOVE; PART MCCCXLVI
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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).
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In the last essay we spent much of our discussion on our trifecta which IS for us a guide to spiritual reality that shows us the True source of the promises, spiritual promises to be sure, that so many claim that they have without ever accessing that source. We ended with some thoughts on the ways that the church today sees their sense of Christianity: through their focus upon doctrines of men that concern themselves with their various ideas of ‘salvation‘ and the establishing of Jesus as the divine and the ONLY Way to that ‘salvation‘. In this focus the most basic Truths offered to us by the Christ remain unexplored against the distractions offered in the church’s views on eschatology and in their fixation upon the carnal behaviors of men and their doctrinal versions of the Great Commission. While eschatology IS NOT an overwhelming focus in the whole of the church, it IS in many parts as it consumes the attention that should be given to those scriptural ideas that DO NOT need men’s interpretations and the denominational struggle to be that interpretation that IS right. The reality of such focus upon the various scenarios of the ‘end times’ IS that this IS but a distraction from the Truths of the Master’s teaching, Truths that lift up and amplify the eternal Truth of agape which IS embedded in the Ten Commandments in terms understandable even to the barbarous and superstitious man of 3500 years ago. We should try to see how that most every generation has believed that they ARE on the cusp of the ‘end times’ as the fail to see how that the return of the Christ may NOT be at ALL what they envision and this IS especially True when we view the Christ in terms of agape. Most ALL fail to see that the return of the coming of Christ in one’s individual Life IS evermore important that their cataclysmic ideas and much more practical. Individually this coming into Power of the Christ, his return to control over his environment if you will, IS based in the ideas of our trifecta which come to everyman who will Truly follow in the precepts that are enunciated by the Master saying:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him . He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
In these words we have access to the Truth, the One Truth that resolves ALL the mysteries, we have access to the Kingdom which IS here and now as it has always been, and we have access to the Presence of the Lord as the Power of the Soul to overcome the self, the egoic personality, and stand to say as DID the Master “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The Apostle John shows us this same concept saying that “I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14). There IS criteria here that must be understood; first IS that we KNOW God and second that “the word of God abideth in you“. Jesus addresses the second point in the third part of our trifecta with some help from John’s use of the Greek word Logos which IS rendered here as word. As we have discussed in recent posts, the idea of Logos IS much deeper than the common understanding of the spoken or written word; the idea behind Logos IS spiritually understood as: the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning as noted by 6th-century-BC philosopher Heracleitus 3. Perhaps the church originally understood this concept which has been removed from the ideas related to the word because of the church’s aversion to any sort of philosophy that was NOT in their Christian purview. Here then in John’s words we should try to see that it IS the Christ that “abideth in you” and this according to the Master’s words that define for us the criteria for such abiding….that “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“. We should see here that John IS addressing such persons and NOT a general audience that may ‘believe‘ according to the nebulous ideas attached to this word pisteuo in the doctrins of men. John IS addressing those that Truly keep His words and those that “have known him that is from the beginning“, the Logos. The apostle shows us in his same epistle the very nature of KNOWING God saying “hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4). John could NOT be more direct nor emphatic in these sayings yet the doctrinal thinker DOES NOT see the connection as he dismisses the need to keep His words as everyman’s cost against his realization of a measure of the Truth, a Truth that includes KNOWING God.
The importance placed on the ideas of keeping His words IS NOT limited to such ideas as we have above; the trifecta IS but a simple array of Jesus’ words that show us the idea in what should be an unmistakable fashion. We should be able to see in this that it IS the convenience of their doctrine, nebulous as their ideas may be, that keep men fixated upon this seemingly easier way to ‘salvation‘ founded in rites and rituals, confessions and affirmations or any combination of these ideas of men. In their doctrinal zeal men have come to believe that they are those addressed as saints and as holy in the apostles’ writings as they lay claim to the ‘promises’ while ignoring their part in the never ending covenant of Truth. Too many fail to see their ‘covenant’ role because of the church’s invented ideas regarding works and the law that ARE based in misapplied ideas from Paul’s Epistles. To this they have added their own philosophy, one that IS NOT grounded in Truth, which claims that the words of the Master ARE NOT for their True salvation but ARE rather addressed to those who preceded the death and resurrection of the Master in which they have founded their also invented ideas on atonement. While the Jews relied upon their mitzvah, their assemblage of rules and commandments according to the ways and ideas of men, most of the Christian world has developed an even more obscure doctrinal approach that has NO basis in the Truth as they take literally the obscure sayings and reinterpret those that ARE Truly clear. While the Jews converted the Truth of the law into a list of DO’s and DON’T’s that encompassed ALL of the law but which has ever concentrated on the mundane rather than the spiritual ideas incorporated therein, they failed at the ideas that ARE become Jesus’ sense of agape. It IS against this failure that the Master says to the Jews “go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice” (Matthew 9:13). Jesus repeats this charge saying “if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matthew 12:7) and again in His list of woes saying “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23). These ARE a direct affront to the ways of the Jews, ways that they saw and which most likely still see as the reality of following the Lord and, while the Christian makes note of these and the many other statements of the Lord against the Jews interpretation of the Truth, they DID NOT and still DO NOT see themselves in these same failures. In such ideas as we have here there IS a specific direction of the Master’s words against the Jews but much of the Christian world has accorded most ALL of His sayings into this direction. There IS however a greater Truth in Jesus’ words that must be extracted for both the current and the future times; while some of His words may be specifically directed to the Jew in Jesus’ time, this DOES NOT preclude the nature of them as a cautionary statement of Truth. Our primary example of this has been the Master’s words, repeating those of the prophet spoken hundreds of years before, saying “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6-7). The idea here IS timeless and concerns the very nature of men to seek out the convenient and self-assuring ideas by which they find comfort rather than to DO and to teach the Truth….the True covenant.
While the Christian world has created a new covenant for themselves based upon such ideas as “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away“, they ignore the reality of what that new covenant Truly IS. The new IS recorded for us as “this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:13, 10). We should try to see here an evolution in the ways of men who, over time, ARE less barbarous and less superstitious and better able to understand the deeper spiritual concepts that ARE the law and the commandments of the Lord. Here again we must be able to discern the difference between those Ten Commandments, plus the added clarifying and amplifying words from Moses, and the ancillary dictates that ARE concerned with the rites and the rituals designed by Moses to offer carnal support for a people in whose ‘hearts‘ the Truth could NOT yet be written. While men had evolved into their state in Jesus’ day, this evolution has continued in most ALL arenas of Life except for most of ALL ideas of religion which ARE yet grounded in rites and rituals rather than the reality of agape. Paul shows us this reality as he prays for ALL saying “That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19). We should be able to see and to understand that while the reality of Love, of agape, has been in scripture from before the time of Moses, the ideas were merely words rather than the aspirations of men springing forth from their hearts. It IS Jesus concentration of the idea of agape and then the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles that were intended to move the bar from being mere words to being True aspirations. While the Jews from Moses to Jesus had valid social realities that kept them from the Truth despite the prompting of the prophets to better see that Truth, the Christian had NO valid social reality to keep them out save for their clever manipulations of the clearly spoken words of the Master which they exchanged for their doctrines. Here again we should look at the vanity into which ALL men ARE born and understand that it IS this condition that obnubilates the Truth and allows the self-serving man to look past the Truth. In the death of the Master and His apostles the time had come “when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). We should understand here that as the Jews had the tools by which to overcome the vanity so DID the Christian who had the clear words of the Master and His apostles but chose the convenient road of those doctrines that ARE NOT according to the Master’s instructions: that they should be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). It is the doctrines of men that have ever separated man from God and should we look at Vincent’s defining ideas for mataiotes which IS rendered as vanity we can see the unholy alliance between the doctrines of men and their condition in this world which IS vanity. Vincent tells us that mataiotes IS: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 and this has ever been the direction of the doctrines of men. This brings us again to our selection from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans; we read:
“they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For 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. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope, Becauseexpectation that the creature itself also shall . For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:5-23).
While there IS much in these words from Paul, the crux of our message lies in his words about the vanity to which ALL ARE subjected as this lays out for us the most basic issues of Life in this world. If we were to see ALL time in the apostle’s words regarding “the sufferings of this present time” we could perhaps then understand that it IS in the vanity that the suffering begins and ends. Once the vanity IS overcome, even by measure, a man comes to see more clearly the reality of Life in this world and how that “the glory which shall be revealed in us” resolves ALL worldly issues at any point in time. We should try to see here that this overcoming IS founded in the words of our trifecta and in the apostle’s words that lead to our ability to “mortify the deeds of the body“. This glory then IS the same as we find as the results of keeping His words in our trifecta; there IS NO difference in the intent….the realization of Truth IS the same. Paul goes on to show us that it IS “the manifestation of the sons of God” for which the Soul waits; in the idea of “earnest expectation” we have the role of the Soul that IS ever prompting the man in the world to the Good, the Beautiful and the True, to the things of God. This idea of “earnest expectation” then sets the scene for the idea of hope that IS rendered into the next verse, an idea that IS better rendered as expectation as the Soul’s ONLY desire IS to manifest itself as the guiding principle, as the True Presence of God in the Life of everyman; bringing with him the Truth and ALL the assets of the Kingdom. This IS “the manifestation of the sons of God” seen through the prism of our trifecta. We should remember here that the Soul, “his Spirit in the inner man” as Paul shows us in his ‘prayer’ above, IS the True man that IS unseen in the world save for those seemingly rare times that his Light IS allowed to shine through his adopted personality. We should try to understand here that while the personality IS grounded in the vanity, in the “bondage of corruption“, the Soul IS “rooted and grounded in love” and it IS this idea of agape that will overwhelm and overcome the carnal tendencies of the personality. While this ALL happens simply and automatically, it DOES require the cooperation of the personality which, based in vanity, DOES systematically reject the call to change, to Repent if you will, that the prompting of the Soul requires in order for one to be able “to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God“. ALL of this IS “the earnest expectation of the creature” which idea should be understood as the creation both individual and corporate. Here we should try to understand the purpose for the dual scenes of creation in the Book of Genesis while we remember that these words ARE written for consumption by the barbarous and superstitious man that roamed the Earth 3500 years ago. Again, we should see the ideas of this part of Genesis’ purpose in terms of informing the reader or the hearer that there IS One God through which ALL things ARE created and to DO so without confusing the man by stating realities which he IS unable to comprehend. In the narration of these first chapters we need NOT look at the sequence of events which ARE, to the KNOWING carnal mind of today, NOT accurately portrayed and understand that the purpose IS NOT scientific but based in the desired teaching that there IS but One God who created ALL as Alexander Maclaren shows us 12. In the dual scenes of the creation of man lies the deeper reality of his existence in time and space and it IS this duality that, while NOT being overly clothed by the words of Moses, IS missed by most ALL doctrinal thinkers still today. If we should look at the duality of creation which shows us first 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) and then 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) as two separate ideas and occurrences we can then perhaps glimpse the reality of the duality as it exists then and now. If we can view these ideas of creation as the first being the Soul, created “in the image of God” and the second being the man in the world formed “of the dust of the ground“, we can better understand the greater reality of Life and how that these ARE combined in duality through the idea of “the breath of life” which IS “his Spirit in the inner man” which Paul shows us above.
There ARE many parts of scripture that show us the duality in which we live but much IS NOT comprehended save for the literal and doctrinal interpretations of the words which ARE offered to a civilization that DID NOT have the wherewithal to understand. This IS True of Moses’ writings which ARE intentionally focused upon the rote of the law and the writings of the prophets which, while attempting to change the dynamic understood through Moses, DID little to DO so because the leaders of the people could NOT see past their own vanity. This IS also True of the writings of the New Testament which offer a much clearer view of the errors of the past and the Path to Truth but, again, ARE written through ideas that ARE ONLY understood by the man who begins to tread that Path. We should remember that, according to the gospels, the apostles DID NOT fully understand the Master’s words but, in His Presence and in the view of His miracles, they were sufficiently convinced that their chosen Path was toward the Truth. We should remember here as well that the twelve apostles ARE not the product of happenstance; that they ARE NOT the result of Jesus choosing them from the masses in disregard of the Truth that “there is no respect of persons with God“(Romans 2:11). We should try to understand that in the panoply of Life the realities ARE much more complex than the Christian doctrines pretend that they ARE. We should try to see that the first creation, the Soul created “in the image of God“, whom we KNOW from Jesus’ words IS Spirit as He tells us that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), IS the True man, free from duality and serving the Lord in the arena of human living with one objective in that regard: to accomplish “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” which idea closes our selection from Romans. For the man who can see, the entirety of the work of the Soul can be found in Paul’s words, his words however have been manipulated to become the doctrinal approach of the Christian churches. “God is a Spirit” and “in the image of God” the Soul, the first creation, IS Spirit as well and exists, as DOES the Lord, apart from any Earthly existence. The interaction of the Soul with human forms IS NOT the reality of Life; the reality IS the struggle, “the sufferings of this present time” as Paul frames this, through which we “groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” while “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“.
None of this IS easy to understand and we should KNOW that this IS for a purpose which Jesus shows us rather clearly in such sayings as “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand“. While we have no definitive purpose in these words, they DO reflect the reality that Jesus KNOWS that the average people will NOT understand His words and this, from our perspective, IS because they ARE bound by their doctrines which they CAN NOT see past. Matthew shows us that this IS the way from the time of the prophets when he writes that Jesus’ use of parables IS “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:13, 35). We should try to see here that our idea of parables IS NOT as it should be understood from Jesus teaching and ofttimes the teaching of His apostles; much of what they say IS parabolic in nature without being a: comparison of one thing with another, likeness, similitude 9 as Thayer’s defines the Greek word parobole of which parable IS but a transliteration. The common understanding of the idea of the parable DOES NOT suit the context of the idea we use as parabolic and we should see here yet another duality at play. Much of Jesus’ words have a parabolic tone incorporated into a seemingly clear saying. An example IS His words from our trifecta saying that “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“. While this IS a True statement and one of fact, the dynamics of what happens IS hidden from view and IS among those “things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” which Paul shows us in a similar tone with an extra ‘clue’ if you will. Paul tells us of “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27). Neither of these ideas, Matthew’s view of parables and Paul’s reality based in such parabolic ideas, ARE clearly understood yet today as men see the Master’s words as some magical coming into one’s Life of the reality of God and the Christ. Few see that there IS a singularity between the Soul of man and the Christ as a spiritual principle and between the reality of God and the Spirit of man that IS manifest as that Soul. Jesus completes the idea of parables and how that the mysteries may be Truly discerned as He tells His disciples that “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10). Can we see the point here? Can we see that it IS the disciple, a status that the Master clearly defines for us, that can discern such mysteries? We should try to see here that this discernment IS based in the one’s realization of the Truth, the Kingdom and the Presence of the Lord in one’s Life. ALL that believe that they have such discernment apart from these ideas from our trifecta ARE yet bound by the illusion and the glamour that IS the vanity into which ALL men ARE born. This brings us back to the idea of the adoption which Paul shows us through his words on the vanity and our ability to free ourselves from the illusions and the glamour that plague humankind. We should try to see how that our realizations of some measure of Truth based in keeping His words IS the fundamental reality of KNOWING….KNOWING God and KNOWING oneself as part and parcel of God.
Paul uses the idea of adoption several times in his epistles and the primary idea IS given to us in our selection from Romans where he uses it twice. First we read that “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father“. The relation here IS of course to the idea of being “sons of God” because we “are led by the Spirit of God“; these two points ARE inseparable despite the way that the ideas ARE bandied about in the churches and applied to ‘believers‘ through the nebulous ideas of doctrine. We should remember here that Paul IS continuing with the reality of the True believer who DID “mortify the deeds of the body” and we should understand that this too IS inseparable from the reality of being free from the bondage and having the “Spirit of adoption“. Vincent shows us this idea saying that this IS: The Spirit of God, producing the condition of adoption 4 which IS a simple way to understand Paul’s point that IS based in the preceding idea that we “are led by the Spirit of God“. Again, that the doctrinal thinker apportions this condition to himself IS but a continuation of the illusion and the glamour, the vanity into which he IS cast and remains until his expression of True evidence that he has been able to “mortify the deeds of the body” and Truly live. The apostle goes on to somewhat explain the very nature this adoption where “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” and should we try to understand how this works, we could perhaps discover that it IS ONLY in the expression of “the Spirit of God” through “our spirit” in form that allows us to Truly “mortify the deeds of the body“. Understanding then the idea of the adoption in terms of being “the children of God” we look next to the idea of our suffering which idea IS intimately linked to the vanity in which ALL men live. However, from the perspective of the Soul, we should try to see that the suffering IS to “waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” in that “earnest expectation“; Paul’s message here IS that “we suffer with him“, watching and waiting. The apostle goes on then to show us the scope of the vanity, the perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 and how that this IS the bondage of men….the “bondage of corruption” from which we must free ourselves. We should try to see that this waiting and watching IS NOT in aloofness and Paul shows us this saying that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also“. He draws NO line between those on the Path and those who have NOT yet found the Path but recognizes that ALL, as men in this world, have much to DO to reach the ultimate Truth. Finally he shows us that Truth which idea IS a mystery as he combines the idea of adoption with that of the “redemption of our body“. Doctrinal interpretations explain this Redemption in terms of: the resurrection from the dead; when the bodies of the saints will be delivered from that mortality, corruption, weakness, and dishonour, under which they lie in the grave 8 as John Gill explains but why then would Paul be waiting for this being yet alive. For us the answer lies in Vincent’s quoting from Mr Merivale’s Conversion of the Roman Empire; Vincent shows us that in ancient Rome: “The process of legal adoption by which the chosen heir became entitled not only to the reversion of the property but to the civil status, to the burdens as well as the rights of the adopter – became, as it were, his other self, one with him“. After contrasting the Roman idea to the absence of such ideas in Greek and Jewish culture, Mr. Merivale goes on to say 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” 4. This idea of Oneness with God brings us to a theme that we have NOT discussed recently, a theme that defines the Life cycle of the True disciple. We state this as the four pillars of True spirituality which ARE Repentance, Transformation, and Redemption leading us to Transfiguration.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
- 3 Encyclopedia Britannica; https://www.britannica.com/topic/logos
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- 12 Expositions of Holy Scripture–Project Gutenberg’s and Baker Book House’ Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren–(1826-1910)
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
