ON LOVE; PART MDXXIV
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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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We ended the last essay with our continuing discussion on the idea of the duality of Life that the Master presents to us in the gospels. While this idea IS NOT specifically cited by the Master or His apostles as duality, the reality of this aspect of Life IS found throughout the New Testament. The idea IS NOT a part of any doctrinal presentation that we KNOW of but the understanding gleaned from even glimpsing this reality IS a valuable tool as we try to come to KNOW God. The word duality IS simply defined as: a dual state or quality* and this IS exactly what we ARE discussing, the dual nature of our existence in this world. As we ended the last post we discussed the idea that everyman IS Spirit as his primary nature, manifest as a Soul, another spiritual entity if we can use that terminology here, and giving conscious Life to a body in this world. This IS the very nature of Life in this world for humanity as without the Spirit-Soul influence we would exist as animals, higher animals to be sure but animals nonetheless. This IS our mammalian body which, like other higher animals, has some sense, some awareness, of its existence and some rudimentary thought and memory abilities. It IS the influence of the Spirit-Soul aspect that sets humanity apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. This perspective IS NOT recognized in the scientific community, neither IS it recognized by most ALL of the church; it IS recognized however by some other world religions as a basic fact of Life. We have then two forces that ARE combined through our birth in this world as the eternal Spirit-Soul that IS the True man IS born into a physical form and through this he IS born into the vanity that Paul shows us IS the plight of ALL human Spirits. It IS this vanity, this: perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends4, that so engrosses the mind that ALL KNOWLEDGE of one’s True nature IS lost; it IS in this vanity, exacerbated by whatsoever nurturing and indoctrination a man IS subjected to, that controls the ways of men in this world. Into this ‘void’ the Soul continually prompts the mind with impulses to the Good, the Beautiful and the True but this prompting IS seldom realized and IS ofttimes mistakenly identified as thoughts and ideas from the Godhead, thoughts and ideas which actually originate in one’s own personality and desires. The True prompting of the Soul IS most always drowned out by the din of our daily lives where the mind IS occupied with little else than the self and in this IS the reality of the carnal side of this duality.
We should note here that while doctrines and traditions have ordained that the man’s composition, his aspects if you will, ARE Spirit, Soul and body, this IS NOT an accurate view of the human condition. Man IS not the person in this world who has a Spirit and a Soul which ARE often seen together as one aspect yet delineated by many as two. The tripartite versus the bipartite views of man seem to overlap in Christian theology and the basis for either is found in interpretations of scripture. The reality that man IS a Spirt IS NOT a functional view by most of the church despite the logical reality that “God is Spirit” (John 4:24) and that we ARE part and parcel of the Godhead. We ofttimes say that man IS Spirit manifest as Soul without any explanation of this occult view of Life; the reality of this however can ONLY be fully realized by the man who Truly seeks to KNOW the Lord. It IS through our KNOWING the Lord that we can Truly KNOW ourselves. We can look at this as men simply as the way that the Godhead IS manifest for us in the Christ, NOT in the man Jesus per se but as that Aspect of the Godhead that IS Love and Wisdom. In Spirit we have the Will which we can ONLY humbly make reference to as the very existence of the Godhead and ALL that there IS, as ALL that flows from this “One Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“**. In Soul we have the Christ Principle, the Love of God that holds together universes and expresses itself as the Unity of ALL that IS. The Christ IS NOT Jesus but Jesus IS the Christ and here again we have a conundrum of sorts but this IS ONLY True against the dictates of the doctrines of men. As the third part of the tripartite view of man we DO NOT have the body as many suggest; the body IS but that, a body, a vehicle for the expression of the personality which IS formed through a combination of the human mind and the human consciousness that IS afforded that mind by the Soul. This third aspect then IS NOT the body itself which IS comprised of countless lesser life forms organized into a single functioning being and which IS much like the bodies of every being with any kind of awareness. This symbiotic relationship IS the way of nature, the way of the natural functioning of ALL that IS and we should note that this also includes our relationship with bodies in nature which have no apparent awareness whatsoever as we build such into our own bodies according to the Grand Plan that IS Life in this world.
So then if the third aspect IS NOT the body itself, what should it be understood as? Simply the expression of the Soul infused personality in this world of men and we should note here that the personality IS NOT the person. The personality IS NOT the Soul infused being in this world but IS rather a part of the whole of the body nature whose mental and emotional states ARE NOT enclosed within that body but which exist on different levels of reality with the brain and nervous system being the receptor and translator into worldly action. These things ARE well understood in the esoteric sciences and someday perhaps the physical sciences that enthrall men will be able to identify these more subtle realms of thought and emotion which they DO touch upon already in so many ways. We should add here that we ARE NOT scientists and what we write here IS but our own understanding of the complexity of Life based in years of studying world scriptures, a complexity that even the most advanced scientific theory DOES NOT willingly broach.
This tripartite view in the human family IS but a mirror image of the tripartite view of the whole, of the Godhead, where Spirit, Soul and the expression of these comprise the three aspects of ALL things. Understanding this however requires a True KNOWLEDGE of God, a KNOWING that in turn requires one to focus upon gaining that KNOWING through the ability to look past our own vanity as we focus ourselves upon the things of God. This focus begins with our ability to understand the principle of agape which IS that Force that enables us to see the Unity of ALL and our place in that Unity. It IS in this view that we can move past our carnal thinking and self-serving attitudes as we take on the yoke of which Jesus says “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). ALL of this IS ONLY understood in earnest by the man who Truly Repents and begins His Transformation away from his labor in this world. Away from his self-serving ways of gaining “treasures upon earth” in their multiplicity of forms, and moving ever closer to seeking out ONLY “treasures in heaven“; it IS in this Way that one’s Life IS converted and the heart, the very consciousness of a man, IS affected according to Jesus saying that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19, 20, 21). This IS the message of our chart that we use to end our posts; we present it here for some added clarity:
| 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 |
While this chart remains meaningless to the casual onlooker, it IS of great significance to the man who Truly seeks the Lord. It IS a guide to the reality of the Trinity which the Christian churches have doctrinalized as three separate persons in One Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Wikipedia explains the Trinity this way: The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (Latin: Trinitas, lit. ’triad’, from Latin: trinus ‘threefold’) is the central doctrine concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct persons (hypostases) sharing one essence/substance/nature (homoousion)**. This IS put forth in a chart, that we have presented in the past, showing:
For us the reality IS simply that there IS One God that covers ALL men and ALL religions and that this “One Boundless Immutable Principle” DOES NOT involve any reference to persons at ALL. The Apostle John tells us that “God is love agape” (1 John 4:8, 16) and perhaps it IS through this appellation that we can best understand the Godhead. In this idea of agape IS the attractive Unity that IS ALL things and which holds ALL things in place as a Unity, a Boundless Unity to be sure. While the idea of persons IS based in scripture, the reality IS that there ARE NOT ‘persons’ as this word IS understood. The presentation of the Godhead this way has always been offered so that the finite human mind can somewhat comprehend the very idea of God. The Godhead however IS so much more than whatsoever our finite minds can understand and from this perspective there ARE few if any that can Truly say that they KNOW God. How then DO we more accurately describe our view of God; God IS Boundless, Immutable and Absolute; God infinite and eternal, words that themselves ARE beyond True human comprehension save for their simple definitions; God IS Omnipotent and Omniscient, and God IS Omnipresent. ALL of these ideas of the Godhead can be summed up in our one single word, agape, and this because “God is love agape“. This IS the Godhead and here perhaps the best reference IS to the Father. What then IS the Son? John, in the Prologue to his Gospel tells us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4) . The Apostle tells us, carefully I think, that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God” and through this we should see the coexistence of the Father and Son on the highest spiritual level from the beginning. This should show us that the Word, the Logos in the Greek, KNOWN as the Christ IS NOT in a familial relationship from this perspective. It IS later in his prologue that John shows us how that this Cosmic Christ becomes, in a spiritual and mysterious Way, the man Jesus; John tells us that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
We have here two separate views of the Christ; the first coexistent with the Father from the beginning and the second as He takes on the form of a man and becomes “the only begotten of the Father” as He IS uniquely born with the Power and Will of the fully Repented, Transformed and Redeemed man. The uniqueness here IS rather undefinable for us at our stage of development but in simple terms we should try to see that the Soul that IS Jesus had ascended to the capacity to return to Earth with the full Power of the Christ Principle of the Godhead, the Principle of Love/Wisdom. What we ARE asked to understand IS that, at least in our Earth Scheme, Jesus IS the ONLY one ever born with such Power and while He was born into vanity and was nurtured and indoctrinated into the ways of the Jews, He was at the same time so resilient that these worldly effects inflicted NO lasting damage; This IS highlighted for us by Luke who tells us a story of the child Jesus whose parents:
“sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?“. (Luke 2:44-49).
Through this we have Jesus the Christ who appears as such at about the age of thirty. While many believe that he spent His youth and His early adulthood working in and around His Earthly father as a carpenter, others tell us that His Life before His Baptism was one of study and meditation and that much of this was done in esoteric and occult ways as He prepared Himself for His Life’ mission. We should note here that this dual view of the Lord can also be seen in the origins of men as we read in Genesis that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” 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 1:27, 2:7). In both of these biblical ideas we should try to see the idea of duality which we have been discussing. It IS this duality that IS found in the sayings of the Master that we began with two essays back; we repeat these here for clarity and further discussion:
- “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).
- “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25).
- “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35).
- “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24).
- “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
- “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25)
While the Master’s message here DOES NOT mention the idea of duality specifically, this IS nonetheless the subject on which He IS speaking and while each saying approaches the theme in a slightly different way, the end result IS the same. Jesus’ words here ARE intended to show us that there IS a carnal Life here in this world and that there IS a spiritual Life that can overcome the carnal and present itself as a man’s expression of his True God-like nature. We did discuss the John’s version of the saying in a previous post quoting John Gill who tells us that: The sense is, that whoever is so in love with this present temporal life, as to be anxiously careful of it, and takes all precautions to secure it; and rather than to expose it to any danger, chooses to deny the faith of Christ, and desert his cause and interest; as such an one shall not long enjoy this life, so he shall come short of an eternal one8. This IS of course a doctrinal view of the idea presented by Jesus and one that fails to see behind the carnal ideas of men. The reality here IS that there IS a carnal Life and should one focus himself upon that carnal Life, he will lose access to the spiritual Life that IS ever seeking to overcome the carnal. This happens for as long as one’s focus remains on the things of the world. However, should that man come to eschew his carnal existence, he shall keep his spiritual ability to overcome it and enter onto the Path to Truth and agape Love. As we discussed previously, the idea of Love here for he that “loveth his life” IS NOT agape but rather a reference to the worldly version of Love from the Greek word philos. While we understand that this IS NOT the specific wording of the Master’s words, it IS the gist of the message regarding the duality of our lives here in this Earth. We should be reminded here of the Master’s words from Luke’s Gospel which cast a similar idea; Jesus tells us “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Here the message IS that to be a disciple one must eschew “his own life also” to be a disciple while in John’s Gospel the Master IS speaking to His disciples. We use the word eschew instead of hate here to represent the Greek word misio because the the English word hate has ONLY one common meaning in today’s society while eschew tells us that we should: abstain or keep away from; shun; avoid* which IS the meaning of eschew. While the word hate can mean these same things in a stronger sense than eschew, this IS NOT how the word IS generally used and therefore can be misleading as the rendering for miseo in many New Testament sayings. In this instance eschew IS the better understanding than simply to love less as the idea IS used in regard to one’s “father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters“. John’s framing of the Master’s words using the ideas behind philos IS the more difficult to understand from our selection of sayings above. The Message Bible with which we seldom agree frames the idea as “Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity” (John 12:25).
We move on now to Matthew’s version of this idea saying “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it“. Here the idea IS similar to John’s with the Greek word heurisko which IS rendered as findeth and find. Strong’s expands upon the idea of finding as they define heurisko as: to find (literally or figuratively):—find, get, obtain, perceive, see9a. Here Vincent helps us a bit with our understanding of the idea saying that: The word is really a past participle, found. Our Lord looked back in thought to each man’s past, and forward to its appropriate consummation in the future4. Here perhaps Mr. Vincent has shown us the reality of ALL such sayings as a reflection upon our past where our view of our carnal lives IS paramount; it IS in this condition of being in vanity, of being separate from God, and pursuing false ends4 that we lose access to our spiritual lives. Looking to the future the idea IS then that whensoever we lose this carnal focus and DO so for the sake of the Truth and agape, we can then “find‘ our True spiritual lives as men in this world. This finding then should be understood as an intentional action of the man; Thayer’s tells us that the primary idea of heuisko IS: to come upon, hit upon, to meet with as they then tell us that the idea IS to: to find for oneself, to acquire, get, obtain, procure9 as the idea relates to our subject verse. We of course see both; in the first use of finding one’s Life in this world the idea IS clearly to come upon, hit upon, to meet with as the worldly way IS what we ARE born into while in the second use we should clearly see that the idea IS to find for oneself, to acquire, get, obtain, procure as our conscious pursuit of the Lord. The duality that the Master presents here should be relatively clear.
Matthew takes on this subject of duality in the Master’s words again later in his gospel saying “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it“. It IS important here to understand the context of the Master’s words and while the context IS important in every use of this idea of duality, it IS especially so here. Jesus tells us “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:24-27). Here the word used by the Master IS sozo which IS rendered as save and while the use of sozo IS much the same as IS heuisko, it DOES offer us a different perspective which shows us at least a modicum of intent, an intent to “save his life” as a man in this world. In His previous words we see the idea of Truly following the Lord and the cost thereof which IS to “let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me“; this IS the antithesis of trying to “save his life“. This denial IS the essence of ones willingness to “lose his life for my sake” which IS to forsake one’s carnal inclinations for carnal pleasures and follow the Lord. The duality here IS the same as in our previous verses; on the one hand we have our carnal Life, our Life in our vanity and our “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:20, 21) and on the other hand we have our spiritual Life, the Life of the Soul as the primary focus of our lives. We should add here that the Master refines our choice here as well in words which cuts to the chase so to speak. He asks us rather clearly “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” In this part of the Master’s words the word lose IS from the Greek zemioo and NOT from apollumi which IS rendered as lose in our statements of duality.
To see this most clearly we should look at how the statements compliment each other and then the differences. First we have the idea that “whosoever will save his life shall lose it” which, as we have said, pertains to our focus on keeping our carnal lives in this world. Against this we should try to see the idea, the question, “what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world“. The profit of course IS the presumed betterment of one’s worldly condition and it IS this that results in the second question that asks “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“; here the idea IS to quantify the profit and judge it a suitable risk, a risk that damages and injures one’s spiritual Life in this world. This damage and injury ARE the defining ideas for the loss that IS covered by the Greek word zemioo. So what IS the duality that we should note here? First we should understand that to “save his life” IS to protect and preserve9a his Life in this world as Strong’s defines sozo. Such effort will result in his losing his Life and we should see that the subject here CAN NOT be the same. Protecting and preserving one’s Life here in this Earth DOES NOT result in one’s losing that same Life and in this IS the inherent duality that the Master never Truly explains. Secondly, it IS when one “will lose his life for my sake” that he “shall find it“; this loss IS covered by the same word apollumi as in the first premise which Strong’s defines as: to destroy fully (reflexively, to perish, or lose), literally or figuratively9a which seems a most permanent idea. Thus the loss for the Lord’s sake as well as the loss for the carnal man’s sake have an equivalence. This second idea in our duality IS the willing forsaking of one’s carnal focus which Paul frames for us saying “if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13) showing us his own view of the duality. The result here IS of course that we will find our individual spiritual Life focused upon the things of God. This IS the same idea of finding that we cite above.
The premise of ALL that we write here as well as the reality of the words of the Master IS that we should Truly “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). In so DOING we must perforce be somewhat convinced that the dictates of scripture ARE intended to show man the Way to Truth and Love and it IS in this vein that we choose the way that we will act and react in this world. This IS the basic reality of the duality that the Master IS showing us here and it IS against this that we should view His words; it IS against our carnal instincts to live as men in this world that we choose to follow the Lord. However, we should NOT feign this as we live according to the “commandments of men” and it IS this that Jesus shows us in His rhetorical question that asks “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). So much of the Master’s words ARE intended to show men the Way to the Truth and Love that IS the reality of that “One Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“**. It IS this “Boundless Immutable Principle” that Jesus represents and it IS this that the Apostle John IS referencing in the prologue to his gospel. John tells us “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men“. This IS the reality of the Christ, the Son of God as He IS painted in the New Testament, the Logos existing within our God, within the “One Boundless Immutable Principle“; the “one Absolute Reality“. It IS this view of the Christ of which John goes on to say “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-4, 14). While these things ARE difficult to understand without some foundation in the Truth, the Way to this Truth IS found in our independent study of the words of the Master and the words of His apostles without the inferences of the doctrines of men about which the Master tells us “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 7:7).
We come next to the Apostle Mark’s version of the Master’s words; Mark tells us “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it” (Mark 8:35). This idea IS basically the same as the previous save for the addition of the idea that we would give up our carnal focus for both the Master and for His teachings which IS the most basic reality of the gospel. While the idea of the word gospel has been overtaken by the church’s idea that the meaning IS simply the good news, the reality IS much deeper and goes to the reality of the teachings of the Master. Mark tells us from the beginning of his gospel that what we ARE reading IS “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1) and through this it should be clear that every word from the Master IS part and parcel of His gospel, “the gospel of Jesus Christ“. Paul emphasizes this saying that “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son” (Romans 1:9). Paul however goes yet further saying to us that “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:14) which IS a further indictment of those that ARE steadfastly “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men“. Here then in Mark’s word we have the explicit instruction that NOT ONLY DO we need to lose our carnal fixations for the sake of following the Master but also for following His teachings which ARE the essence of the gospels. We should remember here a phrase from Paul that we often discussed in previous blogposts; the apostle tells us through his words to the Galatians that “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6:7). Through these words we should understand that there IS but One Gospel of Jesus the Christ and NOT the many versions that exist in the doctrinal conversions of men, doctrinal conversions which emphasize denominational ideas over the reality of that One Gospel. Returning to our point of the duality of Life that we should be able to see in the Master’s words, these words from Mark reiterate and expand upon the ideas that ARE shown us by Matthew and John. The expansion of course IS our giving up our carnal existence for both the Master and His teachings and, to be sure, Matthew and John DO include this same idea without mentioning the gospel. Again, the idea remains that whosoever seeks to keep His carnal Life in this world will lose the ability to have True realization of his spiritual Life, True realization of the inflowing Truth and Love that emanates from the Soul, from the Christ Within. Conversely whosoever IS willing to forsake his carnal Life, his desires and his lusts, for the sake of the Master and His teachings, the same will have that realization of Truth and Love and begin his Transformation out of his “bondage of corruption“. We close again with our trifecta of the Master’s saying that show us the need to keep His words and the rewards that we can have in DOING so:
- “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.
- 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
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.or
- * Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020
- ** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust
- ** Trinity, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trinity&oldid=1233838488 (last visited July 17, 2024)
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
