ON LOVE; PART CMXLIII

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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).

As in the last essay, we ARE continuing our discussion on the way that we see the Truth behind the Greek words against men’s common understanding of the ideas that lie behind such words; ideas that ARE the very fabric of the doctrines that men have promulgated and have chosen to follow. Our main examples of this divergence between the common understanding of these translated words and the True intent of the Master and His apostles have been in the words rendered as sin and evil and as lust and corruption. That the words ARE rendered as such IS NOT our issue. Our issue IS found in the common understanding that men have ascribed to these rendered words, an understanding that DOES NOT see the True intent with which these words ARE offered.

While some of the reason for this divergence IS found in the way that much of Jesus’ teaching and words ARE parabolic in nature, the greater reality IS found in the way that men have ascribed their understanding based upon their own preconceived doctrinal assertions and their inability to accept the Truths that ARE written in His words and the words of His apostles. While religious men ascribe the ideas of sin and evil to the gross DOINGS of men, things that they themselves DO NOT generally DO, the greater reality of the Greek word hamartano, which the lexicon defines for us as: 1. to be without a share in 2. to miss the mark 3. to err, be mistaken 4. to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong 5. to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin ², points to a very different way of men.

In this view it IS our own understanding of sin that comes through: that sin IS ALL things that ARE contrary to His words, ALL things which leave men separated from the Truth and from God, ALL things that focus upon the carnal rather than the Truth and which miss the mark. In this reality the gross ideas of the common understanding ARE included but the whole idea of sin IS NO longer limited to them….sin now includes most ALL carnal activity the takes up the focus of the man in the world, a focus that His word shows us should be upon the things of God. That this focus upon God IS perceived as a most difficult thing for the man in this world IS the very foundation of the doctrines that alleviate men’s responsibility which IS, of course, that we keep His words. We read this most basic premise again in what we call the trifecta of spiritual reality, a trifecta by which men can realize the Truth, the True Presence of God and His Kingdom here and NOW; Jesus tells us:

• “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 each of these IS our KEY to Life and in the view that to keep His words IS that KEY we should be able to see the equanimity of these three ideas….that they ARE one; that there IS NO difference between them and that to have one IS to have them ALL. That this IS NOT the view of most doctrines IS founded in the carnal need to alleviate the responsibility of men and supplant it with the varied doctrinal ideas of faith, believing and worship and it IS in the misunderstanding of the intent of these Greek words that men have built their doctrinal lives.

The stark Truth of keeping His words goes yet deeper as the Master shows us that it IS in thought, attitude and in action that one must come to most willingly see the underlying Love that IS incorporated into ALL things that He has shown us to DO. Jesus tells us that our thoughts and attitudes ARE as important by way of His words on adultery and on anger….that the man who “looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” and that “whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment“, the same judgement as that which IS found in killing (Matthew 5:28, 21-22). And while this reality of thought and action IS shown us by the Master, it IS NOT Truly accepted by the doctrines of men; nor IS the most basic idea that it IS in Love that ALL of His words can be accomplished which IS shown us clearly by the Apostle Paul who tells us that “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14).

Here again the doctrinal view of Life in this world DOES NOT account for the reality of His words. In this most basic idea of Love, which IS explained for us by the Master in those words that we repeat at the top of our posts and which IS clarified and amplified by His apostles in their words like those from Paul above, the True meaning and intent ARE NOT understood. This IS despite the many other words that we read in the New Testament and the Old that solidly point to the Truth that it IS in our dealings with our fellow man that we DO or that we DO NOT keep His words. The apostle James further clarifies and amplifies Jesus’ intent saying “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:8-9). Here we should see the deeper Truth of seeing ALL men as we see ourselves and NOT as they appear carnally in time and space and here the apostle tells us that this failure IS NO different than the Master’s ideas nor the Commandments on adultery and on killing.

This IS the reality of Life in this world: it IS in Love, in our interaction with and our thoughts and our attitudes about our fellowman, that ARE the crux of our struggle upon the Path to Life and to our own spiritual reality. It IS in the Truth of His words that ALL prejudice is abolished, that ALL hatreds of ALL kinds ARE eliminated and that the Truth of the idea that ‘all men are created equal‘ can be seen as a motivator of ALL of men’s interactions. In the carnal understanding of these ideas much IS lost as these ARE essentially spiritual principals; as Souls ALL men ARE equal and whether we believe that Thomas Jefferson saw this most basic Truth as he wrote that ‘all men are created equal‘ into the American Declaration of Independence or NOT, the reality of his words ARE a True reflection of the Master’s intent. Like the Master’s words of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule ARE ignored by most ALL men, so ARE these words by Mr. Jefferson as we can see by the many years of slavery and in the racial, cultural and religious prejudices that continue to this day.

Here again we have the failure of words at the heart of the problems of humanity; here we should be able to see how that it IS NOT only those words of sin and evil and of lust and corruption that ARE misunderstood and misapplied, but also the most positive ideas of Love and Peace which ARE lost in the carnal view of Life. That these ideas ARE misunderstood and misapplied IS the source factor in the doctrinal view of these other words and ideas that we have been speaking on from Paul’s writings; words and ideas that ARE seen ONLY in a most carnal sense and applied to others by most ALL men who refuse to see that they themselves ARE “are convinced of the law as transgressors“. And it IS based in this same factor if misunderstood and misapplied ideas from Jesus and His apostles that men have devised and designed their varied doctrines and have come to believe that they ARE Truth and that they themselves ARE “partakers of the divine nature“ without ever having “escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust“. (2 Peter 1:4).

And so too ARE the words of Paul seen to the advantage of the carnal man rather that to the Truth that shows that it IS the man who will “mortify the deeds of the body” that IS Truly “led by the Spirit of God” and that is IS these who ARE “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ“. It IS ONLY in understanding the greater ideas of that word rendered as adoption rather than in the common understanding of that word that men can Truly understand that to be so adopted one IS: in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father ⁴ as we discussed two posts back….and this IS NOT unlike being “partakers of the divine nature“. We repeat the apostle’s words on this divergence between the carnal and the spiritual saying:

Men however DO NOT see these realities through the veil cast by their own doctrines and they use these ideas, these spiritual ideas, in a most carnal way to support their own views of Life; disregarding the Master’s injunction that we keep His words. In ALL of this we should be able to see how that it IS the common understanding of the words that IS the plague that afflicts the deeper Truths and the intent of the writers to such a degree that most men refuse to see. It IS in this vein that we should understand the Master’s own words saying “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15) as well as His acknowledgement that it IS the disciple who DOES hear as He tells them that “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:16). And it IS the disciple who IS defined above as the man who will “continue in my word” and, we add again, by measure to the man who strives. Returning to the Paul’s words that list for us the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the spirit” we read again:

“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. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:17-24).

Like the ideas that we present above, most of the apostle’s words to the Galatians regarding these “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the spirit” ARE NOT seen as they were intended but rather ARE misunderstood and misapplied in the common understanding of men, an understanding that IS heavily influenced by their doctrines. We have previously discussed the word rendered as adultery, a word that IS NOT in the Greek text but added by the Translators by their own doctrinal reasoning, and we have seen how that this idea IS more that mere marital infidelity. We ARE shown that the usage of this idea IS in regard to most ALL infidelity and, from a spiritual perspective, was used to show men’s infidelity toward God….that they would choose the carnal over the spiritual as an “adulterous generation” (Matthew 12:39) going after idols to worship rather than the Truth. And what ARE idols but those things that men focus their lives upon and what IS worship but the intent of this focus. This idea of worship IS yet another idea that is misunderstood and misapplied in the doctrines of men.

Paul’s next word, fornication, IS yet another place where the common understanding overwhelms the Truth that the apostle seeks to convey. In the common view that IS strictly sexual, the greater Truth that to fornicate IS to focus one’s thoughts and attitudes upon the carnal things of Life IS lost as IS the idea presented by the lexicon: that fornication IS also:  the worship of idols ². In this we should be able to see the common idea presented in both fornicate and adultery and see also how that the word rendered as adultery would be rather redundant in Paul’s listing.

The apostle’s next word IS akatharsia which IS most often rendered in terms of uncleanness as we have here in the King James Bible. Many translations take this word, along with the common understanding of porneia which IS rendered as fornication, as a group and they include the next idea of lasciviousness and render ALL ONLY in sexually deviant terms as we read in the popular NIV which calls these: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery. The reality of akatharsia IS NOT ONLY to be seen in this sexual view of uncleanness but rather in the more complete view with which the apostle uses this word. We read Vincent’s ideas on the use of akatharsia from Paul’s use of it in 1 Thessalonians saying: In Ephesians 4:19, Paul speaks of working uncleanness ( ἀκαθαρσίαν ) in a spirit of selfish desire ( πλεονεξία ) which is the spirit of covetousness. In Ephesians 5:3, uncleanness and covetousness are closely associated ⁴. Can we see the deeper implications of this word. According to the lexicon this idea of akatharsia means: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living; of impure motives, in a moral sense ², and should we explore the meanings of luxurious, profligate living and the full reality of morality along with Mr. Vincent’s ideas we would see that most ALL men can be found there.

And as we previously wrote (In the Words of Jesus part 916) there ARE yet more far reaching effects of this grossly misunderstood word for which John Gill tells us that: uncleanness, it is a general name for all unchastity, in thought, word, or action; and may here design more especially all unnatural lusts, as sodomy, self-pollution. Can we see the problem here? Especially in the fact that Mr. Gill introduces the idea of sodomy in bold letters himself. Most ALL modern translations of the bible translate this word into some sort of sexual wrong and perhaps it IS in these types of interpretations of scripture that we find the whole idea of the various doctrinal pronouncements regarding one of the most basic human actions….sex. And the far reaching effect that afflicts most ALL men can be easily seen in Mr. Vincent’s ideas on covetousness and selfish desire.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	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

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

This Quote of the Day is the antithesis of glamour and illusion. In this mantram are the thoughts about ourselves and our brothers in the world that can diffuse these forces that hold a man in the world of things and prevent his spiritual progress.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
•  ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com