ON LOVE; PART CMLI

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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 took leave of our topic to address United Nations Day 2016 which we did by posting the ‘proclamations’ of the President of the United States and those who run the United Nations….the Secretary General and the President of the General Assembly. At its heart we should try to see that it IS the reality of Jesus’ words that IS the prime motivator of the United Nations as a group of countries, some of whose ONLY alliance IS through this world body. This reality can be seen as True in the United Nations Charter and while this world body may fall short of the high ideals that it has set for itself, it IS the ONLY best hope for Peace in the world today. It IS the reality of that Love that the Master teaches us, NOT the emotional and mental attractions and attachments of men but the deeper aspects that ARE found in the reality of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule that we repeat again at the top of our essay, that IS the foundation for ALL world progress toward Peace and this IS True regardless of one’s nationality or one’s religion as ALL men ARE bound by the timeless teachings that the Master gave us 2000 years ago.

As we resume our current study of the Apostle Paul’s words to the Galatians that show us, in definitive terms, “the works of the flesh” and the “the fruit of the Spirit” we should try to remember that the common understanding of the apostle’s words misses the greater Truths that he IS giving us. These ARE spiritual Truths that show us the way of the man in the world whose focus IS NOT upon the things of God compared to the way of the man whose focus IS upon that Truth. In our previous essays we discussed how that the first segment of Paul’s words IS in regard to a man’s relationship with God according to the first of the Great Commandments and how that adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness, along with the ideas of idolatry and witchcraft, ARE contrary to the True spiritual objective of ALL men….that they 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. 

The second segment of the apostle’s words IS directed toward the relationship between a man and his brother, his neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both. Here we have redefined hatred to be enmity as many other bible translations DO and we have come to see variance as dissension and controversy as this IS based in the disagreements of men that flow freely in their own sense of self which IS fed by the greater ideas of emulation which IS, as Vincent defines for us,: a spirit of self-devotion ⁴. The reality of the ideas behind the Greek words as they ARE rendered IS that these thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE clearly carnal and we should try to see how that ALL men ARE afflicted save for the man whose focus IS clearly upon the things of God. This IS the reality of Paul’s saying that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20) and here we should understand that this subjection IS simply the way of Life in this world….a way from which men must escape.

It IS in one’s “having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4) that the True Promise comes which IS to “be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) and we should see this Promise as the same that the Apostle Peter shows us saying that in such escape we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). We repeat Paul’s words again saying:

“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).

As we continue with the apostle’s words that ARE “the works of the flesh” we come to the next word which IS rendered as wrath. This Greek word thumos IS rendered by ALL translators in terms of wrath and anger and we should see here that this IS NOT the same Greek word that IS used by Jesus to show that the effect of anger IS the same as the seemingly more carnal act of killing. The Master tells us that “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:21-22).

While the King James Translators add the idea of “without a cause“, this IS NOT the way that this IS rendered by most others who leave out the whole of the idea engendered by the Greek word eike as this DOES NOT appear in their working manuscripts. Additionally we should try to see how that  this idea of “without a cause” IS rendered according to the ideas of men and how that the lexicon shows us that the idea behind eike IS as in vain or vainly ² which can shed quite a different light upon Jesus words. And the reality of anger as an equivalent to killing shows us the Truth that the Apostle James captures as he tells us “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11).

While this may seem to be off of our discussion of Paul’s words, the greater Truth IS that this helps us to define his ideas which lie behind the word thumos which IS also rendered as fierceness and indignation by the King James Translators. There IS a relationship in these ideas that Paul shows us saying that “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath“; here thumos IS rendered as indignation and the root of Jesus’ word for angry, orgizo, is rendered as wrath. In ALL of these ideas from Jesus and from Paul we should get the idea that anger, wrath, indignation and any other similar emotional response IS among those things that cause a man to “not inherit the kingdom of God” and we should understand how common an affliction this IS for most ALL men.

It IS in the idea that sin IS ONLY those evil things that ARE taken out of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles that the reality that sin and evil ARE but a man’s focus upon the things of the self and the self in the world IS lost. It IS in this view of the carnal Life that the apostle’s words are seen in the context of sexual deviation and the outright hating attitudes that come to us in the Greek ideas that ARE seen in terms of hatreds and attitudes wrath which John Gill sees as: violent emotions of the mind, moving to revenge, and seeking the hurt and mischief of others ⁸. In ALL this the deeper message of a man’s focus IS lost and while this IS the easier and more convenient way for men to believe, it IS NOT in accord with the words of Jesus, the words that make our trifecta, which we repeat here again:

• “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).

As we have said, it IS in these words from the Master that we find the reality of Paul’s admonition that “they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God“; and to understand this relationship IS to KNOW that the reality of the Kingdom comes to the man who will keep His words and then, by measure, to the man who will strive towards that Life’ goal. It IS unfortunate that this Truth and the reality of the apostle’s message above IS lost in the convenience of the doctrines of men. This brings us to Paul’s next word which IS, according to Vincent, wrongly rendered as strife.

Vincent tells us of James’ use of this Greek word eritheia that strife IS: A wrong rendering, founded on the mistaken derivation from ἔρις , strife. It is derived from ἔριθος , a hired servant, and means, primarily, labor for hire. Compare Romans 2:8: them that are contentious ( ἐξ ἐριθείας )lit., of faction. Rev., factious. Also, 2 Corinthians 12:20. Rev., here, rightly, faction ⁴. It IS in this idea of faction that the reality of Paul’s idea comes through and in this regard we should note that the lexicon, while showing us the different King James renderings of eritheia as strife, contention, contentious, defines this word as: electioneering or intriguing for office a: apparently, in the NT a courting distinction, a desire to put one’s self forward, a partisan and fractious spirit which does not disdain low arts; b: partisanship, fractiousness ².

These ideas are likely in accord with the presumed doctrinal ideas of the usage of this word and NOT in the explicit defining ideas that should come from the Greek. The lexicon goes on however to show us this regarding its usage before the New Testament translators applied their own doctrinal views; we read: This word is found before NT times only in Aristotle where it denotesa self-seeking pursuit of political office by unfair means ². Beneath this confusion we should be able to see the sense of self that IS incorporated into this idea of faction and understand how that this works in the minds and the emotions of men who ever believe that it IS their own point of view, their own doctrine if you will, that IS right while ALL others ARE inferior. It IS this reality that creeps into most every human endeavor from politics to religion and this can easily be seen as a root cause of most ALL prejudices as well as that sense of pride in one’s own group be it a denomination, a creed, a race or a country.

Paul speaks on this idea of faction in spiritual terms as he cites the divisions that ARE forming in the fledgling church; we read: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:10-13). Here the idea of contention IS rendered from the Greek word eris which IS a root word for the eritheia that IS rendered as strife in our selection above and, to highlight the confusion regarding this idea, the lexicon tells us that eris IS: of uncertain affinity.

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
•  ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com