ON LOVE; PART MCI
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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).
We ended the last essay with the Greek words methe and komos, words that ARE also in the Apostle Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh“, a list that we discussed in great detail in previous posts. This list should be seen in a similar manner to our current list from Romans where Paul calls his list “the works of darkness“. It IS the context in which these lists appear that have determined the names which the apostle gives to them: in Romans the context IS to “awake out of sleep” where the idea of sleep IS that darkness, while in Galatians the context IS to “not fulfil the lust of the flesh” and so that list shows us “the works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19, 16).
We should try to remember here that the audience of this epistle IS men who have largely overcome the gross behaviors that most doctrinal thinkers apply to the Greek words and here the idea of rioting as the rendering of komos can be misleading. To get a flavor of the doctrinal view we look to the lexicon which defines komos as: a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry 2.
John Gill expands upon this idea saying: the Syriac and Arabic versions read, “in singing”, or “songs”; meaning lewd ones, sung at riotous feasts and banquets, made not for refreshment, but for pleasure and debauchery 8. This IS hardly the way of the men of whom Paul praisefully says “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8). Here, as with Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh“, we should try to see the deeper spiritual ideas and cautions that would be appropriate for such men whose “faith is spoken of throughout the whole world“. In this we should see that his warning IS against their own revelling in their spiritual accomplishments and against making themselves bigger than they ARE.
This agrees with the apostle’s previous words to these Romans which ARE a similar warning; we read: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). Can we see the point of komos? Can we see how that komos IS one’s outward expression that IS contrary to these words and can we see how that methe IS the actual thought process? It is men’s desire for fame and recognition that have served to pollute the expression of so many men who DO NOT see the simplicity and the reality of Paul’s most misunderstood caution that “lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).
Jesus offers us this same idea in terms of serving as He tells us that “whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27). And we can see this same sense of service in the words of the Prophet Micah that we discussed in the last post? Micah says “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?“. This IS the essence of and the reality of one’s True service, a service that IS NOT found in the ambitions of the church nor the personal ambitions of those who lead the church.
It IS likely a difficult task to NOT have any sense of komos or methe in one’s spiritual Life but if the apostle’s message were heeded, the effect of such thoughts and attitudes would be minimized. This point however IS moot as doctrines DO NOT see the reality of the apostle’s words here and how that they ARE a caution to the spiritual man to NOT revel in his accomplishments or be himself drunk on his own spiritual euphoria. Most specifically, the Truly spiritual man IS “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly“. Repeating again the apostle’s words we read:
“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:10-14).
The next two words ARE rendered here as chambering and wantonness by the King James translators. While these ideas imply sexual offenses, other translations show more explicit ideas such as “sleeping around and obscene behavior” as rendered by the Common English Bible; others call this “sexual impurity and promiscuity“, and the NIV renders as “sexual immorality and debauchery“. We should note here as well that the words ARE NOT uniformly translated; some render the Greek word koite as lust while others call aselgeia as lust and as lustful acts. Similarly some render koite as debauchery and others use this for aselgeia. Our point here IS that there IS NO clear sexual interpretation of either of these words and that they ARE used in this manner in accord with the doctrinal idea that Paul’s words here ARE about sex.
Vincent takes us to Jesus words from the Apostle Mark’s Gospel where the word aselgeia IS rendered as lasciviousness. Vincent tells us of this idea of aselgeia that: Derivation unknown. It includes lasciviousness, and may well mean that here; but is often used without this notion. In classical Greek it is defined as violence, with spiteful treatment and audacity. He goes on to say that in the use of aselgeia in Mark’s Gospel that: it would seem better to take it in as wide a sense as possible – that of lawless insolence and wanton caprice, and to render, with Trench, wantonness, since that word, as he remarks, “stands in remarkable ethical connection with ἀσέλγεια, and has the same duplicity of meaning” (“Synonyms of the New Testament”)4.
The point to take here IS that this sense of aselgeia DOES NOT have to be seen ONLY in terms of sex but can be understood in any variety of lustful ideas and here it IS unfortunate that the idea of the English word lust has also been channeled to have a sexual meaning when the reality IS that lust IS any strong desire. We should understand here also that much of the ideas that ARE attached to these words ARE the result of the doctrinal view of them and again we should remind that the proclivity to these acts IS largely overcome by the man of whom Paul says “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world“. It IS this man to whom Paul writes that has some measure of those things that come in the trifecta, some measure of the Truth, His Presence and His Kingdom; we read out trifecta again 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).
Vincent tells us that this idea of aselgeia IS better seen as lawless insolence and wanton caprice and if we can see caprice as: A sudden start of the mind; a sudden change of opinion, or humor; a whim, freak 1 as Webster’s 1828 dictionary shows us and associate this with the idea of wanton as desire for any worldly pleasures, we can better see the apostle’s point in speaking this idea to his audience. We should be able to see that the idea here IS that the man whose Life has some measure of Truth should be cautious to NOT let the things of the world influence him nor distract him from that Truth and, if we can tie this idea to komos and methe, we can likely see a clearer picture for the Life of the man of spiritual accomplishment.
In the other word from this sequence we have an interesting twist if you will of Paul’s foregoing words which ARE his admonition to “to awake out of sleep“. That doctrines have applied a strictly sexual tone to this Greek word koite, the reality IS NOT as they make it. In Luke’s Gospel, in the Parable of the Friend at Night, the word koite IS rendered simply as bed which seems its primary, idea while in another place in Romans the idea IS rendered as conceived. In its ONLY other appearance in the Book of Hebrews the word IS rendered again as bed and, if one tries, this idea of bed can be suitably applied to Paul’s words saying “And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac” (Romans 9:10).
The Wycliff Translation IS the ONLY one in our library that changes the idea of conception to one of bed; this fourteenth century author rendered this saying as: “And not only she, but also Rebecca had two sons of one lying-by of Isaac, our father” (Romans 9:10). Can we see the difference in the ideas here? Can we see that Rebecca and Isaac had two sons by being in the marriage bed together?. There IS NO idea of sex as doctrine presents this in our subject saying whatsoever; there IS no relationship between sex and koite and if we can apply here our interesting twist, perhaps we can see Paul’s point.
Remembering that the context of these “works of darkness” IS found in the idea that those who DO NOT “awake out of sleep” ARE yet asleep and ARE subject to ALL that can happen in that sleep. Can we see here that Paul IS reiterating his charge “to awake out of sleep” by saying that they should NOT remain in koite? And can we see that the next word, aselgeia IS the likely result of one’s remaining asleep to the reality of Love which IS the greater context of this entire selection? In aselgeia we have the placing of the self in a position to follow the whim for some worldly pleasure and here we should remember that such pleasures ARE so much more than sex. For the aspiriant and the disciple the sense of aselgeia can mean to succumb to komos and methe or to want for the finer things that one may believe he deserves.
We have spent much time on the last two words which ARE eris and zelos that ARE rendered here as strife and envying. We should note that these same Greek words ARE rendered as variance and as emulation in Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh” and that in that list strife IS rendered from eritheia and envying from phthonos. We should remember here the confusion that we noted among these words and the others that ARE cross translated from “the works of the flesh“, a problem that IS apparent here and which grows as we look at different bible translations.
Vincent shows us that emulation IS the better rendering for zelos as he tells us that: Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion. Rev. renders jealousy 4. If we can see Vincent’s point here of self-devotion and apply this to the general definition of emulation we can perhaps see the potential to competition and rivalry amongst the aspirants and disciples of Paul’s teaching; the Webster’s 1828 definition of emulation includes the idea of the: desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it 1. Can we see why Paul would caution against this?
Above we offer Jesus’ words on being the servant against the idea of boasting which we discuss as part of Paul’s use of the words komos and methe; here we offer another of Jesus’ sayings in regard to this idea of emulation; we read: “And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:33-35).
Our final word in this list from Romans IS eris. Here it IS rendered as strife while in the list of the “the works of the flesh” eris IS rendered as variance where we treated it as contention. Both this idea of eris and the idea covered by zelos as emulation ARE the effects of the divisions of men along religious lines in Paul’s context, and among ALL man in the vanity of Life in this world. Denominations and sects and their ardent participants DO contend with each other over the smallest points of doctrine while they DO at the same time act with zelos as each, in this contending each has that desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it.
These attitudes ARE the result of the factions and the divisions that ARE NOT included in this list but ARE an underlying theme in most ALL of Paul’s writings. Here in this list of “the works of darkness” the apostle IS addressing the behaviors of men and we should remember that these ARE men of whom Paul says “your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world“. It IS these men that he IS cautioning against komos and methe, against thinking “of himself more highly than he ought to think” and intoxicating their attitudes with an air of boasting which has many more outlets other than words.
It IS these men whom the apostle warns to stay awake and not return to koite which should be understood in terms of bed and which here reflects the opposite of being awake. It IS these that Paul warns to avoid men’s propensity for the pleasures of Life, pleasures that ARE much more complex than sex and which encompass the ideas of komos and methe as well as the caution against aselgeia that IS offered by the Apostle James saying “he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed“.
And it IS these men that Paul cautions against zelos and eris, against seeking to be superior which IS contrary to Jesus’ words and against the contentions that ARE caused by any approach to God where there IS division. These ARE overcome in the Truth of agape as men come to understand the unifying idea of the Soul, the Christ Within. It IS contention and more that ARE caused by men’s reliance upon themselves as men which ARE ALL carnally afflicted by that vanity which includes ALL ideas in Paul’s list and which causes men to NOT see the deep spiritual need “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” (1 Corinthians 1:10).
We close today in saying that ALL of these ideas that can keep men from the fullness of the Truth and hinder whatsoever progress that they ARE making ARE contrary to the last words in our section; contrary to the ability to Truly “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof“. And it IS this same idea of putting on the Lord that we should try to see in these words from the apostle to the Corinthians that we have been discussing; we read again:
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
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 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.
We repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
