ON LOVE; PART MCXLI
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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 began the last essay with some thoughts on Jesus teaching on the depth of Love, a depth that IS inconceivable to most men but which IS more easily realized when one can understand just what this word agape Truly means. Over the last several posts we discussed how that the doctrines of men DO NOT take the Master’s words on Love to heart and perhaps this IS because they ARE inconceivable through their focus upon their lives as men here in this world rather than the spiritual lives to which the Master speaks. The reality of agape IS given to us in the simplicity of His words that ARE the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule.
As we have at the top of our essays, the idea of the Golden Rule IS that high ideal that IS taught us by the Christ, an ideal that puts the superiority of the self aside in favor of right human relations and in this we should the reality of GoodWill. It IS in GoodWill that we come to see the True functioning of agape based in the precept of the Golden Rule and one’s understanding that ALL ARE together in this One World….ALL ARE One Humanity living under the One God, whose expression of agape, the One God Who sees ALL men the same….as Souls, ALL on the very same journey to a realization of the Truth.
We continued on into the Apostle Paul’s words on Love from his Epistle to the Romans where he shows us that in the expression of agape ALL other spiritual ideals ARE included; that IS, in the expression of True agape and NOT the common understanding of its translation as Love. Paul shows the Romans and us that when one can “love thy neighbour as thyself” that he will NOT pursue any of the prohibitions to spiritual Life that ARE found in the commandments of the Lord. And this IS the greater point: in both the spiritual and carnal ideas of adultery, killing, stealing, bearing false witness, covetousness and “any other commandment” there ARE self-induced prohibitions to one’s own spiritual Truth.
This IS the greater reality of sin and it IS the lack of Love, the lack of one’s expression of agape, that allows a man to sin which IS but the carnal focus of his Life. Paul IS showing us that the expression of agape IS the crux of His words and, in fact, of ALL of the commandments and tenets of the Lord. It IS to show us this most important spiritual ideal in His words and in His example that He came among us, and it IS in His expression of the fullness of agape that we should see this. And if we could see that His greater sacrifice IS in coming, perhaps we could better understand His death and His resurrection.
Paul’s words to the Romans amplify and clarify the words of the Master; the words which men DO see as inconceivable regarding Love as well as those that ARE in regard to keeping His words. Paul reduces the latter into the former as he shows us the Power of agape in the lives of men and here we should try to see how that ALL of the trifecta, ALL of the words, the commandments and the instructions of the Master ARE incorporated into one’s expression of agape, which IS ALL that one must DO to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. It IS in this Light that we look at our trifecta today:
- “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).
Agape IS the central point of the whole of the New Testament and we should ever remember that the beginnings of these instructions on Love, these commandments, began with the teachings of Moses nearly 1500 years earlier. While the overall tenor of the Old Testament reveals what must seem to be a different God than that which Jesus reveals, we should understand that we ARE reading a perspective of God that IS written through the lives of a barbarous and superstitious people. It IS likely for this reason that the great emphasis on Love, on neighbor, and on the stranger IS missed. The jealous and vengeful God of the Old Testament, Jehovah if you will, IS the messenger to a people and a nation of the Light, the Love and the Power that IS God as Jesus IS the Christ and the messenger of that God to the man.
Most ALL Christians and Jews would call this blasphemy but it IS NOT. The reality of God, 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“***, DOES NOT speak and act in human affairs. It IS those who have grown to represent the fullness of the Godhead that speak and act and this in accordance with the times and the cultures to which They come. Much as Jesus tells us that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me”, so we should see the words of Moses and the prophets.
As humans these men KNOW the Truth and speak it as it IS revealed by Jehovah, their being one step removed from the Truth of the Absolute, while Jesus KNOWS the Truth as it IS revealed from the Absolute directly. There IS much mystery here which IS NOT resolved by the doctrinal ideas of the Jews or the Christians and while this remains a mystery to men, it IS NOT a mystery to the man who can see through the illusion and the glamour and stand with the Master to say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And so our point: from the beginning the True revelation from the Godhead IS Love which IS at the heart of Jehovah’s Commandments and IS at the heart of the commandments of Jesus; and it IS this Love, this agape, that Paul shows us IS the privilege of the man who IS awake; we read again:
“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” (Romans 13:8-11).
As we looked at the last idea here where the apostle tells us that NOW IS our opportunity to “awake out of sleep” we should try to see his message as that the man whose focus IS upon the Lord KNOWS that the time has come. To this man who IS striving toward the Kingdom, the Truth and His Presence the message IS that he must seize his opportunity through Love, through agape. Paul tells us that we should eido kairos which we see as discerning or perceiving our opportunity as NOW, while we yet strive, we should awake to the reality of Love. As we discussed in the last essay, the point here IS being made to to ALL who DO NOT yet Love as IS depicted in the preceding ideas.
We ended that essay with some thoughts on the ideas of sozo, soter and soteria which are most often rendered as save, saviour and salvation. We looked as sozo as Thayer’s lexicon defines this; as: to save, to keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction . Thayer’s goes on to show us that the Vulgate interprets sozo as: to save a suffering one (from perishing) and as an example they use disease but also note that this should be understood as spiritual healing as well. From a spiritual perspective, the idea of sozo IS always found in the idea of saving oneself from perdition which idea we find in Jesus words saying: “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 16:25).
Although the first part of this IS from the opposite point of view, that saving the carnal risks the spiritual, the idea IS much the same and IS easily turned around in the words that follow were we see that it IS in the forsaking of the carnal that one IS Truly saved. This IS a bitter pill to swallow for ALL who see their lives in this world as their True existence. Again, the Apostle John shows us this same idea in terms of Love and hate saying “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) and here we should see the idea of Love IS NOT agape but rather phileo.
This brings us to the idea of soter which IS rendered as savior and most often refers to God and to Jesus as the Savior of men. The reality here IS that Jesus IS the Messiah and He IS the Christ and it IS in this role that He can be seen as the Savior. This IS NOT by some magical doctrinal idea that to believe on Him or to believe in Him in that nebulous doctrinal way makes one saved and entitles one to that equally nebulous idea of heaven after death, or at the bodily resurrection of believers, or at some other time, according to the doctrines of the various denominations.
If we can understand this idea that to believe on Him or to believe in Him IS to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4, we can then have the clearer picture of the reality of Life and death. This IS keeping His words and this IS one’s ONLY entitlement: that by measure one will have the Truth that frees, the Kingdom of Heaven and His Presence according to the trifecta which IS Jesus own words on this matter. To have these three ideas of grace IS NOT a reward that one achieves after death but rather that these become his experience here and NOW.
It IS in this way that one IS “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) as Paul tells the Romans earlier in his letter. Here we should remember that the same Greek word, eleutheroo, that IS rendered as delivered IS rendered as “make you free” in the first part of the trifecta, and in this we KNOW the way to that freedom IS the Truth that comes to the man who Jesus says will “continue in my word“. This freedom from “the bondage of corruption” IS one’s freedom from the vanity, from the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world and this freedom IS the product of being “awake out of sleep“.
Jesus tells us how this works throughout His words and He shows us this freedom couched in His most misunderstood words saying that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). If we can see this we can then understand the nature of His Kingdom, our deliverance, and the Apostle Peter’s words saying “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
We should understand that this sense of being delivered IS the same idea that Jesus puts upon everyman to DO for himself as He says that if one will “continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“. This freedom IS our deliverance and, in Peter’s words, this deliverance, this freedom, IS one’s escape from that same “bondage of corruption” which he paints for us as “the corruption that is in the world through lust“. Can we see here how that our escape IS planned and executed through keeping His words, and here again, especially His words on Love.
That some doctrines teach and believe that ALL that IS required for salvation IS some affirmation, confession and baptism while others believe in a different form of baptism and a list of sacraments and still others some other rite or ritual, leaves behind the actual words of the Master and His apostles which show us the True way. We have discussed the idea of sozo which IS a conscious effort by a man to ‘save’ himself….to rescue himself from the “bondage of corruption” which idea comes clearly in Jesus’ own words above.
In soter, which IS used by doctrine in regard to Jesus as Savior, we have a True idea but an wrong application of that idea. Jesus the Christ IS the Savior of men; men who Truly believe on and believe in Him from the perspective of keeping His words. The Master shows us this in the second part of the trifecta above and in His rhetorical question of the same nature which IS reported for us by the Apostle Luke; Jesus says: “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say” (Luke 6:46).
Jesus IS the Saviour; by His teaching and His example we ARE saved when we will: accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. Doctrines however DO NOT see this reality which IS the True center of True Christianity; most would rather contort Paul’s words into their simplified formula, a formula that likely deludes many who would otherwise seek the deeper meanings and intent of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles. Paul tells the Romans many things but this out of context idea IS perhaps the most misused; the apostle says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
In this idea we have again salvation but here from a different perspective. In our selection regarding Love we see that it IS through awakening to the Truth of agape that the apostle shows us that “our salvation nearer than when we believed“; here we should see that this salvation IS tied to awakening and awakening IS tied to Paul’s words on Love. Should we conflate this idea with the apostle’s use of soteria in regard to the affirmation and confession that doctrines see as the most magical tool of the Christian, we will be better able to understand the latter and see the greater Truth in the former.
In Paul’s words on confession and believing we have yet another misuse of the Greek word pisteuo or, rather, the misapplication of the English word believe as that most nebulous doctrinal idea. Pisteuo IS more than merely thinking something to be True, pisteuo IS KNOWING, it IS conviction, and as such this word inevitably leads us to Jesus’ rhetorical questions that asks “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say“. In this regard many may say that they KNOW that Jesus IS Lord but this IS wasted according to the Master if such KNOWING DOES NOT cause one to DO “the things which I say“.
And the severity of this disconnect IS most readily seen in the idea of agape as the expression of everyman in this world. Many Christian doctrines teach the impossibility of keeping His words as a man in this world and in such teaching they have stifled the need to strive toward that goal; too many believe that it IS by their confession and affirmation that they ARE saved or that this IS accomplished through their baptism and the rest of the sacraments of their particular denomination. The reality of salvation, of soteria, IS found in deliverance and while much of doctrine sees such deliverance as being bestowed upon the Christian by God, the reality, again found in the trifecta and in Paul’s words above, IS that the onus IS upon men.
Many see the effect of salvation as occurring after one’s death in this world or at the Master’s return and this idea is shown us in the lexicon where we read of salvation that: salvation as the present possession of all true Christians and then future salvation, the sum of benefits and blessings which the Christians, redeemed from all earthly ills, will enjoy after the visible return of Christ from heaven in the consummated and eternal kingdom of God 2, 9. After his ideas on what this salvation IS NOT, John Gill tells us that it IS: a spiritual and eternal salvation: not Christ the author of it, who was come to effect it; nor that itself, as obtained, which was now done, finished, and completed; nor the application of it to their souls, which also had been made; but the consummate enjoyment of it in heaven, the salvation of their souls at death, and both of soul and body at the resurrection; consisting in a freedom from every evil, and in a full possession of all that is good and glorious 8.
Paul’s message here IS NOT in this regard….he DOES NOT speak about this doctrinal idea but rather he IS saying that in Love, in the effectual expression of agape, one IS awakened and his expressed reason for us to awaken IS that it IS in the fullness of agape, the fullness of keeping His words, that ALL are Truly “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. We should remember here that Paul IS speaking to men who ARE already striving toward this goal as he shows them that in the simplicity of their expression of agape as the Master teaches this, IS the reality of the ability of everyman to: accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4.
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.
We change our Quote of the Day today to the words from Solomon on Wisdom along with our thoughts on them from the original postings of them in In the Words of Jesus parts 46 and 556. These words ARE a testament to those things that we should be asking of the Lord and which are representative of the Holy Ghost. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge which will lead us to understanding the fear (reverence and respect and awe) of the Lord and the knowledge of God so that in this world we can understand righteousness and judgement and equity and be preserved by discretion and understanding. Thus are we in a position to treat everyone as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Since we are centered on the ideas of Wisdom today we offer the following from Proverbs as our Quote of the Day. Solomon, who is KNOWN for his Wisdom, which we read in the story of his Life was His gift from God, a gift that he receives because he does not want for the things of the world. But Solomon gains as well the things of the world in plenty and as his Life story proceeds we can see clearly that it is his Life in the world that is to his detriment. The wisdom however produces for us the writings of the Book of Proverbs and it is this that he is remembered for. His Life is interesting reading and is well documented in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
….incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee (Proverbs 2:2-11).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
