ON LOVE; PART MCCCXLII
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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 some thoughts on Jehovah which IS from the Hebrew Yĕhovah which IS rendered as LORD throughout the King James version of the Old Testament….more than six thousand times. There ARE other renderings for Yĕhovah in the King James Bible, four times as God and four times as Jehovah, the idea which IS offered as the transliteration of the Hebrew Yĕhovah by some bible translators. There IS another word rendered as Lord though NOT in ALL caps as IS Yĕhovah: Adonay. Strong’s tells us of Adonay that this IS: the Lord (used as a proper name of God only):—(my) Lord while he tells us of Yĕhovah that this IS: (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah, Jewish national name of God:—Jehovah, the Lord 9a. In the last essay we tried to show the idea that Jehovah IS NOT the reality of the “One Boundless Immutable Principle” but IS rather the effect of the Spirit that IS God working through humanity, through those personalities that ARE the patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. It IS these men that speak for God and we should remember here that this speaking IS though a personality that IS grounded in the customs and superstitions of their day. Moses speaks of Jehovah as God throughout his writings and if we can see that for him Jehovah IS the source of ALL that he comes to KNOW and DO, the spiritual Power if you will, we can then perhaps understand the True relationship between God and man yet today. While both Adonay and Yĕhovah ARE used to show the idea of God in the Hebrew texts, there IS another word that can help to clarify the whole, elohiym. This word IS rendered most always in terms of God, or as god when the subject IS NOT the Lord. It IS one time rendered as angel in the King James Bible but this IS likely the result of a preconceived doctrinal idea as ARE some of the other miscellaneous renderings. The idea of angels IS used in a psalm which IS read as “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour” (Psalm 8:4-5). Doctrinally the idea of angels better suits the ideas of men but, at the same time, clouds the writers intent regarding perhaps the relationship between God and man. There ARE yet more anomalies found in the Hebrew text; there IS the combined form of “Yĕhovah Elohiym“ which IS thought by some to represent the Father and Son in a familial relationship and this while many others see elohiym more in terms of angels although there IS another more specific word for angels. We should note as well that in the story of creation it IS Elohiym that IS the creator while the combined form of “Yĕhovah Elohiym” IS used beginning in the second chapter; there IS likely a meaning to this that IS beyond the doctrinal ideas of the Jews and the Christians. It IS Elohiym that “created the heaven and the earth” and it IS “Yĕhovah Elohiym” that “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 1:1, 2:7). Again, there IS much to be learned here that IS beyond the doctrinal understanding and perhaps here we can see a reality regarding the advent of Christ that has been hidden by the theologies into which men ARE indoctrinated.
In these ancient times it IS Jehovah that speaks through Moses and the prophets and it IS Jehovah that speaks to several of the Kings often through the prophets. If we can see this in terms of the Christ Within that speaks through Jesus, His apostles and perhaps a few others through the course of history, we can perhaps come to see a glimpse of the way that the Lord relates to man. We should try to understand here that it IS the personality of a man, grounded in time and place, that expresses whatsoever Truth becomes his realization and that this filter, this personality, contributes to the version of Truth according to that time and place. The reality of ALL this DOES NOT change from Moses to Jesus; the Truth IS still those ideas embedded into the law, sans the moral guidance offered in that barbarous and superstitious time by Moses. Jesus summarizes the gist of the law in the Great Commandments which originate in Moses words and we should try to see that these have been the intended guiding spiritual principals from the beginning. While it may seem arbitrary to separate the law into spiritual Truths and moral guidance, the reality of this IS easily seen in the essence of each of the separate parts of Moses’ words which have been combined in a rather inseparable way into the Jews’ mitzvah of 613 individual commands. We should understand that the Jews in Moses day needed moral guidance and that in those barbarous times 3500 years ago the wars and constant conflicts were a norm that could NOT be simply halted. The Jews with Moses leadership had little choice but to participate in the barbarism as they sought to fight off the equally suppressive role of superstition. In this day where such ideas as “Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Exodus 21:24) ruled the moral ideas of men, it IS rather easy to see the way that the law was intended to tame the population and it IS such ideas that ARE extended into the conflicts that the Jews endured in tribal times and with tribal leadership that DID NOT attempt to understand the motivations of those who came against them. This brings us to the point we made in the last essay, a seemingly meaningless one at the time, which IS: If we can try to see Jehovah in tribal terms as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob“, as “the LORD God of Israel” (Exodus 3:6, 5:1) we can then perhaps make better sense of the specific problems with such slaughters being the acts of the One God who IS defined for us by the Apostle John who tells us that “God is love“. It IS this premise upon which we build our understanding of the underlying motivations that ARE seen in the Jews’ historical record and we should understand here that in the writings of the prophets and the historians we find first the ominous warnings of doom for those Jews who refused the guidance of the law. We see also the placement of those predictions into a historical record that at times embellishes the role of the Jews in a regional arena where the objective was, from the beginning, that men should keep the words of the Lord, and this in a time when the whims of men would surely lead to their destruction. ALL of this history can be summarized into these words from Moses saying “if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). We KNOW from their history that they DID NOT so hearken.
The historical record IS filled with wars and the stark reality that the Jews, as a nation, failed to hearken to the Truth of the law. Most ALL of the failure IS led by the kings that followed, most always in a sort of genealogical fashion. While the lineage of the kings of Judah is most always passed from father to son, the lineage of the kings of Israel, the Northern Kingdom of ten tribes, IS often disrupted by the ascension of ‘men of valor’ beginning with the first king, Jeroboam, who was Solomon’s servant until Solomon “made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph” (1 Kings 11:28). It IS the lineage of David, through Solomon that leads to Jesus and, as we discuss in previous essays, much IS shown us biblically that ‘protects’ Jesus’ lineage from Abraham, through David; lineage IS an important biblical point for the Jews but its meaning Truly ceases with Jesus. In the end of the reigns of the kings both Israel and Judah ARE taken captive by opposing armies; first Israel is taken by the Assyrians and then Judah by the Babylonians. The reign of the kings ends several centuries before the advent of Christ, about 700 years before for the ten tribes of Israel and nearly 600 years for Judah. While bible scholars classify the kings in terms of good and evil, we should note a steady deterioration of the role of Jehovah as He speaks through a series of prophets who ARE largely ignored by the leaders and the masses. There IS some confusion yet today regarding the timing offered by the Books of Kings and Chronicles in the Old Testament and this has led to some offering co-regencies, two kings with overlapping service, as a way of explanation. The reality here however IS that the nation(s) DID NOT “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God” and this despite the elaborate efforts to define the “voice of the LORD” in human terms by the religious leaders which IS become their mitzvah of 613 commandments. We should try to see that this mitzvah IS offered in human terms and NOT in spiritual ideas and the emphasis upon the ideas of the Ten Commandments and ALL those other pronouncement of Moses that support these basic Truths IS melded into the whole of the mitzvah where they play NO special role. Our point here IS that the words of the Lord through Moses, the defining words regarding the success of the nation, ARE ignored and this same failure exists yet today in most ALL divisions of the Judaeo-Christian religions. This failure goes unseen in Judaism yet today as the rote law, the mitzvah, IS followed by the religious Jew who fails to see that the parts that reflect the sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws and holy days ARE NOT the realities that ARE intended if one IS to “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God“. As in the Christian religions the Truth of the words of Jehovah through Moses have been ‘humanized’; the Truth has been rendered moot as it has been manipulated to fit into the lives of men through the centuries. In the Christian religions it IS the words of Christ through Jesus that have suffered from this same fate with one major difference. The Jews have the entire mitzvah and they chose their easier path from it while the Christian had to ‘invent’ their doctrinal approaches that ARE based in the misapplied, misunderstood and certainly out of context words of the apostles. Each however insists that their approach IS right while they bicker amongst themselves over nuances that fail to touch the simple basic Truth that one must keep His words, that one must “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God“. This returns us to our trifecta, to the words of the Lord regarding the Truth of scripture and the Way to that Truth; we read 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).
It IS in the glamour of religion that IS the product of that vanity into which All men ARE born that this sense of being right IS founded and it IS this affliction that keeps the religious Jew and the religious Christian far away from the Truth of God and here again we should see Vincent’s defining ideas for the Greek word mataiotes which IS rendered as vanity. Vincent tells us that mataiotes IS a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 and here we should see this defining idea incorporated into ALL religious approaches to God that ARE NOT based in the inconvenient Truth of keeping His words. If we can understand that as “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), we should be able to see that so too IS God Truth. Moses tells us this saying “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4) and we should try to understand that to pursue God IS to pursue Truth and Love. The psalmist offers the same idea saying “Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth” (Psalm 31:5) and the same view of God IS shown us by Isaiah who says “he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth” (Isaiah 65:16). This idea that Truth IS the very nature of God IS NOT contradictory to the idea that “God is love” as these two aspects of the Godhead ARE as two sides of the same coin; they must perforce operate together as One. Jesus tells us that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) and while this concept IS NOT at ALL understood in the carnal mind, John helps us in saying two things. First in the prologue to his gospel the apostle tells us that “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) and then, in his first epistle, John shows us a reality of Spirit saying “the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:6). We should understand here as well that this idea of Truth, like agape, IS the outer sign of fruit in the Life of everyman who Truly follows the Lord; and this sense of Truth IS the very definition of the Holy Spirit as we read in the Masters words. Jesus tells us of the Comforter saying “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things“; here the idea of the parakletos IS shown to be the same as the Holy Spirit and, as Jesus continues, to the Truth. The Master says of the Comforter “that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16, 17). These words ARE taken out of the context by the doctrinal church which fails to see the relationship to the third part of our trifecta which defines for us how that this Presence of God, this Comforter or Holy Ghost or Spirit of Truth can be realized by a man in this world. The KEY here IS in the Greek word lambano which IS rendered as receive; the world at large CAN NOT receive this “Spirit of truth” simply because they DO NOT “hath my commandments, and keepeth them” which Jesus shows us IS the singular requirement for such realization of Truth. Conversely to His apostles the Master says “but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” because they DO “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“. The word dwelleth here IS from the Greek word meno which is IS elsewhere rendered as abide and here we should see the relationship to the derivative word mone which IS rendered as abode in Jesus words saying that it IS to the man who will keep His words that “my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him“. This IS the same realization of Truth of which Jesus speaks in the first part of the trifecta 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“.
ALL of this IS intended to tie together the reality of the Truth being the result of one’s Truly seeking the Lord and DOING what IS inconvenient to the carnal minds of men. This inconvenience has ever been that we should keep His words, whether those of Jehovah through Moses or those of the Christ, the Love and Truth Aspect of the Godhead, through Jesus. The seemingly more convenient IS the mitzvah of the Jews with an emphasis upon the rote following of the whole law sans the reality of Love and True mercy; this mitzvah today has further devolved into carnal observances regarding such things as the sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws and observance of the holy days along with the personal point for many of identifying oneself as a Jew. It IS this doctrinal and traditional approach that keeps so many of the Jews from the Truth which IS the Lord. It IS the doctrines of the Christian that serve the same purpose of keeping men away from the Truth and here we should understand that there ARE far too many doctrinal variations and that each makes claim to being the Truth without realizing the carnality of ALL such approaches. From the Catholics and Orthodox to the Seventh Day Adventist and the Moron to the multiplicity of Protestant views, there IS little to unite through under a single banner of Christianity. Sacraments and rites and rituals govern the lives of many while the ideas of faith and believing, nebulous as these ARE, govern the lives of so many more, but NONE Truly teach what the Master commanded His disciples saying “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations (people), baptizing (immersing) them in the name (into the expression of the sum total of the divine Being) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway“. The parenthetical ideas ARE ours and ARE based in a clearer understanding of the terms used. First there IS the Greek word ethnos which should be simply understood in terms of persons; the word IS rendered in the King James Bible as gentiles, nations, heathen and least frequently as people which IS the most universal idea and one that encompasses all others. While most ALL translations render ethnos as nations, there ARE a but few that DO render as people and this despite the defining ideas from Thayer’s that show us ethnos as: a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together; a company, troop, swarm; a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus, the human race 9. The idea here has been doctrinally seen in regard to the Jews as the idea of nations and gentiles serves to show a teaching to ALL that ARE NOT Jews but this IS NOT the Master’s intent….Jesus shows His intent saying such things as “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32), an idea that pertains to ALL, Jews included. The next parenthetical idea IS in regard to the Greek word baptizo which IS rendered as baptizing in most ALL translations except a few that ARE Hebrew based; there the rendering IS either immersing or the Jewish idea of to make talmidim of the people. Talmidim can be defined in terms of: the relationship between rabbi and disciple where It was not enough just to know what the rabbi said, but the foremost goal of any talmid was to become like the rabbi and do what the rabbi did. Here, the rabbi IS Jesus and this defining idea gives us a glimpse of the reality of baptism as immersion into the Truth that the Master expresses and NOT merely the rite and the ritual as it IS understood yet today. We ARE reminded here of the defining ideas for baptizo that ARE included in the lexicon entry where, after a comparison of the Greek words bapto and baptizo in regard to food we read: the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change. When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism. e.g.Mark 16:16. ‘He that believes and is baptised shall be saved’.Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle! 2a. The point here IS of course immersion, an idea that seems absent in the Christian rites of both water baptism and the church’s idea of baptism with the Holy Spirit. True baptism IS a symbol of the unity between the one baptized and whatsoever he IS baptized into which brings us to our last point which IS the idea of immersing people “in the name of“. Here we should try to see Vincent’s defining idea of immersing men: into the expression of the sum total of the divine Being 4. Vincent goes on to tell us that: Baptizing into the name of the Holy Trinity implies a spiritual and mystical union with him. He goes on to say that: The name, as in the Lord’s Prayer (“Hallowed be thy name”), is the expression of the sum total of the divine Being: not his designation as God or Lord, but the formula in which all his attributes and characteristics are summed up. It is equivalent to his person. The finite mind can deal with him only through his name; but his name is of no avail detached from his nature. When one is baptized into the name of the Trinity, he professes to acknowledge and appropriate God in all that he is and in all that he does for man 4. While Vincent IS offering us his added doctrinal views, the reality of immersion into or “in the name of” should be rather clear and should remind us of his defining ideas on believing in and believing on the Master. this can be summarized into the Truth that to believe in and to believe on, the essence of pisteuo as used in this regard if you will, requires that one accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4.
The reality then of the Great Commission IS NOT for the churches to teach men their doctrinal ideas but rather the Life changing Truths that ARE the hallmark of True Christianity. The idea that one must take on the Nature of the Lord, bind His Ways into one’s psyche and then to express that Nature which IS Truth and Love to the world of men. If we can look at our selection from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans through this lens, perhaps we can then understand the depth of what the apostle IS saying and how that the onus of keeping His words IS the primary subject; we read:
“they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in
hope, Becauseexpectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:5-23).
We should remember that most ALL of the confusion in the minds of men regarding God and religion IS based in a severe lack of KNOWING, a severe lack of the deeper Truths of pistis and pisteuo. We should be able to see that in the early days of Judaism as we understand that idea today, the people saw ONLY Moses and related whatsoever he DID to the DOINGS of the Lord. We should understand here however that these barbarous and superstitious people were ignorant of the reality of the Godhead and that Moses became that symbol to them. We should understand as well that some of the stories incorporated into the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, ARE there specifically to promote Moses picture of the One God in ALL His Power and the difference between the One God concept as compared with the beliefs of the surrounding nations with which the Jews ARE ever at odds. From Moses first words regarding Jehovah as the Lord the fullness of his teaching was that the people should follow the law. It IS perhaps the intermingling of the True law and the ancillary ideas through which the society could survive and prosper that doomed the Truth to failure. Rather than conform their lives to the heart of the law, to the aspects of the law that promoted Love, harmony and peace through a suppression of the individual ego in favor of the corporate good, the view of the people and their leaders came to favor the ancillary ideas that DID NOT require men to see themselves as a part of a whole. Thus the emphasis came to be on carnal observances regarding such things as the sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws and observance of holy days along with the personal point of identifying oneself as a Jew with ALL the incorporated pomp. In this the Jews came to see the Lord as more than the tribal idea which Moses showed them as his source of enlightenment; they began seeing Jehovah as the Supreme Being who favored the Jews over ALL other peoples. As this mode of thinking crept into the fabric of the Jews’ corporate psyche, it became the doctrinal view of ALL who followed Moses and infected the presented ideas the leaders, the prophets and kings among them, who were nurtured and indoctrinated into such beliefs. It IS this indoctrination that helps to form the personalities of men through which their own Souls, their aspect of Life that sees and KNOWS the Truth, expresses whatsoever IS their measure of the Truth according to the times in which they may live. We should try to understand that the singular message of Jehovah through Moses, and the Prophets was NOT the wars and the conflicts but rather the singular point of keeping the words of the Lord upon which depended the success or the failure of ALL. This IS the steady theme in Moses day and in ALL that follows in the history of the Jews as this IS presented.
As ALL of this history brings us to Jesus day we should try to see that the Jews were NOT free by any means for many centuries and the bible stories show us implicitly that the reason IS the same as from the beginning where, through Moses, the Lord tells us “all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God“. Moses shows us as well that “if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:15). The people had the words of Moses to define the blessings and the curses and the point here IS that men ever chose the latter and suffered through the consequences while believing in their carnal minds that they were keeping the words of the Lord. This IS the same reality that afflicts the race of men yet today and this IS True in every religion where the Truth of Love DOES NOT flourish, which unfortunately IS most ALL of them. Again the fault lies in the failure of men to KNOW; their severe lack of KNOWING the Truth of God or even entertaining the idea that they DO NOT have that Truth has left men in a doctrinal miasma that sees the carnal mind in some spiritual way and which promotes doctrines over Truth.
It IS this that Paul IS showing us in our selection from Romans and perhaps he DID NOT realize that men today, as men in Jesus’ day and before, would claim to have the blessings of the Lord based in their doctrinal views alone. Paul IS showing us that there IS a distinct difference between things carnal and things spiritual and he points us to the Truth that “to be spiritually minded“, to have “the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you” requires that a man’s focus be upon the things of God. It IS in this focus that one can come to Truly KNOW and it IS in this KNOWING that one can “mortify the deeds of the body“which IS to leave off of an individual focus upon the one’s own ego and focus upon the corporate entity which IS God. While the church lays claim to the blessings and sees themselves as acting as if they were “spiritually minded“, the reality IS that this IS but a pretense based in a doctrinal belief that they need NOT “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God” which failure IS in many ways worse that the failure of the Jews. Most fail to see the dynamic Truth in Paul’s words which show us that it IS in our ability to “mortify the deeds of the body” that we can understand the reality of “the adoption” and the reality of the apostle’s statement that “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God“. The idea of “earnest expectation” IS defined by Vincent as a waiting in suspense 4 but it IS more than this as it IS NOT the man that waits and expects but rather that the entire creation, viewed in human terms, IS awaiting the conversion of men, the one and the many, from the egocentric carnal man into the one who has accomplished “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
- 2a New Testament Greek lexicon on biblestudytools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org th
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
