ON LOVE; PART MCCLXXIII
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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).
While it may seem that we have become stuck on the failures of the doctrines of men to recognize and teach the words of Jesus as He intended for them to be understood, the greater reality in showing those failures IS to create a desire to shed one’s doctrinal reliance and DO as the Master instructs….that men should begin to seek the Truth. Jesus tells us to “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9) and the reality here IS that one must ask, seek and knock on the door of the Truth of His words and NOT the doctrinal representations that have taken men’s attention and have become their Truth.
If we can try to see how that the doctrines of men ARE but that “another gospel: Which is not another” (Galatians 1:6, 7) that men have chosen to believe over the Truth of His words, we can perhaps then enter upon a new path where such asking, seeking and knocking will result in such receiving and finding which will Truly open up the revelations and the realizations of ever increasing measures of the Truth. It IS unfortunate that most ALL doctrinal thinkers ARE bound by their various doctrinal views which ARE enhanced in their hearing of their doctrinal message over and over while the Truth lies dormant in the prompting of their own Souls.
We can perhaps see in this the reason why there ARE millions upon millions of men who ARE attracted to the message of Love apart from the church and who ARE forming the basis of a new social order that IS based in the Truth of Love without religion of any kind. For these men perhaps the added reality of the Truth of Jesus’ words can enhance their movement as, for sure, they find NO message of Truth in the doctrinal pronouncements which many abhor. Today’s man, while seeking some modicum of logic in his beliefs, DOES hear and often heeds the prompting of his own Soul which IS most often recognized as conscience, and here we should try to see that for this man there IS NO doctrinal bondage to keep him from some measure of the Truth.
If we could add to these unorganized millions around the world the essence of the True message of Christ without the doctrinal rites and rituals, without any of the far flung doctrinal positions on salvation, without the church’s insistence that their sense of Christianity as the ONLY way, without their teaching on heaven and hell and on their numerous eschatological ideas, we could have in this world a movement toward the singular Truth that IS Love….Love with NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9) as True agape IS intended to be. This IS the goal of this blog and our posts ARE designed to show the non-believer how that the doctrinal approach to God IS founded in error and to show the believer a different view of the Path to the Truth which shows him that the words of the Master ARE the doctrine of that Truth.
In His discourse with the Jews Jesus tells them that “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?” (John 7:16-19). If we could but see that the doctrine of Truth espoused by the Master IS the essential Truth of God which IS tested by the idea that “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine“, perhaps we could also see that what Paul calls for us “another gospel: Which is not another” IS whatsoever IS contrary to that doctrine of Truth. Can we see the Truth here? And can we see how that ALL that IS contrary to His words IS from “He that speaketh of himself“, he that “seeketh his own glory“, and this regardless of whether he can see this in his own doctrinal approach or NOT.
We should try to see here that while most ALL doctrinal approaches claim that it IS NOT necessary to keep His words for salvation but ONLY to believe, to profess and affirm the Master, such doctrines ARE but the inventions of men whose objective IS ever one’s self. In doctrines men DO speaketh of himself” and “seeketh his own glory” as they espouse their own interpreted ideas which put themselves into positions of glory, of salvation, and of having the unique ability to ‘go to heaven’; to have the Truth and to have the Presence of God without ever DOING as the Master tells us in 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).
There IS a simple point in ALL of Jesus’ instructions and commandments and that IS that men should look past themselves as men in this world and see the greater picture of the inner man who IS ever One with ALL men. This IS the foundational basis for agape in which the idea of NO “respect to persons” takes away the carnal tendencies to interpret this Love into the emotional and mental attraction and attachment that one has for some others and for the things of the self. This sense of Love IS carnal and if we can see agape together with its manifestation in this world, as the manifestation of Wisdom in men’s expression, we can then see both the Love and the wisdom of the world in James’ words saying “if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:14:16).
If we could see that Love and Wisdom ARE ever together, that in True Wisdom we have the expression of Love, we can perhaps then see deeper into the mysteries that ARE revealed to the man who allows both to flow into his Life here in this world. It IS Wisdom that says “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44) and this through that most basic understanding that beyond the flesh and the subjection of that flesh to vanity lies the greater Truth of that Oneness and the realization that ALL ARE essentially the same….that the differences noted ARE ONLY based in one’s ability to express that Truth and sameness through one’s flesh.
We must of course understand the complexity of the idea of flesh, that this IS NOT the body ONLY but the combined form and personality with ALL of the components that link these together. Jesus shows us this in His saying to the Apostle Peter and the others with him that “the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41); in this we should understand that the Master IS NOT speaking ONLY about the tired body but about the way that the personality CAN NOT fight off the desire to be as men rather than to be attentive to the spiritual situation in which they find themselves. Paul also speaks of the flesh; in verses that we spent much time on in previous posts and on which we commented regarding: “the works of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19) that; here we must remember that the words that ARE in his list ARE NOT accurately rendered nor interpreted, they purport the most gross aspects which the doctrines of men see rather than the equally sinful ideas that the Greek words also represent. The easy example here IS first that the word rendered as adultery IS NOT in most ALL Greek text nor in the majority of translations yet it forms the basis for the doctrinal view that makes most ALL of these “works of the flesh” sexual in nature. Paul’s words on this ARE:
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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” (Galatians 5:16-21).
In this list ARE many ideas that CAN NOT be attributed to the body nature; they ARE matters of mind and emotions and the evolved interaction of these in the Life of everyman. Here, if we can see the ideas of adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry and witchcraft in terms of being against the first of the Great Commandments, we can then better understand the apostle’s point. A search for the Greek words that ARE rendered as these ideas will bring you to those essays that discuss these ideas and how that there IS a dual context; one that IS the carnal behaviors which keep one’s focus upon the things of the self in the world and the other IS the array of different ways that one can be fornicating, the ways that men can prostitute themselves to their carnal desires….and these need NOT be anything but the normal desires of men that ARE NOT centered in the Lord.
The chosen context of these Greek words has set up the doctrinal view of the tenor of the words of the Master and His apostles but the reality IS much different as we can see in James view of adultery; we read his words saying “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). We should try to see that the idea here IS that competition between the world and the Lord….between one’s focus upon the self and the self in this world and one’s focus upon the things of God. If we can take the perspective that by our very nature as spiritual beings that our focus upon the self and the self in the world IS adultery because our focus should be upon the Lord, we can perhaps gain a greater insight into this doctrinal error.
We should note here that the idea of adulterer IS NOT found in many ‘original’ texts, Vincent tells us that: All the best texts omit 4; also, this word IS NOT in a part of the text in Paul’s list above. In this we can perhaps see the human involvement in turning the overall ideas of such sayings toward sex. The doctrinal fixation upon the ideas of sex ONLY serves to dilute the True message of focus upon the things of God and here we should understand that this IS an inconvenient Truth which IS founded in the desires of men to live as men. This IS the effect of that vanity by which the focus of men IS placed upon the self and the things of the self; in this we should be able to understand Vincent’s defining idea for vanity in a more clear way; Mr. Vincent tells us that vanity IS: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4.
We should try to see here how that the doctrinal thinker IS accepting this vanity as his way of Life and whether he calls this the ‘fall of man’ or sees this as it Truly IS, that “the creature creation was made subject to vanity” and that this creation IS the Soul which IS created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27) as a spiritual being, the effect IS the same….vanity. Again we should try to see that it IS the Soul that IS “made subject to vanity“, it IS the spiritual Inner man that IS lost in the morass of Life in this world and it IS the Soul that IS become separate from God, and pursuing false ends becasuse he CAN NOT wrest control of the Life from the personality which lives in the illusion and in the glamour which ARE the effective nature of that vanity which IS one’s “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:20, 21).
We should try to understand here that the way that much of this IS presented in scripture IS necessarily clouded by the way that the presentation DOES NOT differentiate between the spiritual component of Life, the Soul, and the carnal component, the flesh, save for such ideas as Paul’s saying that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other“. In such sayings the duality IS clear and the teaching IS ever that a man should “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:17, 16). This IS the reality of focus: if one Truly focuses upon the Lord with “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“, he can then KNOW what it IS to “Walk in the Spirit” and until this point it IS toward this point that he should strive.
It IS the Christian doctrinal ideas of heaven and hell that play a large part in the way that the doctrinal thinker DOES NOT ever consider this idea of striving as he believes that there IS ONLY this Life in this world to find ‘salvation‘; here we should see a prima facie reason for the doctrinal approach which frees men from even having to think about such things as striving and this despite the words of the Master that instruct him to “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). The Apostle Matthew elaborates on this as he shows us the Master’s words saying “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
We should try to see here that the wide gate IS one’s focus upon the things of the world and that the “strait gate” IS freedom from this and, in Truth, there ARE few who DO find this path of singular focus upon the things of the Lord. It IS against this that doctrines have formulated their ideas of ‘salvation‘, their ideas that they must save them selves from the ‘the pains of hell’ as this IS framed in the Catholic version of the Act of Contrition. While this prayer IS more recent, the ideas behind it go back to the church fathers who have defined the most common ideas of doctrinal Christianity. It IS in through the debates of the early church that doctrines ARE first formed and here we should try to see that the many differing opinions of the church fathers were systematically merged into the basic ideas that still exist today.
Too much of these basic ideas ARE founded in the ideas of heaven and hell, neither of which ARE defined in scripture but ARE rather interpreted from obscure bible passages. Perhaps the scriptural intent IS to NOT define such ideas and, from our perspective, there IS as much information regarding the eternal Life of the Soul through many lives here in this world as there ARE valid ideas of heaven and hell based in one’s singular Life as a man. There IS a distinctly loud aversion to the idea of reincarnation in most ALL sections of Christianity, an aversion which IS rather baseless and founded upon the interpretations of a few New Testament verses such as “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27) which IS used completely of the context into which it IS written.
Our point here IS NOT reincarnation however; our point here IS the way that the early church viewed the formation of doctrines against the seemingly common idea that they DO ‘dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell’ as the prayer states. Perhaps in this we can see how that the debated and resultant doctrines ARE the finality of “another gospel: Which is not another” until the ‘schisms’ which begin in early in the fifth century and continue through the reformation period which begins in the early sixteenth century. If we can see that Paul’s words which show us “another gospel: Which is not another” in a time when there was NO real church and then see the evolution of this idea through the debates and then the ‘schisms’, perhaps we can better understand the way that the Truth of Jesus words has been left behind and that ALL Christian religious efforts that DO NOT see His Truth ARE but successive iterations of this “another gospel“.
While the doctrinal thinker will deny that his IS “another gospel: Which is not another“, this denial IS based in the deception which the Apostle James tells us befalls ALL who ARE NOT “doers of the word“. It IS these same doctrinal thinkers that have taken the apostle’s words saying “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and turned the very idea of “the word” into the pronouncements of their own doctrinal approach to the Lord. Here again we should look at Vincent’s words on this deception from the Greek word paralogizomai; he says that: The deception referred to is, therefore, that into which one betrays himself by false reasoning – reasoning beside the truth 4. In this we should try to see that the very idea of reasoning and of mis-reckoning 9a, which IS the Strong’s definition of this word, ARE potencies of the carnal mind that IS yet caught in the vanity, in the illusion and glamour, of Life in this world.
Here we should see that the Soul, in its own state of being as that unction by which “ye know all things” (1 John 2:20), IS NOT deluded but it IS his expression in the world which IS, an expression which ignores that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12) in which the Truth resides….that DOES NOT hear that Truth over the din of daily living and the hardened concrete thoughts of doctrine. It IS ever the flesh that mis-reckons and this by the false reasoning that IS the result one’s doctrinal reliance upon ‘salvation‘ which IS based in those nebulous ideas of faith and grace. ALL is become a matter of opinion, and many there ARE regarding religion, where each man of doctrine believes that he has the Truth and here we should try to see how that these men of opinion choose to believe their interpreted words of the Apostle Paul on faith and works that the words of James which need NO interpretation. James tells us clearly that:
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” (James 2:16-26).
We must remember that Paul’s words on these matters IS interpreted by men and here we should see that the very meaning of the Greek word ergon which IS rendered as works IS perhaps the basis for such misinterpretation. Add to this the nebulous ideas which doctrines have attached to pistis which IS rendered as faith and we can have a most complete picture of just what these two apostles ARE saying. Paul IS speaking about “the work of the law” (Romans 2:15) and we should try to see that most ALL other references to works IS based in this. It IS in this context that we should see the crux of Paul’s ideas which he later shows us saying “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28) and here we should see that the same word, ergon, IS rendered as deeds. What then IS this idea of “the work of the law” or, as this IS later rendered “the deeds of the law“?
In today’s jargon as in our older 1828 dictionary there IS NO direct relationship between these ideas of deeds and works and if we see ALL reference to ergon in terms of work(s), the whole of Paul’s message may become clearer. We should remember here that Paul tells us “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6) an in this we should try to see that his perspective on Life and on the law IS colored by this fact. If we can see that it IS through Paul’s seemingly constant attempts to correct the Jew’s pattern of thought that the idea of “the work of the law” IS his view of the carnal parts of the law which the Jews held in higher regard than the most basic Truths, we can then better understand his point. However, without Truly understanding the deeper meaning of faith, this idea of works as those carnal parts of the law will have little or NO effect.
We should try to see here how that Paul’s words incorporate the idea of pistis as KNOWING God and NOT merely as faith in God. We should see that Abraham KNOWS that his obedience to the Truth, his obedience to what he KNOWS as God’s voice telling him to sacrifice his son, IS his Truth. We DO NOT KNOW Abraham’s thoughts here save for the idea that his IS completing what he has been instructed to DO by whatsoever way he perceives God and here we should try to see how that he relates this episode to the many preceding perceptions of His voice which always was the right choice.
Paul tells us this story saying “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (Romans 4:1-3) relating the patriarch’s KNOWING as the primary and seemingly ONLY value while James shows us that such KNOWING can be fruitless if one allows the carnal mind, the personality, to rely upon it solely and without action. If we take this idea forward to Paul’s teaching to the people, a teaching based in his Jewish background where he ONLY believes that he KNOWS God and the Truth, we can perhaps see a clearer message.
If we can see that Paul IS teaching that one must KNOW God and the Truth of His word rather than the words of men that interpret His word we can better understand Paul’s aversion to ergon, to the works of the man who IS perhaps as misled as he himself was. Can we see how that in his days as a Pharisee the now apostle acted and reacted to the more carnal parts of the law and that here, after his ‘conversion’, his idea of God and the reality of God IS much different and IS become grounded in the Truth of Jesus words? Paul has come to KNOW God and he differentiates between that version of KNOWING that he believed that he had by being a Pharisee and a Jew and the True KNOWING that results in his words to the Ephesians saying :
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19).
We should try to see that Paul’s message IS that men be “rooted and grounded in love” which IS the sure result of KNOWING God who IS Love and that in the simplicity of the Judaism that he formerly embraced such was NOT the case as they relied instead upon the rites and the rituals of “the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). In this we can then see that James’ message IS equal, that James IS NOT reducing the Power of pistis but rather that he IS showing us that the believing that one KNOWS God as a Jew, or by whatsoever means, IS meaningless unless such KNOWING results in DOING and here we should relate this to the context of the apostle’s words.
If we begin James’ context with “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” and end it with the words on works and faith above, we can then see that there IS a deeper message than can be understood when we take his sayings out of context. We should see also the relationship here between being a DOER and the reality of that DOING which IS ergon; this idea of works IS the reality of keeping His words and here we should read the rest of the apostle’s words that take us from being a DOER, through living as a DOER, and then into the greater Truth of Love, of agape which has NO “respect to persons“. Here we should see that in regard to the True commandments of the Lord, this idea of agape IS equal.
In the end we should try to see that the idea of ergon based in “the commandments of men” must be subservient to pistis while the idea of ergon as the result of His words IS the True evidence of pistis. IS this NOT what Paul tells us in his saying that we should:
“Owe no man any thing, but agapao one another: for he that agapao 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 agape thy neighbour as thyself. Agape worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore agape 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).
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 |
Quote of the Day:
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
