ON LOVE; PART MCLXXXIV
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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 some thoughts upon the idea of the Way, the Truth and the Life and how that these ARE the privilege of the man who will Truly follow the Lord who tells us simply that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). In this most misunderstood and misused idea from the Master lies both the Way to the Truth and the Life where one has such Truth as well as the most misguided doctrinal idea by which the Christian has built his attitude of superiority over ALL other peoples and religions of the world.
As we have said in previous essays, this attitude IS the epitome of that glamour that IS fed by the illusions of Life in this world and it IS the illusion and glamour which Paul shows us as the vanity that afflicts ALL men; the Apostle Paul tells us “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20). The doctrinal concept that it IS ONLY the Christian that has access to God and His Kingdom and this through simply believing, through confessing and affirming that He IS the Lord according to doctrinal ideas, IS ‘saved‘ IS based upon the literal reading of this saying, which IS a part of Jesus’ full dialogue with His apostles, plus the doctrinal concept of atonement which we have been discussing.
What IS missed in these doctrinal assertions IS the Truth of Jesus’ own words, words which clearly state the Way to the Truth and the Life where one has such Truth. What IS also missed IS the reality of the ideas of pistis and pisteuo which ARE rendered as faith and believing; the reality that these ARE NOT those nebulous doctrinal ideas by which they measure the immeasurable but ARE rather the solid concept of Truly KNOWING which comes ONLY as one strives to Truly see the Master as Lord. It IS to the doctrinal believer who relies upon the various doctrinal ideas of atonement that Jesus asks that rhetorical question of “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46) today as it was the hearer who was NOT the DOER when He spoke this idea.
In this question IS the deeper reality of the Master’s being “the way, the truth, and the life“; here we should see that this Way, this Truth and this Life ARE NOT accessed by everyman who will confess that He IS the Christ and affirm that He IS risen from the dead as these ideas ARE gleaned from Paul’s writings but rather these ARE accessed by everyman who will “do not the things which I say“. In Jesus’ question IS the essence of True Christianity, an essence that has been changed and diluted by the doctrinal leanings towards the easier idea of the atonement and other such dogma, and this despite the Master’s most clear ideas on this relationship between the Christian and the Christ.
His words “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” should speak volumes yet the doctrinal view DOES NOT as we can see in this commentary from John Gill saying of the like saying from Matthew’s Gospel on Jesus’ words from our trifecta: but he that doeth the will of my Father….This, as it may regard private Christians, intends not merely outward obedience to the will of God, declared in his law, nor barely subjection to the ordinances of the Gospel; but more especially faith in Christ for life and salvation; which is the source of all true evangelical obedience, and without which nothing is acceptable to God 8. Here the simplicity and the clarity of the Master’s words IS clearly diluted and changed into the doctrines of men.
In Luke’s Gospel this rhetorical question IS offered after Jesus’s dissertation on Love and just before His Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders. Some make the Master’s question a part of the parable, perhaps to reduce its clarity and import, but these words from Jesus ARE clearly a stand alone statement of Truth which the Apostle Matthew offers us in much greater detail. In Matthew’s Gospel this same idea follows again Jesus’ dissertation on Love, which IS the essence of His Sermon on the Mount, and then His words on KNOWING the True teacher from the false….it IS then followed by the same parable; we read:
“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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21:23).
For us the point here IS clear and it IS NOT different from the Apostle Paul’s point in the our selection from his First Epistle to the Corinthians which we have been discussing. Jesus says above that calling Him Lord IS of NO profit just as Paul shows us that DOING ALL things which on the surface appear ‘holy’ “profiteth me nothing“. Jesus speaks of those who have “prophesied in thy name….and in thy name have cast out devils….and in thy name done many wonderful works” and He tells them that “I never knew you” while Paul shows us that through these same presumed gifts “I am nothing” without the expression of Love, of agape. Can we see the relationships between these words from the Master and the clarifying and amplifying words of the apostle? Repeating Paul’s words we read:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
We should see here how that both the Master and His apostle ARE saying the same thing, offering the very same idea, but in very different terms; we should see as well that these very different terms ARE NOT so very different at ALL. Jesus IS speaking about ‘entry’ into the Kingdom of God, or heaven as Matthew chooses to call this, while Paul IS showing us the spiritual idea of nothingness. In such nothingness the idea IS that there IS NO spiritual collateral, NO profit if you will, and here we should see that this man whose expression IS NOT Love IS spiritually void; and this by the same measure by which he lacks an expression of Love. Again, this agape IS NOT Love as this IS defined by men, this IS NOT that emotional and mental attraction and attachment to others and to the things of this world; agape IS that universal Love that IS built upon the most simple ideas of the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule.
Jesus idea of this same nothingness IS tied to keeping His words which He frames for us as “the will of my Father which is in heaven” and here we should understand that His words and the Will of the Father ARE one and the same thing. Jesus tells us that “I and my the Father are one” (John 10:30) and He also tells us that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” as we repeat always in our trifecta. These relationships, between His words and the Will of the Father should be clear to ALL but they ARE NOT as the doctrines of men which interpret this send His Will into terms of faith in Christ for life and salvation; which is the source of all true evangelical obedience as John Gill tells us above.
If we can see that this nothingness, this spiritual nothingness, IS, by measure, the the reality of NOT having His True Presence, NOT having His Kingdom and NOT having the Truth which “shall make you free“, we can then see the sameness in the words of the apostle and the Master. Add to this the relationship that the apostle draws for us between one’s expression of Love and one’s keeping His words and we then have a multifaceted view of the relationships between these ideas through the words of the Master and the words of the apostles whose sole intent IS to amplify and to clarify them.
And this IS the nature of Paul’s words to the Corinthians where he shows us the results of NOT expressing Love ARE the same as the results of NOT DOING “the will of my Father which is in heaven“….spiritual nothingness which he shows us in picture form saying “I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal“. Without Love then the apostle IS but noise and this idea should resonate throughout ALL of Christianity but it DOES NOT. These ideas ARE further clarified in Paul’s words to the Romans where he shows us that to keep His words, to DO the Will of the Father which ARE His commandments, and to Love ARE the very same thing with the very same results. Repeating the apostle’s words on Love 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” (Romans 13:8-11).
The idea that “the Way, the Truth and the Life” message of Jesus IS intended to show that He and He alone holds the KEYS to the Kingdom of God has become the very foundation of the Christian religion which sees through these words that they alone have access to the Godhead. Doctrines DO NOT see how that this entire segment of His words ARE directed to His apostles and that these words ARE, with the exception of His words on Love, couched in a parabolic tone that even these eleven apostles DO NOT readily understand. The fourteenth chapter IS filled with such parabolic tone.
From the idea of mansions from the Greek word mone which IS properly rendered as: a staying, abiding, dwelling, abode 9, to the idea of the Comforter to Jesus words on “the Way, the Truth and the Life“, the Master’s parabolic tone IS evident. The idea of abode or an abiding from the word mone gives us an idea that IS free from the opulence offered by today’s idea of mansions and IS akin to the idea of abiding found in its ONLY other use where Jesus says to those who DO keep His words that “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him“. The idea of the Comforter which IS rendered from parakletos and IS at best an arbitrary rendering and in both the doctrinal understanding of His parabolic tone misses the Truth.
This same doctrinal misinterpretations apply to His saying that He IS “the Way, the Truth and the Life” as well as to the idea that He IS, as the person Jesus, the ONLY way to God. We DO not dispute the reality that Jesus the Christ IS “the Way, the Truth and the Life“, we ONLY dispute the doctrinal view of these ideas which alienate billions of people through the ages and yet now….most of whom had and have never heard of the name of Jesus. These words have become a wedge between Christianity and ALL other world religions and this IS clearly NOT the intent of the Master whose message IS Love, agape, as the expression of ALL men to ALL men. It IS this message of Love that IS the ONLY message; agape IS the Way, agape IS the Truth and in agape we find the True Life of the spiritual man.
And this DOES NOT divorce this idea from Jesus; the Apostle John tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and when we see this idea through Jesus words saying “I and my the Father are one“, the whole of His Truth becomes much more clear. The doctrines of men however DO NOT see the whole idea of these words saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” as they divorce these words from the context in which the Master offers them. Much as mansions and the idea of the Comforter ARE doctrinal terms ONLY, so IS their interpretation of this saying upon which rests their entire religious philosophy.
The idea of mansions as an English word meant: Any place of residence; a house; a habitation 1 according to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary and this IS likely the meaning that IS understood by the King James translators in 1611. Today however mansions refer to an opulence and there ARE many who teach that this opulence can be one’s state in heaven….that some will have mansions and some will have ‘little white houses’; these ideas of prosperity ARE keenly linked to the Old Testament teachings that are again taken out of context and used to further doctrinal ideas and even personal gain.
In the idea of the Comforter we have a similar drifting from the apostle John’s intent. John uses the word parakletos; Vincent tells us that: It is urged that the rendering Comforter is justified by the fact that, in its original sense, it means more than a mere consoler, being derived from the Latin confortare, to strengthen, and that the Comforter is therefore one who strengthens the cause and the courage of his client at the bar: but, as Bishop Lightfoot observes, the history of this interpretation shows that it is not reached by this process, but grew out of a grammatical error, and that therefore this account can only be accepted as an apology after the fact, and not as an explanation of the fact. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, by the word παράκλητος , of which Paraclete is a transcription, represented as our Advocate or Counsel, “who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world, of wrong, and pleads our cause before God our Father.” It is to be noted that Jesus as well as the Holy Spirit is represented as Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is to be another Paraclete, and this falls in with the statement in the First Epistle, “we have an advocate with God, even Jesus Christ.” 4.
Our point here IS that the common ideas regarding Jesus’ words that have become the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel DO often misrepresent the original intent; in the idea of mansions this IS clear and in the idea of Comforter this should be clear as well albeit a bit more confusing. In the idea of the parakletos we should see the reality the Jesus Himself paints for us as He tells us that the parakletos IS “the Spirit of truth“, that the parakletos IS “the Holy Ghost“. If we can link the idea of “the Spirit of truth” to Jesus words that ARE the first part of our trifecta, we can then see how that one obtains this “the Spirit of truth” of which He tells His apostles that “he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17, 26).
In past posts we have shown how that this idea can be rendered as “he remains with you and is in you” which IS the Good News Translation rendering and today we should add the idea of realization through which one can keep the future tense of the Greek word esomai which IS rendered as “shall be“. We should try to see that since “he dwelleth with you” IS a present tense then the idea that follows should be as well but this understanding IS NOT necessary when we look at His words in terms of realization. It IS apparent throughout Jesus’ speaking in this fourteenth chapter that the apostles DO NOT understand the reality of what He IS saying and we should try to see that His parabolic tone IS NOT so much intentional as it IS necessary….the ideas that He IS presenting ARE the revelation of mysteries which can ONLY be realized by the spiritually focused man.
This IS True in the idea of mone which deals with abiding, an idea that carries over to next chapter where we read His parabolic words about abiding which ARE from the root word meno. This IS True about the idea of the Paraclete which IS “the Spirit of truth” and IS “the Holy Ghost” . The Truth of these ideas as well as the idea He IS “the way, the truth, and the life” ARE revelations that must come from one’s own communion with his own Soul and NOT from a sermon or a text and these revelations become the realizations of the man whose focus IS upon the Godhead. We should try to see that the apostles have this revelation but they DO NOT understand it; they have not had the necessary realization of these Truths in their hearts and minds.
And this failure IS NOT so much because they ARE NOT focused upon the things of GOD as it IS because these spiritual ideas have NO precedent in their lives nor in their culture and ARE likely contrary to their own nurturing, indoctrination and experience before their time with the Master. At what point the individual apostles move from being men to being saints IS uncertain but we DO KNOW that even in His resurrection there IS a lack of understanding, a lack of their realization of the Truth. For them so much of what the Master said remained as words, parabolic words to be sure, until after His resurrection and here we can perhaps see the meaning of His words about the Holy Spirit saying: “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).
In the idea of send here we should try to see the spiritual import. The Father IS NOT sending as we understand this word but according to the deeper ideas that Jesus presents to us regarding His relationship with the Father as “the Father that sent me” (John 8:16). The deeper reality for this idea can then be found in combination with the Truth that “I and my the Father are one“; in this sense the Master would have sent himself. If we can apply this idea as a revelation of Truth to our own being, perhaps we can glean the necessary realization regarding the idea that “the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you“.
In ALL of these ideas from the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel we should see that there IS little that can be taken literally and to include the idea that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” as a literal statement while ignoring other clearly literal ideas as “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:14) and “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“, IS a rather clear example of doctrinal folly. This latter idea IS from our trifecta which we repeat 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).
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
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913 from https://1828.mshaffer.com/
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon 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
