Tag Archives: Peace

ON LOVE; PART MCCXLV

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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 we ended the last essay with some thoughts on the way that the doctrinal thinker sees the spiritual world in much the same way as the man in Jesus’ day, according to the barbarous and superstitious ideas of those times, we began with a much higher objective which IS founded in the what church calls the Great Commission. It IS unfortunate that the greater church still sees that it IS angels and demons that ARE at work in this world giving benefits or wreaking havoc in the lives of men and it IS especially unfortunate that several parts of the church actively teach such things with an understanding that defies the reality of the world in which we live. Many will say that these ARE spiritual forces at work but we should understand that two things here; first that ALL things spiritual ARE divorced from the corruption that IS Life in this world and second that “God is a Spirit” (1 John 4:8, 16).

In the view that God IS Spirit we should be able to see and to understand that there IS naught but perfection in the spiritual realm, a realm which NO man has Truly seen save for the one who may glimpse this based in his own measure of KNOWING the Truth, a Truth that comes as the Master shows us in our trifecta. We should remember that the Greek words that ARE rendered as “God is a Spirit” in the King James Bible that we use ARE better understood without the specificity of the ‘a’ which IS as most ALL others render this….”God is Spirit“. This realm of perfection IS NOT shared with ‘demonic‘ forces; such ideas as demons exist in the minds and the emotions of men….they ARE purely carnal and most often the product of one’s own psyche. We use the idea of psyche here to reference the carnal minds and emotions of men and the existence of psychic abilities of that ARE yet beyond our comprehension and, most always, beyond the comprehension even of those who can wield them.

The greater point here IS that such demons ARE NOT spiritual but carnal; they ARE the product of men and ARE powerful forces in one’s own mind or in the ability of one to control another’s which can likely range from the individual to the corporate as we can see in the difficulties of one man and in the spread of evil by one such as Hitler. While the devils of doctrine ARE spoken of throughout the bible, we should understand that the perspective of men in past times was NOT the perspective of men today. Today we recognize mental issues; from the mild to the severe, men who at one time would be seen as possessed ARE now seen as mentally or emotionally ill and that some of these ‘possessed’ in the New Testament KNOW Jesus ONLY adds to the reality that to be mentally ill DOES NOT make one dumb….many ARE acutely aware of what IS happening around them.

While it IS easy to understand how that this idea of devils persisted through the dark and the middle ages, it IS NOT so easy to understand how so many ARE still teaching and believing that there ARE outside forces that attack men and, according to some, especially Christians who ARE pursuing God according to their doctrines. The Greek word diabolos IS translated as devil far more that its True meaning which IS simply: a traducer ^9a according to Strong’s. This word, according to Webster’s 1828 Dictionary means: One that traduces; a slanderer; a calumniator ¹; taking this back to traduce and calumniator we see that the latter IS: To accuse or charge one falsely, and knowingly, with some crime, offense, or something, disreputable; to slander ¹, while the former IS to: To represent as blamable; to condemn. To calumniate; to vilify; to defame; willfully to misrepresent ¹.

It IS easy to catch the idea of this word diabolos and its root word diabállō which IS used once in the New Testament and rendered as accuse. Again, in past times when the mind and the emotions of men were NOT at ALL understood it IS easy to blame one’s problems upon an outside force, a devil if you will. Today however we should see this evermore clearly and understand that the accuser, the calumniator and the traducer IS one’s own self….one’s carnal mind evaluating his own thoughts, attitudes and emotions against the Truth that seeps into his psyche. It IS ONLY the religious man who sees devils as he relates what he IS and what he DOES against what he believes as right.

We have in past essays used a cartoon idea from the Pogo Comic Strip which reads “We have met the enemy and he is us“; this IS used in political satire and lastly as a play on environmental issues for Earth Day in 1970. There IS much Truth to this politically and socially but our point IS to be seen spiritually, to be seen from the perspective of the man who seeks the Lord and sees his own difficulty. Here the idea should be seen as “I have met the enemy and he is me“. The point here IS the most basic point of the spiritual journey of everyman, a journey that IS obnubilated by doctrinal religions which seek to give a man a sense of comfort regarding his own nebulous future and, in the case of most ALL of Christianity, this sense IS found in the denial of ALL spiritual pursuits that ARE NOT in accord with one’s own doctrinal view.

This of course feeds that position of glamour which IS also denied by the doctrinal thinker, that glamour that tells a man that his chosen path the IS the right path and that ALL others DO fail. This glamour and the accompanying illusion IS again that vanity into which everyman IS born; it IS his bondage which IS exacerbated by the degree of nurturing and indoctrination which he endures and the lengths to which he permits this to continue in his Life. Vincent defines this vanity for us in terms that ARE NOT generally understood, that IS that the perspective IS NOT seen by the man who sees his Life as this existence on Earth and then some ‘eternal’ Life of his personality sans the body. If however one can see himself as the spiritual entity using a body with its accompanying personality, his mind and emotional set, we can better understand the idea of the vanity and of the enemy that ALL men face.

Vincent tells us that the idea of vanity as this IS rendered from the Greek word mataiotes should be seen as that: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends ⁴, and NOT in terms of the common understanding of the English word. Here, if we can see that it IS the spiritual entity, the Soul, that IS “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20) by being made to live for a while in this world as a man, we can then glimpse the greater Truth and unlock a part of the great mystery that IS Life. Then, taking the words from Pogo with a spiritual view, we can better see that the enemy of the Soul, the enemy of the spiritual entity that IS the True man, IS the carnal self….the body and the personality. It IS these that the Soul must control; it IS these that must become his expression of Love and Truth in this world. This IS the victory that Jesus shows us.

Here we should try to see the Apostle James’ words from a personal perspective; he says “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 seems to offer a choice between God and the world and if we could see in this the Master’s own idea that “Ye cannot* serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24), we can then better understand just what this choice IS. And it IS in this context that James addresses us as “Ye adulterers and adulteresses” (James 4:4); here we should understand that to look past our own spiritual Truth, to look past the reality of Life in this world from the Soul’s perspective, IS the reality of adultery on a spiritual level. We should understand as well that this IS the context for this Greek word moichos far more often than the presumed sexual context that has become the enemy of men in the view of the church.

Sexual adultery IS seen as sin by most men but this has become a sin that IS NOT prosecuted by either the Church or common law in the more ‘civilized’ world; it IS a human failure that CAN NOT be blamed on diabolos as an influencing entity….it IS the product of the carnal man, his own thoughts and emotions, in this world. And it IS these same thoughts and emotions that make this adultery into spiritual adultery as the man in this world ignores ALL conscience and sense of Truth and proceeds in this action despite ALL that he KNOWS can be the result. While the doctrinally oriented man may believe that it IS diabolos that IS ‘tempting’ him and causing him to fall from ‘grace‘, even if NO ONE KNOWS but he himself, the reality IS that it IS his True spiritual enemy….his own carnal self that causes him to fall.

We should understand here that there are some denominations and sects in the Christian world that look past the diabolos and view God as the cause for such temptations and trials and one’s resultant failures; not specifically in regard to sexual adultery but in regard to spiritual adultery. Such temptations and trials ARE seen by these thinkers as tests of a man’s spiritual strength and include sickness and losses of every kind. And, there ARE some teachings which muddle these ideas together in a view that God ‘allows’ one to be tempted by diabolos as such a test. Much doctrine relies upon the temptations of Jesus which must be seen in their True context to be understood; the Apostle Matthew frames this for us saying that “Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1) but the reality of this IS lost in the doctrinal ideas of men who yet live in the superstitions of the past.

These temptations of Jesus as these ARE offered by the synoptic gospel writers combine for us the ideas Satan and of the devil. While Matthew and Luke write regarding diabolos, the Apostle Mark tells us that Jesus’ encounter IS with satanas which IS always rendered as Satan, a rendering that gives personality to this idea of which Strong’s tells us simply means: the accuser  ^9a. Thayer’s defining ideas on this Greek Word ARE strictly doctrinal and offering a clear picture of the doctrinal idea that satanas IS a personality saying that this IS: the prince of evil spirits  ⁹. Vincent’s commentary on this idea largely conforms to the doctrinal ideas that this IS a personality but also offers us a more straightforward understanding of the word; he tells us that satanas IS: A transcription of the Hebrew word, derived from a verb to lie in wait or oppose. Hence an adversary ⁴. Our point here IS that this idea of satanas and that of diabolos should be seen together as they ARE used in the same context by different writers much as the Kingdom of heaven and the Kingdom of God are crossed.

Our greater point here however IS that these temptations of Jesus need NOT be seen to be at the hand of an outside force any more than the temptations of any man ARE from the outside. While there can be outside influences at play, the reality of temptation IS as IS described by the Apostle James who tells us that “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14); here the outside influences ARE merely the draw, the temptation IS a purely personal matter. If we can transport James idea into Jesus temptations we can see NOT only His struggle but the struggle of everyman.

Jesus IS aware of His own Awesome Power as a True Son of God which should be understood as the Apostle Paul tells us saying that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9); while we can debate about the Way that He comes to KNOW of His Power, the point IS that at this time of temptation He DOES KNOW. We read in the synoptic gospels that the Master endures three specific temptations while He IS fasting and, while there ARE some variations in the accounts, the basic ideas of fasting and temptations stand. Matthew frames this saying that “when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him….” (Matthew 4:2-3) while Luke tells us that Jesus was “Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered” (Luke 4:2) which perhaps tells us that His whole time IS spent in temptations which culminate in the three.

Mark, in his abbreviated way, simply tells us that “he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him” and this too implies a continual sense of temptation. What should we see here in the temptation of Jesus? Most simply that this IS the Master’s ‘final’ trial and His final victory of the spiritual over the carnal; if we can presume that the Master KNOWS the end and that He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15) as the writer of Hebrews tells us, we can perhaps see Him in His dilemma. Jesus IS among men and with great Power which, through His temptations, shows us an alternate carnal path which He could choose. Rather than complete His fast, He could, with this great Power, “command that these stones be made bread” but He chose to complete His course against the call of his physical body for sustenance; surely as a man Jesus IS in distress.

Luke tells us that “he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence” (Luke 4:9) and here we should understand that Jesus DID NOT leave the wilderness and was NOT actually “on a pinnacle of the temple“. We should try to see here another test of self in the mind of the Master who IS physically suffering from a prolonged fast; here He can test the Truth of the idea that “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee” and such angels would then sustain Him and relieve His distress. Finally, we see the greatest of temptations at play, the temptation to use one’s Power for personal gain despite the spiritual warnings against DOING so.

Jesus IS tempted by the idea that His Power, channeled through carnal thoughts and attitudes, can effectively make Him the world leader through such channeling. Throughout history we can see the names of many who failed in such temptation, many who succumbed to such temptations to use their acquired power in a variety of purely selfish ways. If we can understand the role of spiritual collateral in this context we can perhaps see deeper into the spiritual failures of many who have come among us ONLY to be spoiled by the vanity which played off of their own nurturing and indoctrination. Jesus however IS more that merely a man with some spiritual collateral….He has ALL the spiritual collateral that IS available to men; “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” and the keyword here IS ALL.

Can we see here the relationship between the ideas of satanas, diabolos and the carnal personality of men who ARE “drawn away of his own lust, and enticed“? And can we see the result which James shows us saying that “when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death” (James 1:15) as the result of succumbing to the temptations of the carnal mind, temptations that ARE ever present as the opposing pole to the spiritual impetus of men. This IS the devil and this IS satanas in this world: the pull of one’s own carnal mind and emotions away from the Good, the Beautiful and the True….away from the things of God and toward the things of personal satisfaction which many doctrines try to paint in spiritual ways.

And in ALL of this we should see that sense of superstition that runs through history; superstitions that ARE used to explain the unexplainable and to find blame in something that IS NOT oneself. Both diabolos and satanas have become mythical creatures in Christianity but, for most ALL denominations and sects, they ARE treated as real entities with a personality bent on the spiritual destruction of the human race. In Truth both ARE but words that describe one’s adversary against spiritual gain and the accuser of one who has chosen the spiritual Path. On the one hand we have the carnal mind fighting to keep one in a carnal state of self, of personal satisfaction in most every aspect of Life; then, on the other hand we have the calumniator which IS the same carnal mind justifying carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions against the flow of the prompting of the Soul to the Truth. Both ARE successful and both ARE sorely misunderstood.

It IS when men can recognize the simple Truth of vanity, of illusion and glamour, that he can then understand the idea that “I have met the enemy and he is me“. On the spiritual front this IS the carnal mind, diabolos and satanas against the Soul’s desire to overcome the vanity of Life. In the Life of the less spiritually oriented man, the same struggle exists but IS seen in different terms….as the struggle between the conscience and the same carnally focused mind where “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed“. There IS another Greek word that IS also rendered as devil, of this Vincent tells us that: the rendering should be demon . This word daimonion and its root word daimon ARE used in a very different context.

Jesus uses the word to say such things as “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out daimonion?” as He speaks of who will enter the Kingdom of heaven and in this context we should see that such casting out IS possible from a carnal perspective, those to whom He then says “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22, 23). While it IS NOT possible to KNOW just what these demons ARE, that they ARE the possession of one by the ‘spirit’ of another or just some form of mental or emotional disorder, we should understand that such ARE NOT related to diabolos or satanas but perhaps the result of these in the Life of the carnally focused man. In the great mysteries of Life and death there may be disembodied ‘spirits’ which ARE better understood as disembodied personalities and this because as “God is a Spirit, so Spirt IS God. There IS much literature to this end and a whole genre of fiction based upon this literature and we should note here that while these things ARE possible in past times and in more emotionally based civilizations, they ARE far less prevalent today.

We see Jesus speaking of daimonion again with His disciples; we read that Jesus “Jesus rebuked the daimonion; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour“; when asked by His disciples why they could NOT DO so He replies saying “Because of your unbelief” as He teaches them again about “faith as a grain of mustard seed” and then tells them “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting“. Now we DO NOT Truly KNOW if this is a case of ‘possession’ or a case of mental or emotional illness that the Master heals but we DO KNOW from the text that the disciple must KNOW without any doubt that he can DO such a thing or else he CAN NOT. The final part here IS of unsure meaning; surely Jesus DOES NOT fast and pray, He merely “rebuked the daimonion“.

The Apostle Mark offers a similar story but much more graphically; here we learn that Jesus asks the father of the child “How long is it ago since this came unto him?”  and that the father replies “of a child” which idea should help us to understand the idea of illness here rather than some type of possession. We can see much the same thing in the child’s actions as we read that “ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him” which seems to be more likely in illness than in possession by a ‘spirit’ that IS living on in such possession. Finally we read that Jesus “rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead“. We should note there a miraculous cure of either the illness or the possession and note that this has relationship to neither  satanas nor diabolos.

Our greater point here IS that the interpretation of these ideas of satanas and diabolos, as well as diamonion and daimon, into that personality called Satan or the devil ARE the creations of men founded in superstition and fear plus the strong desire to make one’s own offenses the responsibility of another. While these can be seen as a rather normal thing for civilizations that ARE emotionally based, that IS where their guiding thoughts ARE based in an emotional response to the world, they ARE NOT what should be guiding the lives of those which ARE mentally based. In this we can find much of the worldwide disillusionment with the Christian religion as a whole as well as the growth of what ARE a wide range of thoughts that ARE lumped into the idea of atheism.

The doctrinal ideas of heaven and hell further exacerbate the superstition based doctrinal positions which can easily leave the ‘thinking’ man even more disillusioned, leave him apart from religion as a whole as there IS NONE that actively teach the Truth of Jesus words apart from the centuries old doctrinal interpretations. Further, the current doctrinal trend toward eschatology, which IS based in a strange assembly of seemingly prophetic words from the prophets, the Master and His apostles, spends far too much time on their ‘end times’ scenarios which ARE most often steeped in superstition, in illusion and in glamour. This IS, from our perspective, the state of most of Christianity today and here IS the rub: they teach such things while claiming that the non-believer in their absurdity IS condemned to their mythical ‘lake of fire’ for eternity and that the floundering simply have too little faith in what IS in reality their “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). Angels on the other hand ARE even more mythical.

Where then IS the Truth? It IS simply in living one’s Life in accord with His words, words which have led James to tell us that “the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” and Paul to give us such warning as he DOES saying that men should “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). We should add to this the Apostle Peter’s words that tell us that “ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4) which IS to keep His words over the pull of the things of the world. Finally we have the Apostle John’s words that tell us clearly that “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (John 2:4). And these ARE the crux of His words from our trifecta of spiritual reality:

• “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 close today with Paul’s words that show us the Way that we may keep His words without the difficulty of measuring ALL of one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions; this Way IS the expression of agape, the expression of Love as Jesus teaches this most spiritual concept. The point here IS that in one’s expression of Love to ALL with NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9) places one in a position where he CAN NOT go against His words. Repeating the apostles words we read:

“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 of  God	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

• 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
• ^9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
• 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