Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CXXXIII

“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, Because 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 first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:14-23).

We leave our primary subject as it is outlined in the Apostle Paul’s words above to continue on what we have been discussing for the last posts and off and on throughout the entire series of posts. We began this yesterday saying that we will pursue this line, which is in regard to our premise that the doctrines of the church which purport to interpret the ideas of the Master and His apostles often serve to confound the teachings of the Christ, until it is exhausted or we come upon a new theme. We ended yesterday with another thought that brought us back to the ideas expressed by the Master when He sent forth His disciples, both in the midst of His ministry and at the end, and that the doctrines that were sparked by His words started out in line with His principals through the apostles and the next generation of disciples but then became the professed doctrines of the churches as they tried to interpret and to understand the words of the Master and His apostles. For clarity we move the Master’s instructions from the Quote of the Day area to this main essay:

“And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat” (Matthew 10:7-10).

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20) [New American Standard Version].

In the first we find the Master’s instructions to His disciples as he sent them forth and, as aspirants, we should in this see our own instructions which are that we do the works of God, that we teach the Truth of the Kingdom and that we serve our fellow man. Whatsoever it is that we receive from the Christ Within, what is revealed to us, is FREE; we must give again FREELY and it is of great importance that we must do so in a attitude of forsaking, leaving ALL the things of the world behind, bringing with us only the humble nature of a True Son of God. Many teachers and preachers around the world would not agree with our understanding of these words; first that they apply to ALL disciples and therefore ALL that aspire to become disciples, and second that the Lord cannot mean that a teacher or preacher of His word should have to do without any thing. This view is especially taken by those of of the so called prosperity denominations but, any who read His words with an open mind and no preconceptions from doctrine or of the way things are, we can easily see the logical reality of this. We borrow this phrase from the last post where it is given in regard to the constitution of Man and the Nature of God so that we can better see the overall issues that the Christ faces as He prepares to return, in some fashion or another, to His promised Presence with us. Any true reading of the words of the Master will show the validity of our thoughts above but, as we know, where the ways of man in form are contradicted by the words of the Master and His apostles, the man will find other scriptures and other interpretations that will ‘cover’ his ‘sin’ and in this we find that self deception that is so prevalent in the world today, a deception which is thought to be supported by the words of the Master and His disciples as they are interpreted by the various doctrines of the churches which is a form of deception in itself.

In the second scripture above we see again the instruction given by the Christ to His disciples and they ares further enhanced here at the Master’s time of departure. No longer is it just to heal and to preach but to make disciples of ALL through their healing and preaching; we should see here also that in His telling us to teach “them to observe all that I commanded you” which is in reality the words of the Master that we discuss here daily but which has become the doctrine of the churches instead. In this we should also understand that we should maintain that same understanding of giving FREELY and bringing to the world only the humble nature of a True Son of God and this from His prior commandment in the first of His instructions above.

As we have said in past posts, perhaps there is a reality in the teachings of the denominations that we do not see clearly. Perhaps there is, as part of the Great Plan of God, this dilution of His words so as to attract those who would otherwise not be attracted by the seeming harshness of His dictum to those who would be His disciples. We cannot answer this and there is the definite effect of the centuries of Christian doctrine that has brought the world to its present state. Many seek the church because there they find solace in His Love as it preached to the masses, others find cover for their otherwise carnal behavior and still others stay away or find alternate sources of understanding on God. This does not cover all as there are some that Truly believe as they are taught insofar as following what the Master says, but it does cover many and we should understand that, in the church of today, the first two groups are seen as adherents to the Faith while the last is seen in a rather heathen perspective of those who must be saved. This is the effect of doctrine and much of this understanding comes from the doctrinal slant that is put upon the Master’s words through the use of Old Testament scripture that are said to apply to ALL and the use of the words of the apostles which are ofttimes misunderstood and misinterpreted.

There is an alternate rendition of the last words of the Master in the Gospel of Mark; these words are disputed by many as to their authenticity which Vincent mentions briefly saying at the end of his treatment of Chapter 16 that By a large number of the ablest modern critics the remainder of this chapter is held to be from some other hand than Mark’s. It is omitted from the two oldest manuscripts⁴. Vincent goes on to tell us that: A manuscript of the eighth or ninth century, known as L, has, at the close of verse 8, these words: “In some instances there is added as follows.” Then we read: “But all the things enjoined they announced without delay to those who were around Peter (i.e., to Peter and those who were with him). And afterward Jesus himself, from the east unto the west, sent forth through them the sacred and incorruptible message of eternal salvation.”⁴ He adds in relation to some of the words that appear in this disputed section: Following (ejpakolouqou>ntwn). Following closely: force of ejpi>. Both this and the word for follow, in verse 17, are foreign to Mark’s diction, though he frequently uses the simple verb⁴. There is, of course, no clear way to determine the validity of these verses except for each man’s own Soul response to the words as they appear; that is through what the Apostle John calls “the anointing which ye have received of him” (1 John 2:27). The words form the Gospel of Mark are thus:

“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following . Amen“ (Mark 16:15-20).

There are a few remarks that we have here on this version;

• First, we do not take a position on its validity as there are arguments on both side that we have not read and therefore do not understand; this also is of little consequence as we do understand the principals of His commandments to His disciples and through them to us who would become disciples. Vincent puts forth the issues rather clearly above and lists many works that discuss this issue both for and against. We could list these and discuss them but we have said enough and each reader must decide for himself to pursue this or not.
• Second we should see here a gross translation error and a saying that in our view the Master would not utter and another saying that is unclear and as it is in the other version above. The word that is translated as damned is the Greek word katakrinō which is in most other places translated as condemned and which we have spoken about before as judged. Vincent tells us about its usage here that: Shall be damned (katakriqh>setai). A most unfortunate rendering. The word is a judicial term, and, as Dr. Morison truthfully says, “determines, by itself, nothing at all concerning the nature, degree, or extent of the penalty to be endured.” See on the kindred noun, kri~ma, judgment, rendered by A.V. damnation, 1 Corinthians 11:29. Rev., rightly, condemned⁴. In the idea of condemned we have the understanding of: Pronounced to be wrong, guilty, worthless, or forfeited; adjudged or sentenced to punishment, destruction, or confiscation¹ which from our perspective is but a little bit better than damned and this is based upon the Love of God and of the Christ, a Love that does not damn nor condemn especially for so spurious an offence. In this phrase and with this word we should note that there are many variations for their use and that there is a wide gulf between judgement and damnation in real terms albeit not so much in biblical doctrine; we cover this idea a bit deeper in In the Words of Jesus part 61. The ideas of judgement as they exist in the New Testament should be looked at first as that self judging that one must do to ascertain his place within the scheme of things as regards his spiritual life. Without this understanding it is difficult to place any of these words and with it we should be able to see that in the idea of judgement is also self condemnation and even self damnation but these are more the responses to the judgement than to any thing else.
• Third is that there is a criteria for the believer that has not been duplicated by any in modern times and by few in Jesus time and the early church. In this last part we need to understand the meaning of these words and the effect of them on one’s understanding of discipleship. The words are “In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” which are rather absolute and in the realm of KNOWING that one can accomplish them; that is that the man who can do these things IS a KNOWER . We have placed this concept of KNOWING in a realm that is beyond believing and is as in the final state of the Apostle Peter, after he was able to shed his doubt. To KNOW is to doubt not and is the completeness of Faith. Now if these are the signs of Truly believing on the Master which is to follow Him and keep His words, then this is an even tighter constraint than those criteria that He places upon discipleship. Can we understand this? and can we see that the items listed here are not listed in a one or the other fashion but as a complete list. Can we also see in the Life of the Apostle Paul that he accomplished most all of this list except perhaps the part to “drink any deadly thing“. Most importantly can we see that the True disciple IS the Power and the Love of God flowing freely through one’s Life in form and that in this state of being ALL things are possible up to and including the moving of the mountain….that ALL is a matter of degree.

Looking at these several words. that are attributed to the Apostle Mark but disputed by some. with an open mind that is set to our understanding of spiritual Life and of discipleship, there appears only a problem with some words and translations and it this Light we have no real position on the validity of this part of the chapter. This being said, we should realize here that if these words are the Master’s as recorded by Mark, that we have yet another sign of discipleship. We should ever remember that to dwell on these things is fruitless and that we would serve better to spend our time on the reality of His words as they relate to our relationship with others and not as they relate to one’s own self achievement.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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.

In accord with the ideas that we close with above we bring again to your attention the ideas by which a man should Live. This Quote of the Day is the realty of how we should focus our lives and in so doing, all the other things alluded to above will take care of themselves and this is a great part of the selfless attitude of the disciple and his ability to forsake ALL.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888