IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 378

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLIX

“For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:44-45).

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt , and where thieves break through and steal : But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Aspect of God	Potency	Expressed as Fire	Aspect of Man
Father	Will or Power	Electric Fire	Spirit or Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Solar Fire	Soul or Christ Within
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Fire by Friction	Life Within the Form

We wound up going back into the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans again in the last post and again dissected it with the intent to show the utter depth of these few words by Paul. In them we see a picture of the reality of our created world including the vanity into which we as Souls are plunged and it is this sense of vanity that we call illusion and glamour in our writing. The complete text goes thus:

“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).

Before we leave this topic, let us look at this word that is translated as vanity so as we can see the reality of how it is intended to be seen by the writer.

• From Webster’s 1828 edition we find: 1. Emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity. 2. Fruitless desire or endeavor. 3. Trifling labor that produces no good. 4. Emptiness; untruth. 5. Empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment. 6. Ostentation; arrogance. 7. Inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride, inspired by an overweening conceit of one”s personal attainments or decorations¹. Can we see here the personal nature of the word in a definition similar to that of our current understanding?
• Our modern dictionary tells us that vanity means: 1. excessive pride in one’s appearance, qualities, abilities, achievements, etc.; character or quality of being vain; conceit. 2. an instance or display of this quality or feeling. 3. something about which one is vain. 4. lack of real value; hollowness; worthlessness: the vanity of a selfish life. 5. something worthless, trivial, or pointless⁷. Can we see here how it has become related to the idea of conceit and of pride as its major factors?

Reading this word into this phrase should not give us the impression that we get from our understanding of vanity as this is not the best of ideas to see in the “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly” (Romans 8:20) as it gives us an incomplete thought. Other bible translators have recognized this and have offered different renderings of the Greek word mataiotes which occur in a broad range as follows and in which we can also see a change to the overall meaning of this entire verse.

• Our own King James Version (KJV) says: “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“. We have discussed this much and should understand it in the Light that the creature of the creation as a whole is subject to the illusion and the glamour, that is that as Souls, all are plunged into this un-reality and this not by his own choice by merely by the fact that he is incarnated into this world. We know little of why the whole of this realty of Life on this Earth IS but we have postulated, according to these verses from Romans, that there is some redemptive work being done by the True man, the Soul. The end point of this verse shows us that we are not in this vanity willingly but by the reasons of Him who has also subjected the creature, or the creation, to hope which is in his deliverance. Now this is understandable to us whose perspective is that of the Soul in form and not the form that has a Soul.
• The New International Version says this: “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope” which makes of this a saying that has no real meaning and they continue in their changes to say that ”that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage” (Romans 8:21). The entire message here is changed and muddied; the idea of frustration is unclear and the continuation seems to say that it is by the will of the one who hopes that the creation will be liberated. Now if we understand the one who subjected the creation as God then how can we state that He would hope ”that the creation itself will be liberated“. Can we see the problem here with this rendition?
• The Bible in Basic English renders it this way: “For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope That all living things will be made free” and here we get the idea of change which is not an explainable idea in this context and here we also have the continuation of the thought into an idea that it is God that hopes and we should understand that this cannot be the case. Vincent tells us this regarding the idea of hope:
  

  By reason of Him who hath subjected (dia ton upotaxanta). God, not Adam nor Satan. Paul does not use the grammatical form which would express the direct agency of God, by Him who hath subjected, but that which makes God’s will the occasion rather than the worker – on account of Him. Adam’s sin and not God’s will was the direct and special cause of the subjection to vanity. The supreme will of God is thus removed “to a wider distance from corruption and vanity” (Alford)⁴. Vincent here is telling us of doctrine and not so much of the proper translations except that he does tell us that it is God that has subjected us to this vanity and from here we say that He has subjected us to this hope as well and these two are for us the basic duality of Life in form that we have spoken of in past essays. The way this is phrased in the KJV gives us a reason in the phrasing “because” for the subjection to hope which is that the creature will be delivered by the power of a Son of God; however, we will only see this if we can look closely and with our own understanding of the True nature of man in mind.

  Vincent goes onto to tell us of his understanding of the beginning of the next verse that we cite parts of in each translation above: In hope because (ep elpidi oti), The best texts transfer these words from the preceding verse, and construe with was made subject, rendering oti that instead of because. “The creation was subjected in the hope that,” etc. In hope is literally on hope, as a foundation. The hope is that of the subjected, not of the subjector. Nature “possesses in the feeling of her unmerited suffering, a sort of presentiment of her future deliverance” (Godet). Some adopt a very suggestive connection of in hope with waiteth for the manifestation. Can we see how this is contrary to our view and how it is laden with doctrine in an attempt to explain what is inexplicable without understanding the key parts of our very being as Souls in incarnation in the world.

• We will cite two more here without comment so that we can see the overall lack of understanding of these verses which for us contain a key to the reality of Life in form. The New Living Translation says that “Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse” and the Revised Standard Version tells us that “for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope“.

We cannot be sure that our understanding of this is right but based upon our view it is the logical approach to these words by the apostle. In the various translations we find vanity, frustration, change, futility and the curse of God and of all these the idea of vanity fits best when we look at this from the perspective of the creature as well as the creation. The lexicon tells us of the Greek word ktisis that it is rendered as creature and as creation depending on its usage; the full meaning says: the act of founding, establishing, building etc; the act of creating, creation; creation i.e. thing created, of individual things, beings, a creature, a creation; anything created; after a rabbinical usage (by which a man converted from idolatry to Judaism was called); the sum or aggregate of things created; institution, ordinance². Can we see the multiplicity of possible interpretations here of which creature and creation are two? Strong’s gives us a much simpler version saying that ktisis means creation, created thing, creature; governmental institution³ and reminds us that this word is translated in the KJV as building and as institution as well. Hence the interpretation of these verses varies and it varies according to the opinion and the doctrines of men. For us the proper term is creature as we would understand that the creature is subject to this vanity because it is the nature of the creation itself.

Getting back to our word vanity, having seen the variety of interpretations for this Greek word mataiotes, and its uses here and in the English vernacular we come to the lexicon again. They tell us that mataiotes means what is devoid of truth and appropriateness; perverseness, depravity; frailty, want of vigour and they tell us that in the KJV the only translation for it is vanity. In the New American Standard key lexicon the definitions are the same but the usage is futility twice and vanity once. Can we find the idea of futile in the creation or in the creature? especially as a thing that we are subjected to by God? In the KJV lexicon we do have some understanding to help us see illusion and glamour in their idea of what is devoid of truth and appropriateness which we could see as synonymous terms with illusion and glamour respectively. Looking at Strong s we can see the source of the ideas in the translations above as they tell us that the definition is emptiness, futility and frustration. None of these plays well in the context of our verse except for vanity which, even from the common understanding, gives us a sense of the plight of the man in form.

Repeating what Vincent says about this word mataiotes we can pick out a few ideas to help us to better understand the intent of the apostle and the selection of words that he chose to give us this impression of illusion and of glamour which is the reality of vanity as we read it. He says: Vanity (mataiothti). Only here, Eph. iv. 17; 2 Pet. ii. 18. Compare the kindred verb became vain (Rom. i. 21 note), and the adjective vain (1 Cor. iii. 20; 1 Pet. i. 18). Vain is also used to render kenov (1 Cor. xv. 14, 58; Eph. v. 6; Jas. ii. 20). Kenov signifies empty; mataiov idle, resultless. Kenov, used of persons, implies not merely the absence of good, but the presence of evil. So Jas. ii. 20. The Greek proverb runs. “The empty think empty things.” Mataiov expresses aimlessness. All which has not God for the true end of its being is mataiov. Pindar describes the vain man as one who hunts bootless things with fruitless hopes. Plato (“Laws,” 735) of labor to no purpose. Ezek. xiii. 6, “prophesying vain things (mataia),” things which God will not bring to pass. Compare Tit. iii. 9. Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends. 

Picking out our words we can find our ideas in Vincent’s thoughts where, although he reads too gloomy an understanding into the citation from James which says “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?“, he has the proper intent of both apostles as it implies the absence of good as we should see in spiritually. However, as is normal in doctrine, the idea of evil should be seen more as just not good than it is outwardly bad. In the idea of aimlessness we should find also some understanding of the plight of man in form, he is lost in a world that he comes to believe is the reality of Life and this is the epitome of our illusion. Vincent’s final words here can be very helpful in understanding this idea of the vanity that men are subjected to; he says that in this context of Romans Chapter Eight on the idea of vanity that:  Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends. And in this sentence we should clearly see the plight of man in form.

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.

Evening Reflection

May the Power of the One True God flow through His group of all true servers;

May the Love of the Christ characterize the lives of all who seek to aid in His work;

May I fulfill my part in the one work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech

(Evening Reflection)