IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 439

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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While we intended to continue our discussion on service in the last post we spent much of our time in the reality of focus in the lives of men today. We commented on how this word is not used in scripture but this was a reflection on our versions and translations that are traditionally used. In a number of the newer translations which are of the paraphrase sort and what is called thought for thought, this word is found an in a number of different uses. Our traditional bible is generally considered a word for word translation but this is not technically correct and the idea of literal translation makes more sense. There has been an explosion of different translations over the last 50 or so years and bible translating and publishing have become a big business; the impetus seemed to be to create a text that could be understandable at a lower reading level and this is both good and bad. Good as it allows for the less literate to read scripture and bad because the majority of these paraphrase and thought for thought translations are rife with doctrine and pre interpreted ideas which can vary from translation to translation.

It has always been our premise that the words of the New Testament are intentionally vague and the gospels are filled with parables and parabolic sayings and this for the express purpose of their understanding by the reader according to his sense of spirituality. This being said, there is also much of the gospels and the epistles that are written in a way that is clear as day and which are rather ignored by much of the world. Let us look here at a few sayings and the way that they are treated in various translations.

1 John 4:20 

In our first comparison from the First Epistle of John we find the result of individual doctrines and the likely source of the sometimes staunch belief of many today that the Love the the Master speaks of and that John repeats is intended for Christian’s only. In one version it is translated as “hates a Christian brother or sister” and in another as “hates another believer” and these are likely the True sentiments of those who translated these words and at the same time these are the doctrinal interpretations of the translators. How one can take these words out of the entirety of the Master’s words on Love is for us a mystery and the key to this mystery is found in the glamour and the illusion in which men live. Here is a good example of our idea of glamour as a means by which one’s own ways are promoted above the ways of another. The Christian, believing himself to be above others by his OWN interpretation of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles, continues to promote this belief to others. This phenomenon is not limited to Christians alone but we can find it in nearly ALL religion; it exists as Christians verses other religions and within Christianity as denomination or sect verses other denominations or sects; it exists in similar fashion in the religions and the religious sects of the Jews and in similar fashion with the Muslims. Each group uses this glamour or this group vanity to place itself above others often taking this to a place of making derogatory remarks about others and at times leading to actual armed conflict. We can see here the idea of the Christian who believes in his own superiority not only teaching it but recreating the ideas of Universal Love as expressed by the Master so as they should effect only those like himself and thereby giving the man and the group a safe haven in which they can dislike and even hate others and at the same time feel like they are doing Gods work. This is much like our point from yesterday where we say that:

This can be seen happening across today’s societies and cultures where the RIGHT thing is substituted by that which is convenient or easy and just looking about at the habits and the thoughts of men as they regard the commandments of the Lord, we shall find that we are most ALL guilty to some degree and here we find the words of the Apostle James poignant as he says: “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11).

We should note that the subject that the Apostle James is speaking on is Love as well and it is a saying that keeps the thoughts of the Master calling this law of Love the  royal law. Vincent relates this to the sayings regarding this same verse from Paul’s writings and he tells us of this phrase by James this: Fulfill the royal law (nomon teleite basilikon). The phrase occurs only here and Rom. ii. 27. Telein, fulfill, is stronger than the more common word threin, observe or keep, which appears in ver. 10. He goes on to say that James here speaks of a single commandment, the proper word for which is ejntolh, while nomov is the body of commandments. It is appropriate here, however, since this special commandment sums up the entire law…… It is the royal law; the king of all laws⁴. Our point here is that this idea of Love is of paramount importance in the Master’s teachings and in the mind of His apostles where we read this from Paul that should cement our case: “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” (Romas 13:10). KNOWING the original writing of the law in Deuteronomy and the Master’s repeating of it and elevating it to be among the Greatest Commandments plus this testimony of Paul and James, we should have enough to understand the intent but unfortunately this IS NOT the case and men have, and continue to find ways to change the meaning to what we see in the translations above and they would likely argue the point with us. Speaking of this same verse from John’s Epistle we wrote in In the Words of Jesus part 247 these words which we repeat with ever more force today:

When we have the choice of how to view a verse such as these in chapter four, why is it that so many choose not the broadest and most inclusive but rather the narrow and separatist? Ponder on this.

We answer this with the reality of glamour and of illusion as it infects the minds of generation after generation and is reinforced by the teachings of those who prefer the separatist attitude because of the influence of these very same forces. It only stops as more people are informed with the Truth of the Master’s teachings which is the quick remedy to the infections of vanity and of self.

The next verse that we compare in the translations above is another of our much used parts of the Master’s teaching. Here we are ever trying to frame mammon as more than riches and more than money so that it can be seen in the True Light as those things of the world that take our time an our attention, our focus. While the technical meaning of the word is riches, some translators thought is important to leave it as mammon. We should note the following:

• Vincent tells us that Mammon should be spelt with one m. It is a Chaldee word, meaning riches⁴.
• The lexicon tells us that this is from the Greek word mammonas and means: mammon; treasure; riches (where it is personified and opposed to God)².
• Strong’s tells us that mammonas means wealth; assets³.
• Vine’s tells us: <1,,3126,mamonas>  a common Aramaic word for “riches,” akin to a Hebrew word signifying “to be firm, steadfast” (whence “Amen”), hence, “that which is to be trusted;” Gesenius regards it as derived from a Heb. word signifying “treasure” (Gen. 43:23); it is personified in Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9,11,13 ⁶. 

The variety of definitions and assessments of intent vary much here and perhaps the idea that we would take away is that this word mammon is much like the word treasure as the Master uses it. By the simple term of “treasure of the heart” we can KNOW that this means more than money and assets when spoken of worldly things and the same ideas given above as definitions of mammon could apply to this treasure in the world. Looking at what we find from Vine’s along with our own ideas and the construction given to us by the word treasure we should see this mammon as much the same thing albeit perhaps from a strictly worldly perspective. We could say that mammon IS the “treasure of the heart“ when one is focused upon the things of the world and we would likely have an accurate assessment.

This being said, we note that in the above translation comparison the word mammon from the King James Version is substituted by the single pointed ideas of money, wealth and worldly riches all of which can give only the idea that the Master is talking about these things. This is contrary to the apparent intent of the words of the Master as well. We should note the way the Master lays this our for us in Matthew’s Gospel saying:

“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. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:19-33).

Here in this string of related sayings by the Master given as a part of the Sermon on the Mount, we find a number of ideas and none of them are money. While the technical term in English for mammon may be money and riches, can it be that these ideas are taken from interpretations of scripture? In the defining ideas that we have above it is hard to KNOW the derivation of the meanings that are commonly thought as being money and riches and wealth and when these are placed against the other ideas of ‘personified wealth’ or  “that which is to be trusted” as we read in Vine’s along with the idea of treasures, we should come away with more than money and riches. Looking at the sayings above we find the following:

• The Master’s caution about the treasures of the Earth and instruction on the True treasures in heaven which we should understand is within and hence our understanding that the treasures of the heart are that which is the focus of the consciousness. He goes on to tell us this saying “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also“
• Jesus goes on from here to tell us about the eye and Light which we have discussed before and which we interpret here as saying that the eye is a reference to the consciousness that we discuss above and the Light is the Light of the Soul that flows through that consciousness when the consciousness is single or focused upon the Light. However, when the consciousness is focused upon the things of the world then there is darkness as the man will only see the lower carnal self. We had not seen this saying so clearly previously and we will come back to this idea in a future post.
• From here we go to serving God and mammon which is our target saying from above. Here we have the idea, from our perspective of focus, in three parts; first the treasures in the point above, whether they are from above or below, they are the focus. Next we have the Light and the consciousness which the Master calls the eye and again we have focus on the higher side, the Soul, or the lower, the things of the world with one bringing in the Light and the other darkness. Here, we have God and mammon and again we have the idea of focus, this time again as the choice between focus on the things of God or the things of the world of mammon and this without limiting and restricting the idea to money.
• From here the Master goes on to speak about how we should act towards the things of the world, that we should “Take no thought” for Life, for eating and drinking, for one’s body or for clothing. This too is misunderstood by much of the church who say that this means do not worry and this is the opinion of many commentators as well. However, in the context in which it is given, can we see that relationship between “Take no thought” for the things of the world and the idea of focus upon the things of God?

We did not get to our subject but we did cover our point of what it is that men believe, religious men, and men of ALL stripes. They believe what they are taught until and unless they can hear the voice of their own Souls and heed it and focus upon the things of God. In line with this we post today as an additional Quote of the Day some lines from a song written by Jackson Browne; these were written before the 9-11 tragedy of which today is the eleventh anniversary and was used much in that time. It is a realistic approach to  patriotism and we should be able to see in the lyrics that it can pertain to most any belief system; the name is I Am a Patriot but it could just as well be I Am a Catholic or a Muslim or a Jew or a Protestant or a Hindu. The reality of ALL these things is in the lyrics which we will open with in the next post.

I am a patriot and I love my county

Because my country is all I know

I want to be with my family people who understand me

I’ve got nowhere else to go

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.

Do not live in the world, In distraction and false dreams. Outside the dharma. Arise and watch. Follow the way joyfully through this world and beyond. Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully Through this world and on beyond! For consider the world – A bubble, a mirage. See the world as it is, And death shall overlook you. Come, consider the world, A painted chariot for kings, A trap for fools. But he who sees goes free. As the moon slips from behind a cloud And shines, So the master comes out from behind his ignorance And shines. The world is in darkness. How few have eyes to see! How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven!⁵

This Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, and exemplifies from His perspective the same basic message that we have been seeing from the Christ. Follow the way of the Soul, focus upon the Real and not on the illusion and thereby attain the Kingdom. If we read and reread this we should be able to see the thread of reality in forsaking ALL for the Kingdom.

• ²from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 188
• ⁵ The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996