IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 927

ON LOVE; PART DXVI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“.

We ended the last essay with our own rendering of these words from the Apostle Paul; here we render the idea of hope as expectation and the word rendered as because as that. For the change to that we have Vincent’s remarks that tell us:  The best texts transfer these words from the preceding verse, and construe with was made subject, rendering ο’τι that instead of because ⁴ as we discussed in the last essay. The rendering of this word is a translators choice and there are likely times when the context would indicate that because is the right one; however, here in this saying the idea of that works regardless of whether one agrees with Vincent on the words “in hope” or whether the idea is changed, as we do, to expectation. According to the lexicon the Greek word hoti can be used to refer to the that, because and since ² in the English language and it is rendered as that the majority of the time; Strong’s ³ agrees with this word usage. As we said in the last essay, there are meanings for hope in the English language that ARE in the realm of expectation but our point here IS that the common understanding is one of wishful thinking and this should be avoided in the reading of the word rendered as hope in most New Testament entries and nowhere more importantly than this one. Here we should understand that God has no need to hope when it is seen in this common English idea of wishful thinking and it seems to us that the easier idea would to change the rendering of the Greek word elpis than to rely upon the proper view of the English word by the reader. This IS of course more complex that it appears as the verses following our selection from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans discuss this word in greater detail and this word has become a tool in doctrine; we will discuss this further when we finish with our current selection:

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 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 firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:13-23).

This Greek word elpis is defined in the lexicon as: expectation of evil, fear; expectation of good, hope; in the Christian sense joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; on hope, in hope, having hope the author of hope, or he who is its foundation; the thing hoped for ². This IS clearly expectation but it is most always rendered as hope in most ALL New Testament translations. It IS not the rendering here that we take issue with however, it is the common understanding of the word in English. If the English word hope was considered in this fashion of expectation, there would be no issue but it IS not. Our modern English dictionary defines the noun hope as: 1. the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope. 2. a particular instance of this feeling: the hope of winning. 3. grounds for this feeling in a particular instance: There is little or no hope of his recovery. 4. a person or thing in which expectations are centered: The medicine was her last hope. 5. something that is hoped for: Her forgiveness is my constant hope  ⁷. The usage examples are left here so that readily see how it is used in speaking; it IS used as an emotion and the idea of expectation expressed IS NOT that which would be expressed by God. And this IS our point; this IS the apostle speaking about God and even if we look at the other ideas from the dictionary for this word as a verb where we read: 6. to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence. 7. to believe, desire, or trust: I hope that my work will be satisfactory ⁷; this word is still in the range of emotion and of no particular certainty.

The 1828 version of Webster’s Dictionary offers us these ideas on hope: A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope therefore always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied with pain and anxiety ¹. In these ideas we can perhaps see why Greek this word IS rendered as the English hope and that there IS, or was in 1828, some degree of expectation attached. However, we ARE speaking about God where there IS no emotion; this IS a faculty of the personality and is only a reality here in this world. In the synonyms section of our modern dictionary we find these ideas listed under the heading of the word expect that should help us to understand these words: Synonyms 1. Expect, anticipate, hope, await all imply looking to some future event. Expect implies confidently believing, usually for good reasons, that an event will occur: to expect a visit from a friend. Anticipate is to look forward to an event and even to picture it: Do you anticipate trouble? Hope implies a wish that an event may take place and an expectation that it will: to hope for the best. Await ( wait for ) implies being alert and ready, whether for good or evil: to await news after a cyclone ⁷. We should also note here also the this word hope has been made by doctrine to be a cornerstone of Christianity as Easton’s Bible Dictionary tells us:

Hope: one of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Cor. 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing (Rom. 8:24; 1 John 3:2). “Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:23). In it the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (Eph. 1:18; 4:4).” Unbelievers are without this hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:13). Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Tim. 1:1; Col. 1:27; Titus 2:13). It is spoken of as “lively”, i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Pet. 1:3). In Rom. 5:2 the “hope” spoken of is probably objective, i.e., “the hope set before us,” namely, eternal life (comp. 12:12). In 1 John 3:3 the expression “hope in him” ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, “hope on him,” i.e., a hope based on God. 

It is easy to see the doctrinal approach to this word hope and again we should note that so long as this word is seen in relation to a wish and a desire rather than a fact that can be True, it IS wrongly rendered. For us this idea of understanding hope is much like our ideas on the other two of the three main elements of Christian character; faith and love. None of these is seen in the light of the Truth of the Master’s words; faith in doctrine IS related to believing but by the Master’s words the True faith IS found in KNOWING; similarly with Love which is understood as a emotion and as that human attachment and attraction to others and even to things but IS in reality the underlying Truth of the Golden Rule and more. We ARE NOT here disparaging the Christian beliefs, we are however saying that the common understanding of ALL of these words IS NOT sufficient to render the reality of the Words of the Master nor His apostles. It is when we can properly understand Love and express it, when we can properly understand faith as the Power of KNOWING without doubt, and when we can properly understand hope as the confident expectations of things to come, that we can properly understand our own roles in this Great and Awesome Plan of God.

While it may not seem important to understand the use of this word, there IS a real need to see our verse properly so as to understand the implication of the apostle’s message. in our own rendering of this we read that “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” In this we see a straightforward picture of the Plan of God; we understand these words as the Truth of our being here, that as Souls we are here in this world subjected to the vanity of it and this we should understand vanity as Vincent paints for us in this verse saying: Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends  ⁴. Here in this idea of a perishable and decaying condition we can clearly see Paul’s idea of corruption and in the idea of being separate from God we should clearly see the reality that as Souls subjected to the illusions of the world we ARE separated as we strive to consciously return to Him. And, in the idea of pursuing false ends as well as these other ideas we should be able to see the reality of illusion and of glamour; we DO not see the reality of our own lives as we exist in this temporal flux until such time as we come to realize our Truth which IS hidden behind the facade of Life in form. The idea here of creature should be seen as the Soul in form both individually and corporately and the reality of this subjection to vanity is the reality of the Life of the Soul in this world; subjected to the vanity as it IS expressed by Vincent and which we call illusion and glamour. Then we see the reality that we, as Souls in from, are not so subjected willingly but by the Plan of God with which we cooperate.

It IS this Life in form, this Life afflicted by the vanity which causes our sense of separateness from our True selves as Souls and from our God which IS both our plight and our service to the Plan and it IS this separateness that can be seen in the preceding verses as our suffering and as that affliction that we have in common with Christ Jesus. While we will be conscious of this service when we can “mortify the deeds of the body” and ARE “led by the Spirit of God“, we ARE as Souls in this service already and to be conscious of this is to be expressing the Love and the Power of the Soul through Life in form; to consciously realize the Truth of the adoption and the reality of being “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ“. Until we can realize these things we are serving mammon, serving the isolated and deluded Life of a man in the world who IS living in this perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends. 

But there IS hope or better there IS expectation by “him who hath subjected the same” which IS to be seen as God and His Plan. Now to be sure that this IS NOT seen as a dead end; that we are here in the grips of this delusion and separation from Truth for which there IS NO way out, the apostle continues with this thought.He tells us that while God did subject us to this, that He did so “in expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered” and this we should read as the Soul in form will come to the necessary realization of the Truth as the man in form. This word rendered as delivered means to be set free and the lexicon adds that it means: set at liberty: from the dominion of sin ². Here, if we can understand the reality of sin, that it IS focus upon the self and the ways of the world, then we can understand this idea of being delivered in this context; that we will be set free from the illusions and the glamours of Life in form….the vanity of the world of men. This IS our promise of salvation and our deliverance into the consciousness of the Kingdom of God and this IS framed by the apostle as that God expects this to happen; he does not hope but he expects. That this should happen IS the Plan of God and perhaps the only thing that keeps the apostle from saying that He KNOWS that the creature will be delivered is the free will that is the privilege and the plague of men in the world. By this free will in Life in this world, mankind himself can make this entire existence come to an end.

But this IS NOT the expectation, the expectation IS that ALL will be delivered from Life in this world where he IS separated from God and lost in the illusions and the vanity; this IS the Plan. And Paul frames this so well for us saying that this deliverance IS “from the bondage of corruption” which we should see as this thing we need to be delivered from, the separation from God and the illusions of Life, IS this same corruption of which we recently read in the Apostle Peter’s words saying: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). Here Peter also gives us some insight into this promise of deliverance as he tells us that we become “partakers of the divine nature“. We should note here in these words from Paul that this IS an expectation of God and in this word we should see the another reality in God’s expectation as concerns us as men individually in form; not only can mankind by his free will end this ALL, but there is also the added factor of free will for the individual; for a man to be be a partaker of this “divine nature” and to be  “led by the Spirit of God“, that he must “mortify the deeds of the body” which Peter tells us is to have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust“. By his choice he must by Repentance and Transformation bring about the needed changes and bring the conscious awareness of the man in the world into the Light of the Soul and the control of the divine; here this choice IS governed by free will but it is subject as well to the prompting of the Soul and the idea here is not so much if as it is when…in this incarnation or in a future one.  

And this IS the expectation of the creature from a different perspective as well; using a different word Paul tells us “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God“. This manifestation comes about as the realization of the man who IS “led by the Spirit of God“; the man whose focus IS on the things of God and here we have the idea of waiting in expectation of this and here we should remember that the creature IS the Soul in the world. We must here take the view that this “earnest expectation” IS  of the True man who, while he may be engrossed in the ways of the world, IS ever present in the Kingdom as the Life and the precursor of consciousness in form; that part of the complexity of humankind that prompts the personality to the Good, the Beautiful and the True. We should be able to see here the individual action of expectation of deliverance as well as the corporate ideas under the Plan of God; here in the idea of the “ creature waiteth” IS the Soul waiting for the personality to heed his call.

In ALL this IS the simple reality that as Souls we are made to live through these forms in the Earth by the Plan of God who expects that individually and corporately the Souls of men will overcome their worldly nature and set themselves free from the constraints and the corruption of living in the illusion and the glamour of the world of men and to enter into the promise of the “the glorious liberty of the children of God” where we become again “partakers of the divine nature“. ALL of the teachings of the Master and His apostles are directed at this end result. Why this IS ALL so we DO NOT KNOW but we can get a glimpse if we can reflect upon our own lives; and our thoughts and emotions as we have individually grown from who or what we were to what we ARE today. We should remember here also that we are, as Souls in form in this world, serving the Plan of God in ways that we CAN NOT yet imagine but which we do get a hint of from the remainder of Paul’s words.

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

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 repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.

My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.

My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.

I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.

My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² 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, 1888
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011