Monthly Archives: May 2014

ON LOVE; PART DCXXXIV

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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.

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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)

In the last essay we recapped a bit of our discussion on the fourth and fifth chapters of the Epistle of James so as to show the connection of ALL of the apostle’s thoughts that lead up to the much misunderstood saying which we ended with; that: “the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth“. Most believe that this IS speaking about the man who IS rich and who IS defrauding those that work in his fields of their fair wages. While this may not seem an important idea to dwell upon, this DOES lead us to the next and forms that continuation of thought that allows us to understand the message of the apostle which IS the same as it has been….that the aspirant and the disciple MUST resist those thoughts, attitudes and actions that come to him from the world in which he lives in that state of duality which the apostle calls being double minded. Our full set of sayings as we posted them yesterday are intended to give the message of attending to the self in the world instead of remaining focused upon the things of God; we read:

“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you” (James 4:13-17, 5:1-6).

We should remember that the apostle IS writing from a ‘if the shoe fits’ perspective and as a caution against reverting to the ways of the world and that the apostle takes us from the reality that “a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4) and then into a dissertation about how that pride and satisfaction with such worldly ways is a wrong attitude for the man who strives toward the Kingdom of God. An attitude which leads to one’s own emotions and thoughts that place him above others based upon his worldly successes. To the man who may tend this way the apostle says “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up” (James 4:10). It IS in this light that we should see the James’ words cited above as he continues in this same theme up to the saying that is misunderstood to mean that the man IS cheating his laborers. In the reality of this saying we should see the idea that the man who seeks God should “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields” which we can see in the Master’s words ARE “fruit unto life eternal” (John 4:36). This IS the hire, the reward or the wages, of the laborer who works in the fields which idea comes from the Master’s words from John’s Gospel as we have been discussing. James says to us that we should behold this and that this IS “kept back” by the actions of the man who has reverted to the ways of the world and that to him this very reward “crieth”. The laborer that works in the field IS one side of the dual nature of a man who has lost his focus and it IS he that IS NOT rewarded by the Soul; it IS he that DOES NOT receive the wages that ARE “kept back“….it IS this that the aspirant and the disciple are told to behold.

In the end part of this phrase we must be careful of what we may understand as there ARE many words here that are inserted by the translator in order to make a sensible translated idea but one which, at the same time, IS according to their doctrine. In the phrase, “and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth“, the idea that it IS “them which have reaped” IS NOT the Greek reading as we see it as several of the words are added and looking at this from the perspective of the interlinear and other translations confirms this to us. However, we ARE NOT Greek scholars and we can only apply common sense to what we see and here in this verse we see that the translation is formed to meet the doctrinal idea of what the apostle IS saying. Two posts back we listed several different renderings which show the ideas that the different translations use and today we present this from the Wycliffe Bible which was translated by Oxford professor and theologian John Wycliffe in the late fourteenth century, two hundred years before the King James Version. This rather literal rendering from the Latin reads as: “and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts“. In this the Douay-Rheims version, formally the official Roman Catholic version, agrees as they the render this as: “and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth“.

While the differences here seem minor, we should note that these last two translations DO NOT make the assumption that there IS a person, a reaper, who IS crying but rather follow the initial cry with the idea of them. If then in the first part it IS the reward itself that cries as unfulfilled, then is IS the same idea here in the second part as the very reward of the Lord cries out to the Lord. In the last post we framed this as that this reward of “fruit unto life eternal” IS, in its way, a part of the spiritual Life of the man and IS accorded to the Life in the world by the Soul. And we closed the idea with the question that this could be the Soul itself that IS spoken of by the apostle; the spiritual sense of the man who has reverted back into the ways of the world, cries out for what he has done. While this may seem a stretch based upon the lack of clarity in this saying, this IS NO more a stretch that the doctrinal ideas which are as stated by:

• The Commentary Critical and Explanatory of the Whole Bible says of this entire verse: Behold–calling attention to their coming doom as no vain threat. labourers–literally “workmen.” of you kept back–So English Version rightly. Not as ALFORD, “crieth out from you.” The “keeping back of the hire” was, on the part OF the rich, virtually an act of “fraud,” because the poor laborers were not immediately paid. The phrase is therefore not, “kept back by you,” but “of you”; the latter implying virtual, rather than overt, fraud. James refers to Deuteronomy 24:14 Deuteronomy 24:15 , “At this day . . . give his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, lest he CRY against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.” Many sins “cry” to heaven for vengeance which men tacitly take no account of, as unchastity and injustice [BENGEL]. Sins peculiarly offensive to God are said to “cry” to Him. The rich ought to have given freely to the poor; their not doing so was sin. A still greater sin was their not paying their debts. Their greatest sin was not paying them to the poor, whose wages is their all. cries of them–a double cry; both that of the hire abstractly, and that of the laborers hired. the Lord of sabaoth–here only in the New Testament. In Romans 9:29 it is a quotation. It is suited to the Jewish tone of the Epistle. It reminds the rich who think the poor have no protector, that the Lord of the whole hosts in heaven and earth is the guardian and avenger of the latter. He is identical with the “coming Lord” Jesus ( James 5:7 ).
• John Gill tells us that: Behold the hire of the labourers, which have reaped down your fields; The wages agreed for by the day, with the labourers in their fields, particularly their reapers; which one instance serves for many others; and is the rather mentioned, because reaping is a laborious work, and those who are employed in it have nothing to live upon but their hand labour; and especially because they are made use of in cutting down the corn when it is fully ripe, and in great plenty; wherefore, to detain their just wages from them argues great inhumanity and wickedness; and yet this was what was done by rich men: which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; unto God for vengeance, as the blood of Abel did; and shows that such an evil, however privately and fraudulently it may be done, will be made public, and is a crying one: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth; that is, the Lord of hosts; of angels, and of men; of the host of heaven, and of the inhabitants of the earth; of Jews and Gentiles, and of rich and poor; and who has power to vindicate the cause of the latter against their rich oppressors, and will do it; his ears are open to their cries, he takes notice of them, and regards them, and will take vengeance on those that injure them. The reference is to ( Deuteronomy 24:15 )⁸.

We should try to see how that these ideas ARE out of place in the flow of James’ writing and that the interjection of these ideas in and of themselves cause problems in the way that we had previously discussed….who would work for these men who ARE NOT paying right or on time? Our own view, while it may be misplaced as well, keeps the reality of the spiritual focus that the apostle IS teaching while showing the reader the contrary ideas and how that these afflict the man who IS striving or has committed to strive. And the apostle’s words remain obscure as he goes on to say “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton“. Here we should see a continuation of the ‘if the shoe fits’ attitude that we can somewhat see throughout the apostle’s message; speaking to those who may have deviated from their journey, those who may have succumbed to the temptations and the desires and focused again upon the world, we see the ultimate reality of Life in the world. We should compare these ideas to the reality of focus on the things of God and not see them in the way of evil as this IS commonly understood; from the spiritual perspective ALL focus on the things of the world can be seen as being “in pleasure on the earth” and the man who is focused that as  wanton. The end part here IS the result of this pleasure and wanton attitude as it IS with this attitude that “ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter” and we should note here that this entire verse is another example of James’ use of obscure words.

Vincent tells us that the word rendered as pleasure IS better understood as luxurious living and from the lexicon ² we see that in either rendering this IS a phrase taken from a single Greek word that IS used ONLY here by James. The word rendered as wanton IS a continuation of the previous thought which is rendered as “live in pleasure” in its only other use by Paul; here Vincent tells us that this: denotes dainty living: this word, luxurious or prodigal living ⁴. Can we see the confusion here? The end reality of these words IS as a continuation of the apostles accusation of those whose focus has reverted to the world; it IS these who miss their reward and it IS these that have opted for the pleasures and the luxurious living with which the satisfy their own carnal instincts as they cloud the consciousness of the man. It is this satisfaction that IS intended in the idea of nourishment of the heart and we should try to see the idea of the “day of slaughter” as the end, whatsoever end one can imagine but which IS not seen by the man so focused as his focus has devolved into the world.

The whole point here is to point out the perils for the man who has reverted and IS a caution to those who may revert and ALL of these build upon the idea that “him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:17). This IS that linking saying between the previous thoughts on planning and scheming for the things of the world rather than focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True, and the current ideas of what that man in the world IS like. And what of the last part here; that accusation that “Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you“? How can we make sense of this in the context of the apostle’s words. Doctrine IS split here as some see the just as Christ Jesus while others render this as that it is any righteous man; some, like the authors of the Commentary Critical see this as both. IS James accusing men here of murder? is he speaking to men in the church, as we read earlier in Mr Gill’s comments, and calling them killers? We should note here that this IS a different Greek word than the normal word that IS rendered as condemned and while both can be better seen as judged, this one signifies the exercise of such against one according to Vine’s ⁶.

When we can see the ‘resolution’ of ALL these accusations against the man who has reverted from the Truth of God and back into the world beginning in the next verse where we read: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” (James 5:7), we should not see this particular accusation as that it IS Truly condemning or judging and killing as again this would be out of place in the stream of ideas that James is offering us. Before we come to our own conclusion here we should note that Mr. Gill seems to see problems in this idea of killing as well and he offers us the idea that these men: killed them, by taking away their good names from them, and by withholding from them their supplies of life, the fruit of their own labour, whereby their lives were embittered and made miserable ⁸. This IS NOT implied in the use of this word here nor anywhere that we can see in the New Testament except this from the Apostle Paul who cites a verse from Psalm 44 saying: “For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Romans 8:36).

Here in this saying from the Psalm we may have a key of sorts to our current words from James. Speaking of the True man who was the expression of the Life in the world, the apostle IS reflecting on his death as that expression because of the reversion of the man to the ways of the world; it IS the reversion that has killed the aspirant. And there IS no resistance here as the Soul ever waits for the the prompting to be heard and heeded by which the man’s focus can change. It IS the consciousness in the world that is attending to either the ways of the world of the Way of God; the latter is the focus of the aspirant and the disciple and the former the focus of the man in the world and the problem found in the duality of living in the world as an aspirant and a disciple. From here we read  “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord” which IS another misunderstood saying from the apostle.

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.

This Quote of the Day is the antithesis of glamour and illusion. In this mantram are the thoughts about ourselves and our brothers in the world that can diffuse those forces that hold a man in the world of things and prevent his spiritual progress.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts! 

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com