ON LOVE; PART DCCCXXX
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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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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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)
The end of the last essay and the underlying theme over the last several essays has been the dichotomy between the things of the world and of the self in the world as these are opposed to the things of God. Although this message IS woven throughout the Master’s words and the words of His apostles, it remains unseen by the man in the world whose focus remains upon the self and the ways of the self in the world. This IS the expected outcome in the Life of the man who has NOT yet seen the call of His own Soul, His own Christ Within, to the Good, the Beautiful and the True, to the things of God. And this IS also the outcome for the man who has seen this call and who has answered it through the prism of his own sense of doctrine rather that the Truth of Jesus words and the amplification and the clarification offered by His apostles. Our idea that this IS the expected outcome IS our reflection on the words of the Apostle Paul who shows us this dichotomy in many ways and who also shows us the reality of Life in this world….a Life lived in the vanity to which ALL men are subjected.
While it IS convenient and traditional to see Adam and Eve as the source of ALL of men’s carnal issues and while it IS easy to imagine that men would be living in paradise were it not for this ancestral transgression, the stark reality IS that men ARE here in this Earth in a steady evolution of forms, of emotions and of mind; and if we could just see the point, Paul DOES give us a key and a clue. In his words that “the creature was made subject to vanity“, an idea that we often discuss, we should try to see the deeper reality of Life: that it IS the Souls of men, which ARE the spiritual man in this world, that ARE subjected to this vanity by way of taking birth in this world. And in the idea of “not willingly, but by reason of him” we should try to see the most basic idea that this IS the very nature of Life in this world, the very nature of Life in form. And we should NOT view this as that Souls were not willing to come into incarnation, but rather that this vanity IS NOT necessarily what the Soul would want as it IS his destiny IS to work to overcome these worldly forces of illusion and glamour that make this carnal existence seem so real.
We should understand here that this IS real and that the views of some religious disciplines that show the world as the illusion ARE NOT seeing this from the right perspective. The illusion IS that men have come to believe that his carnal existence IS their True existence (some believe this is their only existence) when the reality IS that the True Life of the Soul IS hidden behind it. In this we should try to see how that Vincent’s thoughts on the Greek word mataiotes, which IS rendered as vanity, show us the deeper Truth of the apostle’s words; we read: The Greek proverb runs. “The empty think empty things.” Μάταιος expresses aimlessness. All which has not God for the true end of its being is μάταιος . Pindar describes the vain man as one who hunts bootless things with fruitless hopes. Plato (“Laws,” 735) of labor to no purpose. Ezekiel 13:6, “prophesying vain things ( μάταια ),” things which God will not bring to pass. Compare Titus 3:9. Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. If we can understand that this condition of vanity IS what the Soul IS subjected to and that the second part of Paul’s statement shows the way back to God, which IS to be free from this illusion and glamour, then we can better understand ALL of the thoughts and ideas that are contained in the New Testament as the Master and His apostles show us the Way to this freedom. We read our rendering of Paul’s words again:
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope expectation because that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“ (Romans 8:20-21).
In the understanding that it IS God who DOES this subjecting and that this IS NOT the curse as so many doctrines perceive this to be, we can find the deeper ideas that there IS a purpose to this ALL. In the understanding that it IS the very Plan of God that has put the Souls of men, the divine and Godly spiritual man, into contact with the animal Kingdom of this planet, we can find the deeper ideas of our escape; an escape which the Apostle Peter paints for us in such a way as to also highlight the dichotomy of the carnal versus the divine; we read: “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“. Here Peter shows us the escape from this world of things and the reality of the Master’s words for us saying “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33); here Peter also shows us the reality of our own individual revelation as the Way to become “partakers of the divine nature“. In the idea of revelation and realization that come in the Presence of God according to the Master’w words which we repeat again below, we should see the Truth of KNOWING God which IS the end of believing and faith and the KEY to becoming “partakers of the divine nature“. This we can see in Peter’s previous words saying: “as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:4, 3).
ALL of this IS the same spiritual reality found in Jesus words to the Eleven and to us through them. It IS the reciprocal action, the resultant reward or wages, that comes to the man who will Love God and show this by keeping His words that IS the reality of His Presence and this IS also the deeper understanding to be found in Peter’s escape from “the corruption that is in the world” and the deep Truth found in his framing of this Presence as that we “might be partakers of the divine nature“. We repeat again our words from the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel, words which show us the Way:
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
It IS the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, that offer “the corruption that is in the world through lust” and which IS “the bondage of corruption” that Paul speaks of. We should note here that the ideas behind these Greek words ARE similar when we consider Vincent’s comments above. In vanity we find the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4 while in the lexicon’s definition of phthora, which IS rendered in both sayings as corruption, we find: corruption, destruction, perishing; a. that which is subject to corruption, what is perishable. b. in the Christian sense, eternal misery in hell 2. We should of course see the Christian sense as a doctrinal idea and our point here IS that in the language usage of the apostles, the same idea IS referenced. It IS vanity that shows us the world as it IS presumed to be and it IS in this view that we have the reality of corruption. While we DO NOT KNOW how and why a Soul, who IS a divine spiritual being, DOES come into incarnation, and while we DO NOT understand the dynamics by which the Soul loses his focus through his incarnations save for the reality of many years of nurturing in the ways of the world, we DO KNOW that we ARE here and that this according to the Plan of God.
We should remember here that Paul shows us this idea of the Plan of God as he shows us that this being “made subject to vanity” IS “by reason of him” and we should see here that the apostle continues in his thought and offers us a reason by way of a continued explanation…..that such subjection IS “in hope expectation because that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. Our change of wording here IS discussed in the last essay and in using our idea of expectation that we should be able to see that we ARE intended to escape….that this IS God’s expectation, His intention and that this IS ours as Souls as well. We should add here yet another translation anomaly and one that IS likely based in the doctrinal beliefs that carry through nearly ALL translations. We read that “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and the anomaly IS found in the way that the Greek word autos IS rendered as itself. It IS in the singular idea that the whole of creation IS cursed and IS fallen, without a view to the individual, that the idea of itself IS formed and it IS in regard to the creation that most translations frame this verse.
We also find the ideas of doctrine in the rendering of the idea of creation in these verses and this IS also according to the traditions of the fall of man as this IS interpreted from the Book of Genesis. While itself can easily be rendered as himself and while creation can easily be seen as creature according to the lexicon, this IS NOT the way of any translation in our library. However, when we look upon Paul’s words in the more personal tone we can then see the progression of the man in the world as he comes to have revelations and realizations of the Truth and to follow the Path to his own deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. This IS the reality of ALL of the New Testament teachings, that it IS by Repentance and by keeping His words that the Presence of God comes to a man and it IS this Presence that IS the grace of God and the revelations and the realizations of divinity by which he may KNOW God. It IS this progress that takes us by measure along the Path to the Truth of the Kingdom of God and “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“.
Inherent in this idea of a Path from the corruption to the glory, from the corruption to being ourselves “partakers of the divine nature“, IS the reality of the separation that we must come to see between the things of the world and the things of God. It IS to this that so much of the teachings of the Master and His apostles point yet the Truth of this separation remains unseen by most and IS untaught as a basic precept in the Truths that the Master teaches us. It IS in this sense that men’s minds ARE overcome by the years of nurturing and then the years of experience in the illusion that there IS aught to be gained in this world. Even the reality of Solomon’s words IS missed here as it has been missed by the Jew for many centuries; we read: “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came , and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit hath he that hath laboured for the wind?” (Ecclesiastes 5:15-16).
We have examined Solomon’s words in previous essays where our topics were different (In the Words of Jesus parts 1039 and 1115). There, the words of the Master from the Parable of the Rich Fool offer us the same idea as the Lord states His Truth and asks the outcome in this parable saying “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?“. We should note here that this IS also where Jesus tells us “Take no thought for your life” (Luke 12:20, 22) in the Apostle Luke’s Gospel. In Jesus words here we should see that the outcome IS the same, that a man “shall take nothing of his labour” and in this we should try to see the more expansive view that Jesus offers us in the following idea of treasure as Luke frames this. In this sense of treasure we should ever see the idea that what IS important to a man IS much more that possessions and wealth and that treasure covers ALL thoughts, attitudes, actions and things that can keep a man in the “the bondage of corruption“.
And we have also looked at Solomon’s words as they, and the Master’s parable, ARE reflected in James’ saying that “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” (James 4:13-14). In his own blunt way here the apostle shows us the futility of worldly gain and the very temporal nature of a man’s Life in this world; he shows us the very essence of Jesus’ own words 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” (Matthew 6:19-21).
In ALL of this we should try to see the plight of the “natural man“, the man whose focus remains in this world and in the things of this world. This IS a True dividing line in the spiritual advancement of a man; this IS part and parcel of His words. We should try to see here how that men have ever misconstrued the intent of scriptures and much of the reason for this can be found in the way that men interpret the words of the Old Testament, the way that men miss the most obvious realities as we see in Solomon’s words above and in the writings of many of the Prophets. Men have ever looked past the reality of this dichotomy between the things of the world and the things of God in favor of the Old World ideas presented as the quid pro quo offered by God to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob and then through Moses to the Jews of the Exodus although this should be seen in a different light. Many today see the ‘promises of Abraham’ as their own and view the things of the world as their right as believing Christians. These doctrines only serve to exasperate men’s failure to see the Truth of this dichotomy as they see the greater hope of worldly goods and pleasures in a much more appealing light. We close today by repeating some of the New Testament ideas on this separation between the things of the world and the things of God:
- The Apostle John tells us: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:5).
- The Apostle James tells us: “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
- The Apostle Paul tells us: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2).
- The Apostle Paul also tells us: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19).
- The Apostle Peter tells us: “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).
To this of course we must add the many words of Jesus as He speaks on treasure, on “God and mammon“, on “take no thought“and in such sayings as we have above in the Parable of the Rich Fool.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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.
Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.
Live in joy, in health, even among the afflicted.
Live in joy, in peace, even among the troubled.
Live in joy, without possessions.
Like the shining ones.
The winner sows hatred because the loser suffers.
Let go of winning and losing and find joy.
There is no fire like passion, no crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation, no sickness like hunger,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.
Today’s Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada (on JOY)5; a collection of the sayings of the Buddha. These words and ideas ARE much the same as those we discuss in our In the Words of Jesus essays. And what is this freedom but the release of our hearts and minds from loving this life in this world and attaining the Presence of God. This word Joy has many meanings as DOES the idea of Love, but in the context that it IS used here we should see the idea that Joy IS Love, Joy IS health, Joy IS peace and that Joy IS without the burdens placed on a man by the illusion and the glamour of the ways of the world. We should try to see that it IS the antithesis of these ideas in hate, in affliction and in troubles that ARE among the possessions of the carnal man, that ARE among the “evil treasure of his heart” (Luke 6:45) according to the Master.
And it IS in the second stanza above that we see the basic psychic ideas that can eliminate the harm caused by such “evil treasure” as a man looks past himself and at the welfare of others which IS the greater reality of Love as the Master teaches us. It IS in losing such possessions, losing such carnal thoughts and attitudes, that one can truly find the “joy of freedom“….this IS the Truth of deliverance.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 2 from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
