ON LOVE; PART CMXLVII

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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).

As we continue our discussion of the words of the Apostle Paul that ARE his list of what ARE “the works of the flesh” and what ARE “the fruit of the Spirit“, we should by now have a glimpse of the reality of his intent and understand that both the rendering of the apostle’s idea into English and the common understanding of these rendered words ARE tainted by the doctrines of men. The convenient renderings and interpretations of the apostle’s words have fueled the way that men understand what Paul IS offering to the Galatians and has converted the spiritual nature of Paul’s instructions into a carnal affair where even the reality of many of the rendered words IS missed. We should try to see here how that it IS men’s refusal to accept the deeper Truths that show us that ALL thoughts, attitudes, actions and things that ARE NOT in accord with His words ARE this adultery, fornication, uncleanness, and lasciviousness….they ARE putting mammon over God as the object of one’s desires. It IS in these several ideas from the apostle that we should see that infidelity toward the Godhead and the desires of men for the things of the world and we should understand here that ALL of this IS idolatry; ALL of this IS placing the self and the self in the world above the Truth of God and this IS True regardless of how spiritual or religious one may believe that his own carnal actions ARE.

There IS a rather straightforward dichotomy between the things of the world and the things of God presented to us in the New Testament and we should try to see how that much of the intent of this separation of one’s focus IS also found in the Old Testament, albeit obscured by the traditions of men and their failure to see the Truths that lie behind the rendered words. In the Book of Deuteronomy we read the word of the Lord saying: “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28). This is the reality of ALL blessing and cursing and it IS much like we have in Jesus’ words that we repeat again and which we call the trifecta; this IS the reality of keeping His words. And we should note that in these words from Deuteronomy we have a reference to idol worship or idolatry and, if we should view this apart from the doctrinal teachings, we can more clearly see how that to”turn aside out of the way which I command you” IS this idolatry….this IS ALL that IS contrary to His words.

In these words from Deuteronomy we should be able to glimpse the deeper Truths and see how that the reality of keeping His words has NOT materially changed and should we look at the Old Testament and the expanded commandments offered there, we should be able to see that the Way to keep His words has not materially changed either. Then the idea of Love permeated most ALL of the commandments and the law as so much can be taken back to the way that a man should treat his neighbor, his brother and the stranger who qualifies as both. And we should remember here that it IS this idea of Love that the Master elevates to be above ALL commandments as we read above again in the Great Commandments at the top of our essay. In this Great Commandment there IS the combination of the two factors that we speak about above: there IS the single-minded attention to the things of God, the single-minded focus that DOES NOT “turn aside out of the way which I command you“; and the Love that one must express to ALL men, to the neighbor, to the brother and to the stranger who qualifies as both.

This IS the greater reality of the idea behind idolatry and this IS, as ARE so many of the Master’s own sayings, a matter of focus. It IS here that men ever have that choice between God and mammon and this IS the reality of choosing the “treasures upon earth” or the “treasures in heaven“. While much of the Old Testament teachings ARE in this same regard, the whole of this is shrouded in the way that the Lord IS speaking to the whole of Jewry, that they must accomplish the spiritual goal as a group, as His people, and while the dynamics of this relationship between Jehovah and the His people IS NOT made clear in the carnal understanding of His words, the reality IS there for those who choose to look and this IS accomplished in keeping His words. And the carnal understanding DOES NOT see the deeper ideas of idolatry as we ARE discussing, most see ONLY the ideas of ‘heathen’ gods being worshiped and this IS True from the time of Moses until today.

In the last essay we saw that Paul’s next word which IS rendered as witchcraft IS NOT merely the evil ideas of men who look upon the work of occultists and sorcerers with disdain. The greater reality IS that this idea of pharmakeia IS found in ALL things of a psychic nature that men can DO, and this includes those things that doctrines teach ARE based in one’s spiritual nature, save when they ARE DONE by one who IS keeping His words. We should understand here that the ideas presented by the apostle as “spiritual gifts” ARE ONLY so when a man IS in accord with the words of the Master; for ALL others these ARE merely psychic manifestations or pharmakeia. We should try to see here how that one can achieve some measure of these “spiritual gifts” in striving toward the goal of keeping His words and perhaps the measure of this can be found in the consistency with which a man performs. True “spiritual gifts” operate spiritually and ARE NOT subject to the haphazard ways that psychic powers ARE exercised in this world. We should understand as well that this IS ALL a deeply private undertaking.

As we see this word pharmakeia as a part of this list we should try to see the relationships of ALL the words thus far. ALL ARE concerned with the focus of the man in this world, a focus that Paul tells us should be on God and the things of God. In these ideas rendered as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry and  witchcraft we should be able to see how that ALL ARE the Life of the man who DOES “turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods” and that this IS ALL men who DO NOT keep His words. This is the reality of Paul’s teaching as he tells us that “that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” and when we can see how that this idea IS the same as the Master’s presentation of what we call the trifecta, albeit from a different view, we can then see a greater part of the Truth that IS one’s spiritual Life. We repeat Jesus’ presentation of the trifecta again:

• “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“ (John 8:31-32).
• “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
• “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).

In the combination of these ideas from Jesus, from Paul and from Deuteronomy IS the eternal Truth of Life and our glimpse of how we must work through the illusions and glamour of Life in form and escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). This IS the reality of the Master’s teaching as He enhances the words given us by Jehovah through Moses and this IS the reality of Paul’s words as well; the apostle not ONLY gives us the global vision but also the details of what IS “the corruption that is in the world through lust“, a lust that causes men to look at the carnal rather than the True. The next section of the apostle’s words takes on a different tone from those words we have been discussing. In the first segment Paul shows us our relationship with God or, rather, the failure of it through these words, and in this next segment we will see our relationship with our fellowman. Repeating the apostle’s words we read:

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:17-24).

We should try to see how that when these ideas from Paul are put into segments, as we have done here, there IS a strong correlation to the reality of the Great Commandments, first to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” which IS the deeper Truth to our idea of focus. In this sense of Love there IS NO infidelity and NO looking to the things of the world instead of the things of God….there IS NO idolatry and there IS NO use of the carnal powers of the man in the world as a substitute for the Power of the inner man. It IS this Power that IS shown us by Jesus as He tells us that “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). It IS after this total focus upon the Godhead, a focus that has NO Earthly component, that we have the second part of these Great Commandments; it IS here that ALL relationships between men ARE governed and it IS unfortunate that even with the Master’s emphasis on this idea of Love which He further repeats in the Golden Rule, the whole of the idea IS lost in the doctrinal ideas of men.

In the reality that men “shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” as this IS compounded by Jesus’ saying that  “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” we find the totality of keeping his words. Here we should understand that to DO this second part of the Great Commandments IS to DO the first as well and this IS well attested to by the apostles. The apostle John shows us this in terms of logic but this IS a logic that IS also lost in the carnal view of the world’s doctrines; we read: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8). In these words IS the foundation of the Love that the Master teaches us and in the apostle’s terms we should see that to “knoweth God” IS to have that the realization of His Presence and that this KNOWING IS the reality of Jesus’ words above, to “know the truth“, which IS in keeping His words.

And the apostle DOES NOT leave us wondering what this means as he tells us in rather stark terms that “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:20-21). In the convenience of the doctrines of men there IS a always a deliberate dilution of this idea of Love and much of this goes unseen in the normal course of the lives of men whose focus IS upon the self and the things of the self. Here we should see how that the apostle uses the word rendered as hate and we should realize by the completeness of his thought that this hate IS NOT as men perceive it but rather it IS that a man “loveth not“. And this idea of hate IS the next word from Paul which we will discuss in our next post.

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 these 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