ON LOVE; PART CMXLVIII

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

GoodWill IS Love in Action

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

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).

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ

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

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ

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 Apostle Paul’s words on the “the works of the flesh” and what ARE “the fruit of the Spirit” we should try to see the point we were coming to in the end of the last essay: that the segments that we identified in the apostles ideas are structured in the same way as the Great Commandments which ARE given us by Jesus. These Great Commandments have been at the top of our essays for some time now and the objective in leaving these in place IS to show us and remind us of the spiritual importance of these ideas. We should try to see here how that to keep His words we must come to KNOW and DO the ideas that ARE embodied in these Great Commandments and come to understand the relative simplicity of the logic from the Apostle John with which we ended the last post. Paul also shows us the reality of the Great Commandments as the Way to keep His words and he shows us this in the same chapter that we ARE discussing as he says “all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14).

While we ARE brought here by our view of the segments that Paul shows us in “the works of the flesh“, by their correspondence to the Great Commandments, we should KNOW that there IS at least one New Testament Translation that sees this as we DO although NOT likely for our reasons. The Weymouth Translation, originally published in 1903 from Mr. Weymouth’s 19th century work gives us the first segment of the list of in a single verse that DOES NOT follow the traditional chapter and verse breakdown used by most ALL others; we read this as: “Now you know full well the doings of our lower natures. Fornication, impurity, indecency, idol-worship, sorcery” (Galatians 5:19). While this may be mere coincidence, it IS our view that this list should be segmented in this way which separates the things that ARE against one’s focus upon God from the next part which shows us those things that ARE contrary to the idea that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. Paul’s list and words again tell us:

“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).

While the common understanding of the apostle’s ideas will NOT see this as we DO, this IS because of their own doctrinal view that places the first several words into the class of sexual deviancy rather than the reality of one’s relationship with God. In this view it may seem easier for a person to stay away from one whose fornication IS sexual, but even this IS most difficult because the sexual attitudes of men ARE generally hidden from others. NO thing however is more hidden by men than their True relationship with God and how that their own thoughts, attitudes and actions may be contrary to Paul’s Truths and, in our view, this afflicts most ALL men in and out of the churches. And should we compound this phenomenon with the way that doctrines dilute and change the Master’s words, we can likely see how that even those who ‘believe’ that they ARE in God’s will are really governed by those doctrines and NOT by the Truth. There IS NO greater reality and proof of this than Jesus’ own words that we call our trifecta of spiritual reality which we repeat here 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).

That so many ‘believe’ outwardly that they ARE in the will of God while they DO NOT keep His words IS the reality that we should see in Jesus’ words asking “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). That men ‘believe’ that this rhetorical question IS directed at the Jews in that day IS a part of the cover that doctrines provide and which IS compounded by the doctrinal view of most of the apostles’ words as we have been discussing through Paul’s words above. This brings us again to the next word which IS rendered as hatred; here, while we related this idea of hatred to Jesus’ own ideas on hate as we see in the gospels, the Greek word used IS NOT the same. Paul uses the word echthra which IS generally rendered as enmity while Jesus, according to the gospel writers, uses the word miseo.

As we have often discussed, the idea behind miseo IS NOT that sense of hatred as IS commonly understood but it IS rather an idea of NOT Loving or of Loving less. We should see this in the way that this IS used by the Master according to the Apostle Luke where we read that the disciple must hate “father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also” (Luke 14:26). When we take this thought to the way that this IS expressed by the Apostle Matthew, we can see the deeper ideas that we must come to see as aspirants and disciples. Matthew tells us Jesus’ words as “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37) and it IS here that we should try to see the idea behind miseo as NOT Loving, as that which one should have for ALL men, and Loving another less than God; both of these ideas ARE in accord with the Great Commandments.

In this sense we should try to see that miseo IS NOT hate as we generally understand that word and this brings us back again to Paul’s use of echthra. In echthra we have the more complex idea of enmity which IS more to the idea of one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions against another rather than the common idea of hate as extreme dislike leaning toward hostility. Like most words that ARE emotional in nature, the whole idea of hate IS rather nebulous and comes with a broad range of feelings….one can hate strawberry ice cream or one can hate another person to the extent that he would wish him harm or perhaps seek to inflict such harm. It IS in this range that we should try to see Paul’s idea of enmity as this eliminates the type of hate that we should see in our ice cream example. Enmity IS an interpersonal idea that IS beyond the emotional scope of hate; enmity, while used in a variety of ways, IS an action or an activity as part of “the works of the flesh“.

While the primary idea which comes to us through enmity, as we see this as a part of “the works of the flesh“, IS that this IS an act of one man against another, there IS a deeper idea here which also relates this to our previous segment of things against the Truth of God. In this however we should see the reality of a personal struggle between the flesh and the Spirit rather than the carnal attitudes of Life as one’s focus that we see in the previous segment. Here we have enmity of one against another in any form of hostility and we have that enmity between the flesh and the Spirit as we see in the Apostle James’ words saying: “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).

This IS the same idea of enmity that we find in Paul’s analysis of the Way of the Master as he tells us that He “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby” (Ephesians 2:15-16). Here we should also see the apostle’s words from Romans saying that “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). In the combination of these ideas we should see the deeper reality of echthra. While this IS a spiritual reality of Life in form for most ALL men, this should NOT detract from the more carnal ideas that we should see in Paul’s ideas above….carnal ideas that ARE “the works of the flesh“.

While our view of the carnal ideas of echthra DO NOT show clearly in these ideas from the apostles who relate this more to the dichotomy between the flesh and the Spirit, the root word from which echthra comes, echthros, DOES show us the carnal realities of enmity as that interpersonal idea that IS most often viewed in terms of hatred; this word IS most always rendered as enemy. Here then, we should try to see a combination of thoughts associated with Paul’s use of this idea; we should try to see how that this IS the beginning of his list of carnal ideas that pit one man against another as well as an idea that shows us that it IS the same sense of focus that the first segment shows us that allows for this enmity. Here then, on the interpersonal level, we see the idea of enemies in enmity and the admonition from the apostle that a man should NOT allow himself to consider another as an enemy or as a foe who IS the object of his hatred or even dislike.

Paul’s next word IS rendered here as variance; this Greek word eris IS one that IS most perplexing as there seems NO good English word that carries forth the apostle’s idea. The lexicon tells us that this Greek word IS: of uncertain affinity  ² and in this we should see that it IS translated according to its uses. This idea IS rendered as contention, debate and as strife  ² in its other uses and here IS the only place that we find it translated as variance. Another Greek word, eritheia, IS rendered as strife in this verse from Galatians as well as in James’ Epistle where similar thoughts ARE expressed. It IS thought that these words ARE related through another Greek word, erethizo, which the lexicon tells us IS: a presumed prolonged form of 2054 ² which IS eris.

We should be able to see here that this idea of variance IS basically disagreement, perhaps as a precursor to strife as this IS generally understood. However the idea of strife expressed by Paul through his use of eritheia here in this verse IS NOT that generally understood idea but it IS a more complex one as we read in Vincent’s commentary on this word as it appears in James’ as he speaks about carnal wisdom saying: “if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” (James 3:14-5). Vincent tells us that this idea of eritheia IS: A wrong rendering, founded on the mistaken derivation from ἔρις, strife. It is derived from ἔριθος, a hired servant, and means, primarily, labor for hire. Compare Romans Romans 2:8: them that are contentious ( ἐξ ἐριθείας )lit., of faction. Rev., factious. Also, 2 Corinthians 12:20. Rev., here, rightly, faction ⁴.

What we should see here is that Vincent denies the lexicon’s theory regarding the relationship of these words but unfortunately he gives us little to help us to define the apostle’s idea here in Galatians. He does show us that in the King James rendering of eris as debate in Romans that this IS according to: the earlier sense of the word (French, debattre, to beat down, contend ) including the element of strife ⁴. It IS in this light that we should try to see the idea of variance which the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines as: Difference that produces dispute or controversy; disagreement; dissension; discord. A mere variance may become a war; At variance, in disagreement; in a state of difference or want of agreement. In a state of dissension or controversy; in a state of enmity ¹.

In ALL of this we should see the relationship between these first two words that the apostle shows us in this second segment of his “the works of the flesh“. Here we have the enmity that IS rendered as hatred and we have the associated idea of dissension or controversy that IS the meaning of variance. In this we can see that the apostle IS showing us that to see others as enemies and to be in disagreement as a precursor to enmity ARE both “the works of the flesh“….both ARE contrary to the admonition that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. And even in the common understanding of these ideas that the apostle tells us will cause a man to “not inherit the kingdom of God“, most DO NOT see the apostle’s intent against the force of their own doctrines.

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

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888