ON LOVE; PART MLXXXII
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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).
In the last essay we took on two subjects that ARE near and dear to doctrinal Christianity; first IS the use of the confessions and affirmations from the Apostle’ Paul’s Epistle to the Romans which Christian doctrines teach IS the way to salvation. Such doctrines take his words out of their context which IS clearly that it IS Jesus’ words that ARE the overall subject of his saying which we take again from Young’s Literal Translation. We read that “if thou mayest confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and mayest believe in thy heart that God did raise him out of the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart doth [one] believe to righteousness, and with the mouth is confession made to salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).
It IS in saying these words with some degree of commitment, which varies among Protestant denominations, that one can be considered as “born again” and thereby be among those to whom the words of the apostles ARE intended. Conversely, if one DOES NOT recite some form of these words they ARE NOT saved and we should try to see that while the specificity of the words themselves may vary the confession of Jesus as one’s personal saviour and the affirmation of His resurrection seem to be the key components for most denominations and sects that DO teach this doctrinal philosophy. Added to this IS the need to be baptized according to the rites of one’s chosen denomination or sect and then, for some, there IS the need to be baptized in the Holy Ghost by the ‘laying on of hands’ by others who have had such an experience.
Except for baptism none of these ideas IS truly biblical as so many Christian teachers use this term; these others ARE but the result of men “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9) as Jesus accuses the Jews, an accusation that doctrinal thinkers DO NOT believe applies to them. Paul shows us this same idea as “another gospel” which we see as ALL doctrinal teachings that ARE NOT “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). What IS it then that preachers and pastors and priests and bishops should teach? It IS simply the words of the Lord which ARE simplified for us in the teachings of the Master Jesus and prime among His teaching IS what 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).
These ARE a central part of “all things whatsoever I have commanded you” and we should note that in the very idea of keeping His words ALL things spiritual ARE considered. Men have however chosen a different path and “another gospel” which IS then subdivided into many different versions of “another gospel” and in this a situation IS created where the choice IS NOT between the Truth of Jesus words, between “all things whatsoever I have commanded you“, and the whole of the doctrinal approach; it IS rather between the variations of “another gospel” that have flooded the world over the last 2000 years. And we should note here that whatever approaches to the Truth may have emerged over the centuries, that these were swiftly eliminated by the doctrinal authorities and labeled as heresy and sedition according to the common understanding of those terms.
That men DO NOT realize that they ARE teaching “another gospel” IS the result of the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, which binds men to the corruption which IS Life in this world. This bondage IS to the ways of men and while many millions may believe that they ARE saved by the affirmations and the confessions of their doctrinal approach to God, the reality IS that most ALL still walk as men. The way to be “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” IS found in the Master’s words and in the words of His apostles but this Truth IS obnubilated by the doctrinal approach to the Lord. And this IS Paul’s message in his writing to the Ephesians that we have been studying; here, when we can look upon the words rendered as lasciviousness and uncleanness as wantonness and the propensity of carnal men to seek after the things of the world, we can then better see how that greed fits in and understand that this IS the plight of everyman.We repeat again the apostle’s words:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles men walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24).
It IS in one’s nurturing and indoctrination that the ‘sins’ of Life take on the form of the gross offenses that men may commit against their fellowman and this IS NO more True for the man who has made his confessions and affirmations according to doctrines that for the man who has NOT. This sense of sin IS based in the social codes of right and wrong which ARE loosely based in the Ten Commandments or in the commandments of most any religion. And social norms change with societies, as they change, and this IS a rather good thing….we don’t want men stoning other men because of some deviation from a religious edict. And for the common man in the world these ideas ARE rather soundly thought out and applied in an effort to control the populations of the world.
The religious man IS generally already beyond the more gross offences that DO harm to others but he IS generally NOT past those ideas that ARE the bane of most ALL men whose focus IS off of the gross ideas of society but not off the gross ideas of religion which ARE most often of a sexaul nature. These ARE ‘sins’ that ARE NOT seen by the church in the same way as those that can DO harm. Perhaps this IS the reason why so many of the Greek words that imply spiritual ideas ARE rendered in sexual terms; we find this in “works of the flesh” and we find this in Paul’s words to the Ephesians above. When we can see that Paul’s audience IS, for the most part, the Truly religious man, we can then perhaps see that his use of such words ARE NOT in a sexual context as doctrines have painted them but rather they ARE spiritual offenses….offenses against the Great Commandments and Jesus’ words overall; and these DO keep men from their realization of “the glorious liberty of the children of God“.
In seeing this reality, in seeing that the “works of the flesh” ARE interpreted against social norms rather than as spiritual Truths, one can see the True message of the Master which IS NOT different from Moses’ message to the Jews. This IS a message of focus upon the things of God and an understanding of the essence of the Great Commandments as the Truth of Truths. And perhaps NO single idea has detracted from this message more than the Christian belief which IS blindly applied to the words from the Book of Hebrews saying that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). It IS this that brings us to our second point which IS likely the primary reason why men teach and believe as they DO in their several doctrines: that one has ONLY this Life of Earth to Redeem himself and he must then face either heaven or hell.
That men believe that both heaven and hell ARE places IS likely because they DO NOT understand the very nature of Life and the sense of eternity that IS inherent in that nature. In the reality that naught exists outside of God, that ALL things ARE part and parcel of His Presence, we should be able to glimpse the idea that if the Lord IS eternal then ALL parts that make up His being must be eternal as well. Since we KNOW that men, animals and the plant Life of our planet DO come and go, they live and they die, there must be some deeper reality of ALL things that persists. Since Jesus tells us that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), a phrase that IS rightly rendered as “God is Spirit” as Vincent 4 tells us and as most translations render this, we should try to understand how that the things of this world ARE separated from that spiritual presence.
The dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual IS a New Testament fact that IS spoken of by the Master and His apostles and while the physical IS NOT outside of the Godhead, it IS also NOT spiritual. We should understand here that even in the physical realm nothing IS lost, the basic building blocks of ALL things DO NOT disappear nor evaporate although the physical appearance of what they comprise may change. Even in radiation and things nuclear there IS nothing lost, there IS ONLY change albeit these changes may put the physical into a state that IS beyond the physical realm. Our point here IS that the man IS NOT the body, he IS that part and parcel of God that gives Life to the body….human Life.
It IS in the bridge between the physical and the more subtle realms that we can likely find much of the Truth that eludes men in this world and if we can see the infinite range of frequency, we can perhaps glimpse that there ARE frequencies that we cannot yet measure nor even imagine. It IS these frequencies that ARE the higher realms of existance which range from the measurable to what we should try to understand as spiritual realms; and the higher one can see past the physical, the etheric and the mental, the closer he will come to the reality of heaven and an understanding that this IS NOT a place but a state of being. These ideas ARE difficult to convey and we should remember here that as in ALL Truths there IS the work of doctrines which distort and change the ideas to suit the human mind beginning with the minds of those who are the purveyors of doctrine.
Such distortions ARE prevalent in most ALL areas of thought, spiritual and otherwise, where the human mind IS NOT yet able to glimpse the Truth and it IS in our reality that one CAN NOT see the unseeable except in the revelations and the realizations of Truth that come to him that ALL progress IS made. This reality includes most everything in every field of endeavor. In the sciences so called, in philosophy, and in religion, revelations come to those whose hearts and minds ARE open and who have such spiritual collateral with which to work. In ALL fields of endeavor one’s nurturing and indoctrination must be overcome and even then, if the heart IS NOT pure, the resultant realization, which IS based in some revelation, IS filtered through that conscious mind leading to some measure of distortion.
And this IS ALL further compounded by what one thinks should be True and while this phenomenon IS based in one’s indoctrination into whatsoever field of endeavor, it IS enhanced one’s personal perspective. In this we can try to see how that certain people are fixated upon a single subject and, relating this to Christian matters, we find, among other ideas, some focused upon abortion, others upon the perceived persecution of Christians and others upon trying to prove the Truth of Genesis according to their young Earth theories. Still others build churches and schools and ministries bearing their own names. ALL of these efforts ARE sidebars to the Truth, they ARE distractions which appeal to the minds of those involved and these can and DO block one’s search for the One Truth.
These distractions ARE keenly carnal and while those involved would NOT agree, it IS easy to see how that those that participate ARE fulfilling some personal quest which has little to DO with the Truth of keeping His words. Men DO NOT see nor understand that it IS in striving to keep His words that the Truths of their personal endeavors ARE revealed by measure to the open heart and mind that keeping His words ensures. And this revelation surely contains the Truth of heaven and hell; not as that mystical place in the sky versus an eternal lake of fire, but in real terms of Life and death, both here and now and in the reality of the afterlife….after the death of the physical body. We should remember that NONE of these ideas of heaven and hell ARE Truly explained in the Old or the New Testaments and that most ALL of what men believe IS based in the doctrines of men and their many suppositions that have been formed around out of context words and sayings. This brings us again to Paul’s words on “another gospel” which we repeat here:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:6-12).
One could ask if the many different doctrinal beliefs in heaven and hell ARE intended to persuade God as Paul shows us is the way of ALL approaches that can be seen as “another gospel“. Few doctrinal presentations recognize what ARE perhaps the most important words from the Master regarding His Kingdom, a Kingdom which the Apostle Matthew tells us IS the Kingdom of heaven while the Apostle’s Mark and Luke tell us of as the Kingdom of God. These most important words ARE “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). It IS this reality that agrees with the points of our trifecta where the Truth and His Presence DO NOT come after one’s physical death but when one IS here in this Earth. In fact, because we DO KNOW so little about the Life of the Soul and the Spirit of man after the death of the physical body, we should and DO assume that it IS ONLY here in this world that one can achieve the Truth, His Presence and His Kingdom.
Our basis for this IS found in the reality of the spiritual man, the unction and the anointing, in regard to the physical form. The Apostle John tells us that it IS by the unction that “ye know all things” (John 2:20) and we should remember here that this word IS rendered from the same Greek word, chrisma, that IS rendered as anointing and that this Greek word IS from the same Greek root word as IS Christos which IS always rendered as Christ and which has the meaning of anointed. Here we can see the reality of the Christ Within, the Soul and the spiritual man, who DOES “know all things” and, in this KNOWING apart from the physical body, there seems NO facility for improvement when NOT in this world.
John goes on to show us that this same chrisma has a relationship to the Life of the man in the world saying that “the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (John 2:27) and here we should see how that these words also tie into the trifecta….it IS this anointing that “is truth” and it IS this unction that “shall abide in him“. The apostle’s point however IS ONLY Truly realized by the man who will keep His words and until we can understand that these epistles ARE written to and for the man who has some inkling of the Truth through striving toward His Kingdom, we will be lost in the doctrinal morass that teaches that ALL who affirm and confess according to their doctrine have this anointing….have the Truth, His Presence and His Kingdom.
We close again with our selection from Galatians which we will tie together with these ideas in the next post:
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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 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.
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
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
