IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1713

ON LOVE; PART MCCCLII

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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).

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We ended the last essay with some thoughts on the death and the resurrection of the Master and how that He told us about what was going to happen before it happened….that ALL was in His control. We must understand that this control was NOT of the flesh but of the Spirit living and working through that flesh and while Jesus came among us with this Potency and Power, He DOES show us and tell us that we too can accomplish such things. While there may seem to be NO purpose in our own ability to die and resurrect, that Potency IS among the clarifying ideas regarding the whole of those “greater works” which Jesus tells us await the man who will accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. This IS the reality of keeping His words and this IS the Truth of the price to be paid for such Power, the True meaning of believing on the Master who tells us “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). These words ARE clear and while they ARE attached to the idea that this IS so “because I go unto my Father” in most ALL New Testament renderings, this should have NO effect upon what it IS that has been missed by a church that refuses to see the clear Truth to His words. Most ALL believe that these “greater works” ARE merely the ability of men to evangelize to a greater extent than Jesus; Vincent shows us this doctrinal view saying that these “greater works” ARE: Not more remarkable miracles, but referring to the wider work of the apostolic ministry under the dispensation of the Spirit. This work was of a higher nature than mere bodily cures 4. However, when we conflate this idea of “greater works” with such sayings as “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23) we should be able to see the extent of the Power that IS promised. We should try to see that this Power IS NOT the Power of miracles per se but IS the Power of the Soul, the Power of agape and Truth brought into the world by the man who has affirmed his own sense of “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. It IS this Redemption that allows so much of the Master’s gospel experiences; it IS by this Redemption that Jesus IS able to evade and elude His accusers of which we read very early on in His ‘ministry’ as:

And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way, And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days” (Luke 4:28-31).

There several similar instances in the gospels; another IS recorded in John’s Gospel where Jesus IS confronted by those who see His words as blasphemy; we read that “Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand” (John 10:39). Do we think that He ran from them? Do we think that those in pursuit ARE so stupid as to allow His escape as a man walking from them? Or, can we see that by His control over His body and His surrounding environment that He IS able to render Himself unseen? The first two ideas here ARE illogical but ARE included in John Gill’s commentary on Luke where we read that His ability to elude and evade IS: Either in so strong and powerful a manner, and with so much swiftness, that being once out of their hands, they could not lay hold on him again; or else he put on another form, or made himself invisible to them; or he held their eyes that they could not see him, or know him, as in (Luke 24:16) however it was, he made use of, and showed his divine power 8. The final point from Mr. Gill IS one that he uses in the reference to Luke and in this we should see that this IS his preferred idea among those listed, that he held their eyes that they could not see him. Mr. Gill and most ALL of the church DO NOT see the reality of what Jesus DOES here and elsewhere; most ALL DO NOT understand the reality of his divine power nor DO they see such included in His promise to ALL who will keep His words; His promise that “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do“. Men refuse to believe His words on the Power that can come to everyman and this likely because it seems to diminish their sense of Jesus’ divinity, a sense of the Christ that puts Him uniquely alone in relation to the Father. There ARE many instances where the Master simply appears and disappears and while we CAN NOT say which ARE related to the Truth of Redemption and which ARE based in the fullness of His Transfiguration, it IS in the combination of these spiritual factors that we will find our ultimate Truth. Can we relate Jesus’ abilities to the way that Enoch, Elijah and perhaps Moses simply disappeared from the Earth? There ARE many gospel points that show us how that the Master could move among crowds, appear in a different form, or appear in a closed room and then disappear. ALL of these things ARE in the gospels yet they ARE set aside as physical aberrations or under the idea that he held their eyes as John Gill paints this. In such words from the apostles’ as Mark telling us that “he appeared in another form unto two of them” (Mark 16:12) and Luke’s more complete summary of this from the perspective of the “two of them” where we read that it IS ONLY after “he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight” (Luke 24:30-31). While the church tells us that these ARE according to the idea that the Master prevented them from seeing or understanding His Presence, there IS much greater Truth here which then continues into the Book of Acts through stories about the exploits of Peter and Paul which ARE often relegated to the actions of angels. To reach this point as a disciple, as Peter and Paul, IS to be focused solely upon the things of God as we ARE instructed to DO in the first of the Great Commandments, an idea from the Master that IS based in the singular Truth of agape, a Truth which IS diluted and ignored in the doctrinal views of men. It IS the Repented, Transformed and Redeemed disciple, the True disciple, who, according to Jesus’ words, DOES “continue in my word“. It IS the True disciple that has fulfilled Jesus’ discipleship criteria which tells us that “whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). It IS to such men as to Peter and Paul that those “greater works” become real. In this Truth of discipleship we should try to see the idea of Redemption as the result of the True Union, the adoption, and try to see and to understand that the whole body IS freed….it IS NO longer bound by the laws of nature but IS made alive through the Love and the Power that flows through it. Can we see Peter and Paul in this? Can we see how that the Power of the Soul becomes the Power of the man in this world? We read of the Apostle Peter breaking chains, opening doors and healing by an act of will and while these things ARE most often attributed to angels or to Jesus’ words saying “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14), the reality IS that this IS the Power of the True disciple and the saint.

It IS such things that ARE included in the promise that we have from the Master saying 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 such things that ARE the result of “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“, a concept that IS NOT understood save for the doctrinal ideas created by men. As doctrinal thinkers pick and choose what they will believe literally and what they will NOT, we should understand that their choices ARE essentially self-centered and have been from the early church. While much may be related to the strong desire of the early church to ‘protect’ the divinity of Jesus, they missed the point that the Master’s DOING things as a man in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and it IS this “fulness of the Godhead” that makes Him unique. While we can see that He IS born into this state of being we should also try to see that He, as the Christ, needed to ‘train’ His flesh much in the same way as everyman but without the overwhelming effects of that vanity into which ALL ARE born. Perhaps we can see this as that Jesus could always see through the illusion and the glamour that surrounded Him and therefore never succumbed to it. Other’s however ARE NOT so purely born; Peter and Paul and the other apostles DID have to overcome their carnal tendencies having been nurtured and indoctrinated into Life and into their own views of the Jew’s religion. Peter DOES NOT appear to be a religious man; in fact he IS a self-acknowledged sinner who, as he realizes the Master’s divinity, says “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). The KEY idea here IS in Peter’s realization of the Truth as the Master called to Him which, according to Matthew, was in the form of Jesus’ saying “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). We have often said that the events that bring the apostles to the Master ARE NOT happenstance, that these men were born to be in this time and place based in their previous success at living according to the Truth. While we CAN NOT define these ideas specifically we can easily see that if these were merely selected from the masses, the Truth that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) becomes but a moot point. Add to this the reality that there IS NO instant conversion from a sinner to a saint, there IS ONLY a learning process that begins with Repentance and proceeds through Transformation which IS the story of Peter painted for us in the gospels and the Book of Acts. For the disciples, theirs IS an act of True Repentance which IS NOT a motive of the flesh but of the Soul. It IS in their hearing the prompting of their own Soul that they KNOW the the Master IS the Christ and it IS this prompting that causes their Repentance, that causes them to DO as Luke tells us saying “when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him” (Luke 5:11). This IS their Repentance, this IS their point of change from their focus upon the self and the self in this world to a focus upon the things of God, the Master here. And the completeness of their Repentance IS seen in the simple idea that “they forsook all, and followed him“. In this they begin to overcome their carnal tendencies and begin to see through the glamour and illusion, the vanity, to which they were bound. In this they begin their long process of Transformation which for Peter IS NOT completed before the Master’s death. We should see here as well that based in Jesus words Peter was the leader in this process of Transformation. The apostles were ‘destined’ if you will to follow the Lord while there was likely NO guarantee that they would DO so; here we can perhaps surmise that there were others ready to fulfill the task as His helpers should they be called upon. We should try to see here that based in this idea that these apostles were ‘ready’ as Souls to take on the task of True discipleship, that there have been others through the years in a similar position of readiness and that it IS these that have been able to progress as they strive toward “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“; a feat that IS NOT likely accomplished in a single fleeting Lifetime.

Paul was also a ready participant in this Christian drama. Paul was, from the nature of his own testimony, a seriously religious Jew and one who was “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God“. This IS his nurturing and his indoctrination that had to be overcome and was through his experience on the road to Damascus. There, suddenly, he was able to hear the prompting of his own Soul as the Universal Christ spoke to him through his own Soul, his own Christ Within. Perhaps there was a constant struggle in Paul’s Life between what he sensed as his destiny and those things into which he was indoctrinated. Perhaps this IS what made him so zealous against the followers of Christ as he admits that “I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished” (Acts 22:3, 4-5). And perhaps it IS this self-ordained mission which Luke frames for us saying “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2) that causes enough psychic turmoil that he stops and heeds that “still small voice” as DID Elijah. Can we see here how that Paul realizes that the Lord was NOT in the Jew’s religion just as Elijah realizes that “the LORD was not in the wind“; “the LORD was not in the earthquake“; “the LORD was not in the fire” but that He was in that “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11, 12). Paul finally hears that “still small voice” over the din of his religion and beliefs. While Peter IS a lesson for us in the Way of progress, spiritual progress with its fits and starts, Paul IS a different lesson. Peter teaches us that while one sees the goal, it IS NOT an easy reach but that with perseverance and adjusting through one’s own mistakes, that goal can be reached. Paul on the other hand had the discipline of religion as his station but it was the discipline of a doctrinal view, enhanced by his nurturing and indoctrination against the Truth which he could NOT see until that day on the road to Damascus. In Peter IS the hope of the average man in the world, the man who never sees religion as an option but who catches a glimpse of the Truth in the Life of Jesus and Repents and follows that Truth. In Paul IS the hope of the man who from his beginning chose to follow God without realizing that the Lord was NOT in the Jew’s religion, nor in any convenient doctrinal precepts, the hope of the man who finally sees the fruitlessness of his doctrinal pursuits and Repents and seeks the Truth that was ever flowing from his own Soul. We should understand that these ARE worldwide effects which ARE NOT limited to the Jew and the Christian. We should understand that ALL men need to Repent as a first step towards spiritual Truth and away from a purely carnal Life or a doctrinally religious one. It IS this Repentance that Jesus frames for us saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). There IS an untranslated word in this saying from the Master, the Greek word en; including this world would render the ideas as “repent ye, and believe in the gospel“. Here if we were to apply Vincent’s defining ideas for one’s believing in and believing on we could understand the Master’s refrain as that we should accept and adopt His the precepts of the gospel and example as binding upon the life 4. Today’s problem, and the problem of religion for the last 2000 years, IS that men DO NOT understand just what the gospel IS. Were we to look closely at the Master’s words we could see that it IS first the precepts of the law and second the enhancements, the amplification and the clarification of the essential points, that Jesus gives us in His words. The gospel IS NOT the doctrinal views, the much varied doctrinal views, of the churches; views that ARE mostly created by men in the early church through negotiation and compromise against the clear Truths that were offered by the Master. Clear Truths such as Jesus’ words from our trifecta which we repeat here saying:

  • 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).

We should try to see how that it IS the fault of the doctrines of men that prevent the church from accepting such ideas as the Master gives us regarding “greater works“; the church where our ability to move the mountain has become an issue of ‘speaking to our problems’. The Master’s words were an instruction on True faith, True pistis and pisteuo, and NOT the nebulous ideas of men. Jesus offers us specific criteria regarding having “faith as a grain of mustard seed” but the doctrinal idea here most always goes to the size of the seed rather than the nature of its faith, a concept that IS neither understood nor entertained. Both Matthew and Luke use this idea of the nature of one’s faith in a parabolic form; Matthew in regard to the mountain and Luke in regard to the “sycamine tree” but there IS little difference between these abilities of men. Matthew tells us that “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20) while Luke gives us the Master’s words as “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you” (Luke 17:6). There IS NO intent that a man should DO such things; from the perspective of the mountain there would be much havoc created in the Earth and while the “sycamine tree” would be less destructive, it would reveal the mystery to a science that could NOT accept it and be to men as a miracle. Again, neither the mountain nor the tree ARE the objective of the Master’s words; His objective IS to show us the Truth of faith and believing as that KNOWING that IS the Way of the disciple. As the “mustard seed” KNOWS ONLY that it will be a tree so the disciple, the True disciple, KNOWS the Truth of God and the Power of Repentance, Transformation and Redemption. It IS in this last stage that one Truly KNOWS and it IS in this last stage that both Peter and Paul ARE able to DO such things as they DID, showing us their control over the physical environment which IS ever subservient to the Will of the Soul who can express that Power through his human form. In Paul we ARE told of how that when his detractors were “supposing he had been dead” he, by the Power of the Redemption, “rose up, and came into the city” (Acts 14:19-20). In Peter we ARE shown the many ways that he was breaking chains, opening doors and healing by an act of will in the Book of Acts. These things ARE the Power of discipleship, the Power of being “delivered made free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. These things ARE the Power of KNOWING the Truth which sets us free according to Jesus’ words that ARE the first part of our trifecta; a Power that begins to come upon us in True Repentance which IS the reality of striving to “continue in my word“; this IS the criteria that the Master sets for us. We should understand that the apostles CAN NOT DO such things as raise themselves from the dead and walk on or be breaking chains, opening doors and healing by an act of will save for the Power of True discipleship; such things ARE NOT possible to the man whose faith IS that nebulous doctrinal kind. While this nebulous doctrinal faith IS testified to by some according to their ‘desires‘ being fulfilled, for the vast majority of men this IS NOT so; for the vast majority their faith IS but an endless hoping. And for those who fail to achieve it IS ofttimes reckoned that their faith was NOT sufficient while for many of these their faith and their tithing far exceeds that of some of those whose ‘desires‘ ARE fulfilled. In this IS the very epitome of the nebulosity of doctrinal faith and believing.

The reality of faith and believing from a spiritual perspective IS shown to us in Jesus’ words, in His complimentary words regarding the idea of having “faith as a grain of mustard seed“. We should understand two things before we can understand Jesus’ use of pistis and pisteuo, faith and believing. First that the reality of the dichotomy between thing carnal and things spiritual should show us rather clearly that whatsoever one ‘desires‘ as a man IS NOT among those things to which the Master refers in His saying that “nothing shall be impossible unto you“. Nor ARE carnal things what He refers to in saying “he shall have whatsoever he saith” as the Apostle Mark interprets Jesus intent regarding moving the mountain. Second, we should remember that the idea of having “faith as a grain of mustard seed” has naught to DO with the size of one’s faith as many see this as they relate these words to Jesus words regarding the small size of the seed as He explains for us the Kingdom of God. While both pertain to one’s spiritual endeavors, the one shows us that KNOWING and the other shows us how that once planted in Repentance, the Kingdom grows within. The relationship between having “faith as a grain of mustard seed” and the reality of that KNOWING IS shown to us in Matthew’s continuation of the idea of moving the mountain. The apostle tells us Jesus words as “If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). This IS NOT the nebulous faith of doctrines; this IS that strength of KNOWING by which we can have access to those “greater works“, where whatsoever we can determine to DO “shall be done“. This KNOWING IS the reality of the spiritual man, the Soul, fully active in the form of a man according to Paul’s showing us this same in Jesus saying “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). This IS the KNOWING that comes to the Transformed man in “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. It IS here that we can “have faith, and doubt not” as our singular focus IS upon the Truth and the Love that IS the Lord While these ideas will seem alien, foreign and impossible to the doctrinal thinker, ARE they any more ‘strange’ than the Christian view of the rapture which IS based in a single sentence from Paul saying “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). It IS in this idea of rapture that many have faith and believe and here we should see the difference between KNOWING our True relationship with God and hoping to be among the raptured which has been happening any time now for 2000 years. Jesus promises us the ability to DO “greater works” in the reality of “believing on” and it should be easy to see that doctrinal faith and believing ARE NOT sufficient to have this ability. If it were, many millions of men would have such Power. We must understand the depth of believing and the reality of having faith without doubt and see both of these ideas as KNOWING certain; this should be our understanding of pistis which we access as we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4.

While these words from Matthew and Luke regarding the mountain and the “sycamine tree” ARE rather straightforward and clear, they ARE NOT accepted as such by the doctrinal thinker who will accept the idea of the rapture and a scripturally undefined heaven and hell while denying the Power of the Redeemed man. And the doctrinal view becomes even more perplexing as many parts of the church have adopted parts of Mark’s version of these same ideas while yet rejecting the idea of the mountain being “cast into the sea“. Mark tells us Jesus’ words as “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:23-24). The doctrinal view of many here mocks the reality that the Master IS showing us and while He IS showing us this sense of KNOWING from the perspective of the mountain and having “not doubt in his heart“, the doctrinal thinker sees ONLY their nebulous believing as being able to resolve one’s prayers. What we should see here IS the same idea of KNOWING which IS to be certain without doubt and, again, the necessary separation between things carnal and things spiritual. The most basic Truth in these ideas IS gained when we can understand pistis and pisteuo as more than the doctrinal views of faith and believing, words which, while they have a fixed meaning of confidence and trust in, ARE generally understood religiously in terms of hope. We should understand here as well that it IS these ideas that cover for the most nebulous aspects of the Christian religions as those who DO NOT see as they should ARE lacking in faith and believing. We should try to see here that our selection of Paul’s words to the Romans IS a lesson in these ideas of pistis and pisteuo; Paul shows us the difference between the man who KNOWS and DOES and the man who DOES NOT which, according to the apostles descriptions of the KNOWER, can show us that few there ARE that Truly KNOW; ponder on this. We close today with our selection from Paul and with the Apostle James’ words regarding faith and doubt and the relation of these to the reality of Wisdom which IS our KNOWING some measure of the Truth as men in this world. James tells us “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). Repeating Paul’s words we read:

they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:5-23).

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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  • 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
  • 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com

Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.

Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher

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