ON LOVE; PART DCCXCII
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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 continued with our look at grace as the Presence and the Love of God through the revelations of this which lead to one’s realizations of the Truth of these things in the consciousness of the man in this world. It IS in this sense of realization that one can find the reality of the closing words to the fourteenth chapter that we have been studying as the Master tells the Eleven that “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” and we should see here that this IS also the way that the chapter starts as He tells them “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me” (John 14:1, 27). We should try to see here how that ALL that IS in between these beginning and ending ideas IS to explain the the most simple Truth that IS found in the Presence of God and His Love as the Spirit of God, the God Within, becomes the focus and the expression of the man in this world. As we noted early in our discussion of this chapter, this last saying IS better rendered in the affirmative idea of “Believe in god and believe in me” as Tyndale renders this and as both John Gill and Vincent show in their commentary. This latter rendering IS the more logical as well as here the Master IS speaking to the Eleven alone and we should see that if they DO NOT yet believe that He IS, that they would NOT have continued with Him. While it IS True that the apostles DO NOT fully understand the deeper ideas that Jesus goes on to explain, we should KNOW that they DO at least accept Him as He says which IS to “believe me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:11) and in the revelation by the Apostle Peter that “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:68-69). It IS the deeper Truths that Jesus reveals in these sayings that we have been repeating over again in our essays that ARE the crux of the reality that both they and we must understand as we seek to progress into the fullness of discipleship; we read:
“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).
When we can understand that this Presence IS that Peace that He leaves with them and with us, we can see the more complete ideas in regard to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, as that realization of the Presence of God in one’s Life which IS the source of True Peace. We must remember here that the language IS parabolic and the meanings are hidden from the minds of those who ARE not ready for the completeness of the Truth and this includes these apostles who, as we can see in the earlier exchanges with Philip, Thomas and Judas, DO not fully understand His words. And we should remember that the Master tells them of His parabolic way of revealing to them only whatsoever they could discern from His words as He says later that “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh , when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). John Gill captures the complete nature of this saying for us as he says:
These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: Concerning his Father, and his Father’s house, and the many mansions in it, of his going to prepare a place for them there, and of the way unto it, all which they seemed not to understand; of the nature of communion with him and his Father, and of the manifestation of them to them, so as not unto the world, which they could not account for; of their union to him under the simile of the vine and its branches; and of his departure from them, and return unto them; and of the sorrow that should follow upon the one, and the joy that should attend the other, set forth in the case of a woman in travail, having sorrow, and being joyful when delivered. All which, one would think, were plain and easy to be understood; but such was the then present state and case of the disciples, that these all seemed as proverbs, parables, and dark sayings, which they did not clearly understand 8.
While Mr. Gill shows us the completeness of these ideas, he also implies that he and other Christians today understand these things better than did the Eleven who where with Him. We KNOW however that so much of His words and the words of His apostles ARE taken by doctrines to mean doctrinal things; that is that the reasoning applied to the Master’s words IS in accordance with the doctrinal approach to Him by the denominations and the sects own doctrines. The reality IS that the Truth of this message on His Presence, the Father’s house, the way to the Kingdom, the Truth of His manifestation and His communion with the consciousness of the man in this world, ARE lost in the illusions of men that fail to see the reality of the quid pro quo, the Truth of the reciprocal nature of this teaching that clearly states to whom the Presence of God will be revealed. In this present day reality of the doctrinal view of His words we can get a glimpse of the idea of His having “spoken unto you in proverbs“, in words that ARE NOT discerned by men today, but which ARE continually built up in the hearts of the Eleven and ALL who understand the reality of focus, the reality of attending to the things of God and NOT the things of the world. And it IS these words of Peace that we should see in John’s own sayings on the relationship of Love and fear, how that in this sense of Love that the Master teaches us, there IS NO fear; we read the apostle’s words again saying:
“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:12-18).
In our recent series of essays that explored the ideas of the fourth chapter of the First Epistle of John we centered our attention on the right way to view this Greek word homologeo that IS rendered as confess; there, using Vincent’s commentary, we came to identify this idea of confessing with the idea of believing in or believing on the Master and how that these relate to us the reality of keeping His words. From a common sense view, a mathematical view if you will, there IS the equality of those terms which lead us to the same result that must be considered in understanding the ideas of confessing and of believing and of keeping His commandments; and, when we can see the Master’s ideas of manifesting and abiding as we read above in this mix of phrases, there IS an overwhelming sense that confession CAN NOT be the mere acknowledgement that is ofttimes seen as the way of salvation and of being “born again” by doctrines. In this view we should see the deeper ideas of believing and confession as well, that when one DOES so he IS proclaiming his KNOWING that the Christ IS God and it IS in such KNOWING that the reality of DOING will come into the Life of the man who Truly sees….this will become his natural and automatic response. This natural and automatic response IS however against the ways of the world and the ways of men who in their carnal minds seek to find alternatives to this response; it IS these alternatives that ARE provided by much of the doctrines that purport to KNOW the Truth. It IS here that men choose the carnal path, the “treasures upon earth“, over the spiritual Path, the “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19, 20). We have also related this idea of Jesus IS Lord to the reality of Life in this world under a ruler or a giver of laws; here we see the idea that to be under the king or the lord, especially in these ancient days, required one to do that lord’s bidding or suffer the consequences; it IS perhaps in this light that the most base reality of keeping His words as our Lord can be found. Early on in our series of blogs we discussed this chapter of John’s Epistle in some detail; in In the Words of Jesus part 304 we write on this combined view of keeping His words, confession and believing this way:
We come now to our next verse from this Fourth Chapter of John’s Epistle and this is another one that is difficult because it is the foundation of much doctrine regarding the idea of confession. Let us look at: “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God“. From prior verses we do get the understanding of what is takes to be able to profess that “God dwelleth in him, and he in God“:
- “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him” (1 John 3:24).
- “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
- “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (John 4:16).
We should, at a minimum, understand that these sayings are of no less importance that the saying in our subject verse and from the combination we should get that to dwelleth in God one must “confess that Jesus is the Son of God“; “keepeth his commandments“; “love one another” and “dwelleth in love“. Can we see the idea here that we cannot do but one of these or even two of them but ALL of them must be considered together.
When we add the Master’s words on manifesting and abiding from His sayings above, we should have the more complete picture of what IS necessary to have His Presence and, regardless of what words are used to show this Presence, dwelling, abiding, His manifesting or any other, that the reality IS the same and this IS that one will have the Presence of God in his Life as the reciprocal action of keeping His words which IS “in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). And this Love IS the message from John’s words in our selection from his epistle where we should clearly see the same ideas that we present above as we find His Presence in His abiding, and in His dwelling in the heart of the man in the world which IS, in most practical terms, the reality of a man’s realization of the Truth of God and the Kingdom. We read John’s words again saying:
“whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 3:17-24, 4:1-6).
In the equality of terms that we have outlined above we should be able to see the reality of these ideas from the Apostle John and see the deeper ideas of confession as he portrays this for us, that this confession, this keeping His words and expressing of His Love, will show the world the reality of one who IS “of God‘ which IS “born of God” and which IS “born again“, and we should understand here that it IS in relation to this last idea that Jesus shows us the Kingdom saying “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). In this we should see the parallel reality that keeping His words brings NOT ONLY His Presence but that it brings into the Life of the man in the world the entire reality of the Kingdom of God. While some see this idea of seeing the Kingdom in relation to the purported Jewish expectation of the times and while others see this being “born again” as that: by a supernatural power, having the heavenly image stamped on him; and being called with an heavenly calling, even with the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 8, the clearer view of this IS found in Vincent’s ideas which say: Expositors are divided on the rendering of ἄνωθεν, some translating, from above, and others, again or anew…..Canon Westcott calls attention to the traditional form of the saying in which the word ἀναγεννᾶσθαι , which can only mean reborn, is used as its equivalent. Again, however, does not give the exact force of the word, which is rather as Rev., anew, or afresh. Render, therefore, as Rev., except a man be born anew. The phrase occurs only in John’s Gospel 4. In this we see the Apostle Paul’s ideas:
- As the man who “be in Christ“, that IS one who dwells in Him which IS the reality of “God dwelleth in him, and he in God” as the Master says above, that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
- As the man who finds the Peace of the Presence of God through the realization that comes in moving one’s focus from the things of the world to the things of God which Paul frames for us as “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” (Ephesians 2:15).
- As the man who has His Presence, the man who “hath my commandments, and keepeth them“, that he “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
- As the man who has Transformed himself from the ways of the world and has “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10).
ALL of these ideas ARE the same spiritual reality of expressing the Love of God, the Love that IS God, which IS found in the reality of keeping His words and IS the sole causal factor for the Presence of God in the Life of a man in this world.
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.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL and that it IS His Presence which a man realizes by measure as he begins his journey to the Kingdom of God. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
The thought behind the idea above IS NOT unlike that which we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day for many essays; It IS in the closeness that Lord Tennyson shows us that we should see the idea that “God dwells in the inner part of every man” which we read in the previous Quote of the Day. For us this saying and the previous one show us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. Men may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn and to focus upon Him. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father“
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
