ON LOVE; PART CDXCV
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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“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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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).
We ended the last essay with some words from the First Epistle of the Apostle John, that same one that sets forth a great part of the Truth on Love IS where we read about the reality of overcoming the world as men. John does the addition for us to bring us to this perspective as he shows us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) and then that:
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:1-5).
As we discussed in the last post, we must look past the doctrinal ideas on believing that “Jesus is the Christ” and that this ability to overcome IS based in the idea that these things are for “he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God“; we DO NOT discount these words, only the doctrinal interpretation of them and we qualify our ideas with those things that the apostle ties to this, that “we love God, and keep his commandments“. We MUST see these ideas as the key to this word believeth as it is used here and elsewhere in this similar context. Here again we rely on those words from Vincent to see as just how one does believe in or believe on or believeth that He IS who we DO KNOW that He IS; he does accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. We should look at this in another way as well and see that John’s rationale can be that it IS in the ability to “believeth that Jesus is the Christ“, to “believeth that Jesus is the Son of God“, that we can understand and use the ideas above to the benefit of our own journey on the Path to the Kingdom; that it IS here in this KNOWING that He IS the Son that we can realize that we are as He IS and this in the context of the apostles words that tell us that “as he is, so are we in this world“.
And if we could reconstruct these words, we could see them say that the man who believes this, “that Jesus is the Christ“, will also KNOW that that “By this we know that we love the children of God” and this IS NOT unlike the ideas presented by the Master Himself to the Apostle Peter who KNOWS, who believes, that Jesus IS the Christ; Jesus says to Peter: “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). This IS revelation and NOT the simple act of emotional or mental affirmation. Here then in John’s words is the ‘proof’ of our believing; that we Love our brothers, “the children of God” and here without comment the apostle equates this Love to the reality that “we love God” and he equates this with the reality that we “keep his commandments“. The totality of this experience IS ALL inclusive and DOES NOT just rest upon the simple idea of believing and here we can relate this to the words of the Apostle James who tells us that we MUST “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). We should remember that in this use of hearers we should understand this same idea of believing as we have discussed before and this can be believers on any level. It IS in ALL of this; that we DO “love the children of God“, that we DO “keep his commandments“, that we can stand and say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). And we should understand the idea of believing “that Jesus is the Christ“, as we see in these words from the Master to Peter, that Peter KNOWS this Truth by revelation and that in this revelation DOES come the reality of being “doers of the word“.
This is the reality of these ideas; that “whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith“; here we should understand that the Greek word rendered here as faith is the kindred word to the Greek word that is rendered as believe and believeth from our saying above. In the former we have pistis, the noun, and in the latter we have pisteuo, the verb….the thought IS the same and in our understanding this IS that state of KNOWING and this, as we see in the words to Peter above, IS from revelation. Some may believe that we are playing with these words to make them to come out as we see them but the reality IS that any who Truly look at the way that these are used and who understand that the simple ideas of believing and faith that are based in emotional and mental response CAN NOT be the ideas that are intended; and we see this most clearly in the Master’s words as He speaks of moving the mountain and casting the sycamine tree into the sea; there IS NO degree of carnal belief that can make these things so and there IS no degree of emotional or mental faith either.
In a strange way we can see that it IS only those who do Truly understand the relationships of Soul and form, of God and man, and of the carnal and the spiritual, who can Truly KNOW any of those things that come by revelation and while the apostle shows us in the saying above that “we know that we love the children of God” by this revelation, there is yet the greater reality. This IS the reality of the apostle’s former words and the words of the Master. The apostle tells us that “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:7-8) and this IS our Truth clearly stated. This Truth however is overshadowed in doctrine by the trite understandings and use of the surrounding sayings which are of NO use to any without this realization of Love. Doctrine reads these other words to their own benefit and the idea of confession is misunderstood and under appreciated as its True meaning is intimately tied to that same KNOWING by revelation of the Truth. Let us look here at some of the ideas that the apostle presents to us and the inherent Truths that are contained within them:
- “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” (1 John 4:1-3). This point IS simple and straightforward; the reality of the Christ IS universal and ALL who are KNOWERS will KNOW this, that IS ALL to whom this has been revealed. This reality reaches far beyond the Christian ‘believer’ as any KNOWER from any religion who KNOWS of the teachings and the works of Jesus CAN NOT and WILL NOT deny His divinity. This however IS not the function of the emotional and the mental believing or faith as the man in this state will deny Christ because he is emotionally or mentally tied to Judaism or to atheism or to one of the Greek or the Roman philosophies. Here we should understand this idea of antichrist simply as the idea of denying, simply as this man is against this idea that Jesus IS of God and superior to his own vision. And we see this phraseology in John’s mind as that this antichrist IS the product of the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world which make a man to believe what IS NOT, what IS of the world, and to doubt what Truly IS, what IS spiritual.
- “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“. These are the same words as above but here our focus IS on the idea of confessing as an idea which is misunderstood and misapplied as we note above. To simply say a thing is much the same as simply believing that something is True; there is no foundation for either. Similarly with faith and while this man who confesses in words, and believes and has faith as those emotional and mental responses, IS NOT the same as the one who IS against, he is certainly NOT among the KNOWERS either. Vincent helps us to understand this word that IS rendered as confess in a more spiritual tone; he refers us from this saying to a saying from Matthew, 10:32, and he says:
- Confess me (ομολογήσει εν εμοὶ); A peculiar but very significant expression. Lit., “Confess in me.” The idea is that of confessing Christ out of a state of oneness with him. “Abide in me, and being in me, confess me.” It implies identification of the confessor with the confessed, and thus takes confession out of the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment. “Not every one that saith unto me, ‘ Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The true confessor of Christ is one whose faith rests in him. Observe that this gives great force to the corresponding clause, in which Christ places himself in a similar relation with those whom he confesses. “I will confess in him.” It shall be as if I spoke abiding in him. “I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23) 4.
We should note here that the word saith or speak from Vincent’s reference to “Not every one that saith unto me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21) is rendered from one of the root words that give us the rendering of confess. The overriding point here is that this idea of confessing IS NOT in the category of mere formal or verbal acknowledgment but IS, as we understand in faith and believing, the active spiritual part of keeping His words. Vincent makes this separation of intent for us in arguing that saying Lord, Lord, even while believing, IS NOT the force of confessing as we read above. Again, there are many who will disagree with these ideas but this disagreement is founded in that same emotional and mental response to our words as we complicate and make more difficult the reality of True believing and faith and of confessing.
- “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” (1 John 4:4). Here we should see these realities, that merely saying this or that, or believing it carnally, DOES NOT make one “of God” nor give one the ability to overcome which we see more clearly in our words above, that overcoming is the result of that Love and one’s keeping His words, it IS overcoming the world; here in this saying this IS only overcoming those who do not teach the Truth. And who IS that greater that IS in you? It is the Christ Within, and the activity of the Christ Within in Love which we KNOW as the Holy Spirit. This comes to us in the realizations and the revelations of the True confession, of our Truly becoming ONE with the Lord. There IS NO shortcut of confessing, of saying any thing in rite or ritual, there IS ONLY the DOING.
- “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. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love” (1 John 4:5-8). Here is the reality that IS NOT seen through the illusion and the glamour of Life; that any who ARE NOT keeping His words, any who ARE NOT acting in that Love that the Master teaches us, any who are not believing and confessing and having that faith the makes the man a DOER of the word, ARE yet of the world and this regardless of what they may emotionally or mentally believe to be True. What IS the Spirit of Truth? Is it not that we keep His words? And what IS the spirit of error, it this not the illusion and the glamour and the ways of the world? Finally the apostle takes us back to Love and tells us clearly that “every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love“. This IS our ultimate reality.
It was not our intent to go so far down this road today but rather to bring us back to the ideas of discipleship. Of course these ideas above have that same reality, as the result and the cause, as it IS ONLY in the DOING that one can achieve. As we leave off today we should say something about the remarks above on being in the world versus being of God. In this there IS black and white, one IS or one IS NOT of God and ALL others are of the world and in this part, the world part, there is the measure by degree. The apostle claims that “We are of God” and there ARE two different approaches to this idea that John leaves muddy and confused and this likely is his intent as his language IS intentionally parabolic. In this sense being of God can be seen in the perspective ALL men ARE of God but that those who strive ARE not so completely of the world; John IS NOT here claiming that perfection that we discussed in the last essay, neither for himself nor for his audience; he is merely claiming the direction of his Life and those who hear him. The apostle follows this with the idea of being “born of God” and in this is the completion of the journey which we see above in the idea that those “born of God” are those who can overcome the world. Perhaps we can see this reality in the Master’s ideas that are presented in John’s Gospel, the idea of being “born again” which contains within it the reality of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and of discipleship.
We can see here then being of God is the aspirant, the man whose work it is to become an accomplished DOER and the converse of this IS the man who is of the world, focused upon the self and the things of the self and here religion matters not…..the difference IS in the striving. We can also see the reality of being “born of God“; we can see this as a separate reality in which one IS “born again” and IS the DOER of His words and the man who lives his Life in Love for ALL.
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.
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.
We love him, because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him,
That he who loveth God love his brother also
1 John 4:16-21
Today’s Quote of the Day from the First Epistle of John is his reflection on God and on Love. John tells us that God is Love and, as we have discussed, Love is certainly as aspect and an attribute of the Godhead and one which is supremely represented by the Christ. John tells us further that without Love there is no relationship with God and likens the Truth of dwelling in Love to being in His Kingdom and in His Presence. He draws for us the idea of Love for ones fellowman being the prime prerequisite for Love of God for although one may say that he Loves God, it cannot be True unless he first Loves his fellowman. In John’s words the equation is certain: “he who loveth God love his brother also“. And, lest we forget that the idea of Love that the Master teaches in not the emotional attraction that we live with daily, we repeat again: LOVE is….
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’. To this we add the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
