ON LOVE; PART MDXLVIII
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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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In the last essay our discussion centered on the idea of measure. as We showed and explained the Master’s words on measure according to our view of the importance of the idea that we receive spiritual benefit in proportion to our effort to secure such benefits. In our view, NONE of these spiritual benefits ARE carnal nor can they be; this idea of carnal gifts IS in direct opposition to most ALL of the doctrinal teachings that abound today. Whether we subscribe to the so called prosperity gospel teachings or we subscribe to the more general idea of praying for what one wants, there IS ONLY failure regarding securing carnal ‘blessings’ from the Lord. Surely some may receive what they pray for but this IS incidental and to use such anecdotal ideas to project an overall Truth ONLY leads others to follow in the same path. Worse however IS the failure to receive what one prays for; this IS generally accounted to the idea that one DOES NOT have enough faith and, to be sure, few, if any, DO. Far too many ARE discouraged by their presumed lack of faith and this DOES NOT bode well for a person’s future spiritual endeavors. Many however remain steadfast in their belief that prayer, and the prosperity gospel idea of ‘name it and claim it’, will eventually pay off as they build faith in the doctrines that they have chosen to follow.
What we should try to see here IS that it IS the vanity of men that IS the greatest driver that moves people to the ideas propounded by the many denominations that have adopted the ideas of prayer for carnal rewards and, while some carnal rewards may be virtuous, they ARE carnal rewards nonetheless. We should ever remember that it IS against vanity that the entirety of the New Testament works; in other words, the teachings of the Master and His apostles ARE contrary to men’s desires for worldly gain. While the Master’s teachings clearly show us that we should be seeking spiritual rewards and NOT carnal ones, this message has been diluted and changed by the doctrines of men who, in their vanity, ARE predisposed to their carnal lives. This of course IS based in the vanity into which ALL ARE born plus the seemingly endless nurturing and indoctrination into the ways of the world and we should understand here that much of this nurturing and indoctrination comes from the doctrinal churches of the world. For whatever reason most ALL trust and believe their religious leaders, most ALL never understand that the religious leader IS also a man whose own vanity and nurturing and indoctrination play large in his religious teachings. Few understand and fewer heed the warning given us by the Apostle James saying “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body” (James 3:1-2). The idea of masters here IS from the Greek word didaskalos whose primary definition IS teacher. This IS the same word that IS capitalized as Master when referring to Jesus and while many teachers can be called master, we should remember that they ARE essentially teachers.
James’ words ARE a caution to those who choose to teach and a warning that it IS by their words that they offend. That teachers teach what they KNOW IS the common way of teaching in this world. In religion however we have many teaching what they DO NOT KNOW as they ascribe as the Truth what their doctrines proclaim as Truth. And, should this teaching be about men’s carnal successes, their wealth and possessions, which may resonate with the hearer, such teaching quickly becomes the doctrinal Truth despite the fact that they ARE contrary to the Master’s words. Of course the most direct words from the Master that denounce the ideas of men’s carnal successes, their wealth and possessions, ARE found in His words from His Sermon on the Mount. There we read these words that we have discussed many times; Jesus tells His disciples and the gathered crowd to:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?” (Matthew 6:19-25).
The Master’s words here ARE repeated in Luke’s Gospel albeit not in the same format nor in one place. In Luke we read the Master’s words saying “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:32-33). While these words DO NOT directly replicate Matthew’s version, they DO end in the same Truth saying “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also“. The rest of these verses ARE perhaps just a different view of the idea that men should NOT accumulate treasures, which idea IS unfortunately presumed to be wealth but which, for us, IS a greatly expanded idea according to the last verse. The idea that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” should show us that our treasure IS much broader than merely wealth and possessions. Luke tells us that we should focus upon “treasures in heaven” through Jesus’ words saying “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” as He then tells us to discard whatsoever treasures we may have accumulated saying “Sell that ye have, and give alms“. Overall however the messages ARE much the same.
The next part of the Sermon from Matthew IS repeated in Luke where we read the Master’s words saying “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness. Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness. If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light” (Luke 11: 34-36). These verses ARE, from our perspective, grossly misunderstood and perhaps the single idea of evil provides much of the reason as the word IS made to represent the ‘bad’ things one may DO. When we see evil, from the Greek poneros, as the carnal focus of men rather than a specific behavior, the whole idea can be better understood. Similarly we should try to understand that idea of the single eye which idea IS used in both Matthew and Luke. The Greek word haplous which IS rendered as single IS ONLY used in these two verses and there ARE no definitive ideas available about its meaning. Vincent tells us that: the picture underlying this adjective is that of a piece of cloth or other material, neatly folded once, and without a variety of complicated folds. Hence the idea of simplicity or singleness. So, in a moral sense, artless, plain, pure. Here sound, as opposed to evil or diseased 4. Others however render the idea, seemingly NOT the word, as good, healthy, clear, and true; none of which have a direct relationship to the Greek word. The doctrinal idea seems to be that the idea of haplous must be in opposition their idea of evil. We however disagree with ALL of the doctrinal presentations and see the opposition as being between a carnal focus and a spiritual one. It IS in our focus upon the things of God that “the whole shall be full of light“; it IS here that the man focused upon the Lord can realize that he IS “the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14).
The next point IS similar in both gospels; they both show us that we must choose where our focus will be….on God or on mammon. Luke shows us the Master’s words as “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). The message here IS simple but it IS misplaced in the doctrinal church that limits the idea of mammon to: treasure and riches (where it is personified and opposed to God). As we have previously discussed mammon IS but a transliteration of the Greek word mammonas which IS of Aramaic origin according to some and of Chaldee origin according to others. While most ALL universally see the idea of riches in this word, some DO define the idea as: what is trusted in 9 and the result here IS the manipulation of the idea to the understanding that riches ARE good unless they ARE trusted in. In the end we should try to see that few if any actually serve riches; men may accumulate riches and serve the industries that bring them riches but insofar as serving riches we have a non sequitur. In this idea of mammon we should see a very similar idea as we DO in treasures and understand that neither IS intended to point ONLY to wealth and possessions. both point to our focus, be it on the world as treasure and mammon or be it on the realm of God.
Finally we have what may be one of the most misunderstood segments of the New Testament: the Master’s words saying “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment” (Luke 12:22-23). While the Greek word merimnao which IS rendered here as thought IS defined as: to be anxious, to be troubled with cares; and to care for, look out for (a thing), to seek to promote one’s interests, caring or providing for 2, 9 by the lexicon, the common idea applied by most IS worry. As we often say, even when considering the idea to be worry, most ALL fail as most ALL worry about their ‘plight’ in Life or the loss of what they may have. Strong’s defines merimnao as: to be anxious about before adding (be, have) care(-ful), take thought 9a. Thayer’s seems to be the source of the ideas from the lexicon and Vine’s tells us that the idea IS: to be anxious, careful 9b while comparing the King James rendering to that of the Revised Version. With ALL of these defining ideas one should wonder why the King James translators chose the idea of “Take no thought” here in these verses as well as elsewhere in the gospels. The answer seems easy when we look at other verses from this section where we read “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin (Matthew 6:27-28). In Luke’s version of the Master’s words we read “And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?
If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?” (Luke 12:25-26). In these sayings ideas of anxiousness and worry make little or no sense when rendered that way and we should note that most ALL bible versions DO so.
For a better understanding of the Greek word and some support in using the idea of “Take no thought” over renderings of worry and anxiousness we go to Vincent where we read: The cognate noun is merimna, care, which was formerly derived from meriv, a part; merixw, to divide; and was explained accordingly as a dividing care, distracting the heart from the true object of life 4. It IS easy to see the idea of “Take no thought” when the word IS so defined and this idea seems to flow seamlessly from the previous words saying “Ye cannot serve God and mammon“. Can we see the idea here? That we should NOT be distracting the heart from the true object of life. This IS a spiritual saying which ends with a similar refrain in both gospels where we read “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Vincent goes on to tell us that the defining idea he offers us above: has been abandoned, however, and the word is placed in a group which carries the common notion of earnest thoughtfulness. It may include the ideas of worry and anxiety, and may emphasize these, but not necessarily 4. From our perspective it IS ONLY when we can see the depth of the Master’s teaching that we can understand both the choices that we must make and the reality that we should “Take no thought for your life” which IS the result of our change of focus off of the carnal and mundane and onto the things of God.
In his commentary Vincent includes a quote from Bishop Lightfoot, another renowned 19th century bible scholar, saying that: ‘I have heard of a political economist alleging this passage as an objection to the moral teaching of the sermon on the mount, on the ground that it encouraged, nay, commanded, a reckless neglect of the future‘ 4. While we have cited these words before, we can bring some new ideas the the subject here in this post. We should remember that the words from the Master where delivered primarily to disciples and what Jesus IS teaching His disciples IS exactly what this political economist alleges: neglect of the future. While the idea from the Master IS NOT reckless, it IS a teaching on the idea that we should NOT even think about the future and this IS confirmed in His words saying “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). Granted, this teaching IS NOT for everyone as it IS beyond the understanding of the average man in this world; it IS however a integral part of our journey to discipleship. We should understand here that the goal of the aspirant to discipleship IS to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). In Vincents commentary on the original meaning of the idea of the cognate noun merimna we have the whole of man’s journey from being a carnal creature bound to his carnal Life of vanity to becoming a spiritual expression of agape in this world. We see this through the idea of dividing care which results in our distracting the heart from the true object of life 4.
The idea that we should actually “Take no thought for your life” IS understandably a difficult one for a man to see in his own Life but as one grows as an aspirant to discipleship, as one’s measure increases, such ideas become easier to understand. To be sure there ARE many commands offered by the Master that for centuries men have made to be about something simple but we should understand that it IS such manipulation of the Truth that the Master rails about in the Jews’ religion. We should try to understand here that it IS this drive to find simpler, less dramatic, changes to one’s ‘spiritual’ Life that IS the originator of the doctrines of men against which the Master says “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6-7). So much of the New Testament IS offered to us in a parabolic tone but there IS also much that IS offered in clear concise language that DOES NOT even lend to interpretation. While this IS True men DO interpret to their liking many clearly written biblical ideas and commandments of the Lord. Here the idea IS “Take no thought for your life” and while the rest of this, in regard to “what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on“, IS offered as examples of the needs of a man in this world. These ideas of eating, drinking and clothing ARE among the constant thoughts of men, for some general thoughts while for others such ARE real Life concerns. These however ARE NOT the topic of the Master’s words; the topic IS simply “Take no thought for your life“. This whole idea IS also shown to us in the Parable of the Rich Fool which immediately precedes our subject idea of “Take no thought for your life” in Luke’s Gospel. We read:
“The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).
We should note here that there IS NO idea of worry or anxiousness involved in this parable, there IS ONLY thought, selfish thought if you will, about one’s future and one’s possessions. There ARE several points on display in this parable and perhaps the primary one IS the reality that whatever planning one may do regarding His future can be quickly wasted in one’s demise. From a spiritual perspective we should try to see the ultimate logic in the Master’s commandment that men should “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness“. While this saying ends with the idea that “all these things shall be added unto you“, namely food, drink and clothing, we should NOT understand this the way that the idea IS framed by much of the church. What we should see here IS the more basic Truth that in seeking “first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” we ARE deemphasizing the idea of material gain as we “take no thought” regarding such. This frees us from the wheel of desire and puts us on the road that Peter shows us saying that we “might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). It IS this escape that takes us out of our “bondage of corruption“, takes us out of our vanity (Romans 8:20, 21), and IS the result, by measure, of our decision to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness“.
Another point provided by this parable IS more suitable to our common knowledge and our understanding of the way of Life here in this world. Solomon shows us the reality saying “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:15). This answers the question from the parable that asks “whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?. The question IS also answered by Paul who writes to Timothy that “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content” (1 Timothy 6:5-8). Paul’s words here capture the greater point from the Master’s words that tell us clearly “Take no thought for your life“.
Returning to the text of the Master’s words that show us our choices in Life, we should understand that the choices offered ARE our choice to Repent and Transform versus the choice to remain in our vanity, in our world of sin and evil rightly understood. In our Repentance and Transformation we choose “treasures in heaven” over “treasures upon earth“. In our Repentance and Transformation we choose God over mammon and in our Repentance and Transformation we look at Life with the single eye, an eye focused on the things of God and NOT the things of the self in this world. It IS in these choices that we Repent and Transform and it IS in this that we ARE able to “Take no thought for your life“. ALL of this IS the Master’s words, His commandments if you will, and understanding the dynamic of His saying that “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19), will help us in our journey. We should try to see that this parabolic statement shows us a reality insofar as our understanding of “the kingdom of heaven“, Matthew’s choice over “the kingdom of God” in many instances. What we should see here IS that there ARE advanced Souls in the Kingdom and it IS these that will see our little lives as being least or being great and here we should NOT forget that our own Souls ARE the primary judge of our lives in this world. This however IS a subject for another day. There IS yet another reality in this parabolic statement and that IS the idea that we keep His words. It IS keeping His words that must begin with our Repentance and continue through our Transformation and here we should understand that this DOES NOT happen in an instant. Keeping His words IS a process that runs parallel to our Transformation and, in many ways, IS our Transformation. Keeping His words IS the Way and NOT because they ARE His words but because, as the Master tells us “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Keeping His words has a spiritual effect upon our lives as we should see in 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).
These words from the Master ARE included in nearly every essay because they emphasize the idea of keeping His words but NOT ONLY because the ARE His words and commandments which should be kept. We cite them because along with the idea above being responsible for the reality that “whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven“, they ARE also the gauge to understanding the reality of the Wise man and the fool. In both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospels the Master, after His dissertation on right view of the commandments of Moses and the deeper meanings of agape, offers us a summation of the effect of keeping His words. While this summation IS called The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders, it IS NOT really a parable at all. What Jesus’ words represent IS the simple Truth that from the perspective of the man in this world, True Wisdom comes to those that DO hear and DO as the Master teaches us. As we discussed above, the idea of the Greek word akouo IS NOT limited to what enters one’s ear but includes the innate thoughts emanating from one’s conscience which we should try to see ARE influenced by the promptings of the Soul. It IS in this Light, in the idea of our innate thoughts of conscience, that we both hear glimpses of the Truth and interpret what it IS that enters our ear. This IS NOT however how the idea of akouo works in the lives of most ALL men whose carnal minds have so overwhelmed the conscience that they come to believe ONLY what enters into the ear. It IS in this dynamic that the doctrines of men have been built as men deflected the ideas of conscience and made them to agree with their carnal ideations of what the Truth must be. While such ideations have worked out differently for different subsets of humanity, this DOES NOT change the dynamic and we should understand that this idea of doctrines IS more far reaching that in religion alone. A picture of the effect can be seen in a study of such things as the Crusades where religion was NOT the main driver but was used to help drive the main ideas of prejudice and hatred, ideas that had NO place in the Christian religions of the day. We can also look at the Reformation wars which were more a struggle for supremacy of one group over another than they were for the sake of the Christian religion which, at its heart, sees such carnage as having NO place in the teachings of the Christ.
Secular doctrines have also played a large part in human history; for example we can look at the reign of Genghis Khan who, through his cult power, conquered much of Asia to spread his doctrinal ideas. Similarly there ARE men such as Hitler and Mussolini who through their cult power spread similar cult doctrine which entrapped many millions of believers in their campaigns. Our point here IS simply that such movements, both in and out of religion, involve the manipulation of men’s conscience responses away from being one’s link to the Soul and to becoming one’s link to a belief system of doctrines originated in the carnal minds of men. In the ‘parable’, these ARE the fools; these ARE those that hear ONLY the echo of their doctrines in their own carnal minds as they block out the Truth that streams from their own Souls. They have effectively cut off the conscience, the link between the Soul and the carnal mind, and it will take some Life event to get that link back. We should try to see that the link IS NOT severed but rather flooded with the thoughts of one’s doctrinal beliefs reverberating throughout one’s consciousness. This IS the reality of hearing that we should understand in the ‘parable’, especially in the case of the Wise man. The ‘parable’ tells us:
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27).
The idea here IS to paint a picture of the man who keeps His words as opposed to the man who DOES NOT and in this comparison between the Wise and the foolish man we should see the ideas embedded in the third part of our trifecta. While the most basic tenet of these two separate sayings appear quite different, there IS a symmetry that IS missed by most ALL in the churches. The idea of Wise in this saying IS from the Greek word phronimos, and while we have discussed the idea of being Wise in other contexts as well as this, we have NOT addressed the differences between phronimos and sophos from which sophoia IS rendered as Wisdom. Generally we have divided the ideas of Wisdom from wisdom with the former being that Wisdom that emanates from the Soul and the latter carnal wisdom.We should try to see that phronimos works in much the same way: that there ARE both carnal and spiritual ideas attached. Insofar as the idea of sophia, Wisdom and wisdom, ARE concerned the difference IS easy to see through James’ saying first that “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish” where the idea IS wisdom and then telling us “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:15, 17), where the idea IS Wisdom. Similarly there ARE Wise men and wise men with the former in possession of the “wisdom that is from above” and the latter having ONLY wisdom that “descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish“. Can we see the point here?
When we see the idea of being “a wise man” as the idea IS intended in signifying the Wise man, we can then perhaps see the idea of the foolish man as one who has ONLY wisdom that “descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish“. Perhaps, from this perspective, the Master’s words ARE indeed a parable but these parallels ARE seldom drawn. Remembering here that we ARE speaking about keeping His words versus NOT DOING so, we can then draw another parallel to the Master’s words from our trifecta which ARE in regard to the same thing. In the trifecta we read “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” and while the subject IS the same, keeping His words, the outcome changes from being the Wise man to being one that Truly “loveth me“. Can we see the symmetry here? The Master goes on to show us the negative aspect of this saying “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings“. Here the words ARE of those that “keepeth not my sayings” in the parable. Here sayings being rendered from logos which idea we discussed in the last essay. The parallel here IS that those that “keepeth not my sayings” and those that “heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not” ARE essentially the same when we understand the force of the idea of akouo which IS rendered as heareth. There should be NO mystery here and we should be able to clearly see that in the reality of keeping His words we ARE both Wise as defined by phronimos and that we ARE among those that the Master says “loveth me“.
While Strong’s shows us the idea of phronimos as: sagacious or discreet (implying a cautious character), they compare it to sophos saying that it denotes practical skill or acumen, we however see both aspects in both words as James shows us using sophos’ derivative sophia. In closing then we should try to understand that in the ‘parable’ there ARE the Wise and the wise with the difference being their focus, the difference being on whether one keeps His words or DOES NOT. This same dynamic can be applied to one’s True agape, Love, toward the Lord: that to Love Him IS to keep His words and our failure as DOING so or striving toward that goal means that we DO NOT have agape, Love, toward the Lord. Both ideas ARE missed by most as IS the general concept of keeping His words.
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 |
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
- 9b Vine’s Expository Dictionary on blueletterbible.org
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
