{"id":11728,"date":"2015-12-06T14:51:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T21:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=11728"},"modified":"2015-12-06T14:51:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T21:51:26","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1320","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/06\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1320\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 1320"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0CMLIX<\/span><\/h2>\n
\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391<\/span><\/h6>\n

GoodWill\u00a0IS Love in Action<\/span><\/h2>\n
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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<\/em>” (Mark 12:29-31).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/em> which IS generally rendered as Love,\u00a0we 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\u00a0of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our\u00a0One God<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9\u2022\u0391\u03a9<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/em>” (Matthew 7:12).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We have completed the Apostle Paul’s list of\u00a0“the works of the flesh<\/em>” and throughout our work on these Greek words we have tried to develop the apostle’s True intent in listing these for disciples and aspirants who ARE NOT so subject to the carnal instincts but who ARE striving<\/em> toward their own spiritual reality. As disciples and aspirants, they KNOW the reality of the carnal ideas that doctrines have rendered from Paul’s words and we should try to understand that it IS for disciples that Paul shows the deeper ideas of those everyday carnal attitudes, thoughts and actions that can keep them from “the kingdom of God<\/em>“. Again, they KNOW that adultery<\/em> and fornication<\/em> as sexual deviations ARE wrong and they KNOW the perils of uncleanness<\/em> and lasciviousness <\/em>in this same context. We should try to see that these to whom the apostle writes have escaped<\/em> from these according to the Apostle Peter’s saying that the disciple and, by measure, the aspirant ARE “partakers of the divine nature<\/em>” because they have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust<\/em>” (1 Peter 1:4).<\/span><\/p>\n

It IS in this view that we have been searching for the right ideas to go with the Greek words that ARE rendered by most ALL translations according to the preconceived ideas and doctrines that DO NOT see to whom the apostle IS writing. It IS in these preconceived\u00a0ideas that the illusions<\/strong> and the glamour<\/strong> of religion take hold and make men\u00a0to believe that it IS to them\u00a0that the apostle writes about the doings of others who ARE NOT yet saved<\/em> according to their own doctrines. For us the greater reality comes first through the words of the Master who shows us and tells us how one can achieve the Kingdom of God. In His words there ARE\u00a0NO doctrinal precepts, as we KNOW them in Christianity, that accomplish this goal, there IS ONLY\u00a0that a man keep His words<\/em> and, until that goal IS reached, that they\u00a0should strive<\/em>. This idea of keeping His words<\/em> IS NOT parabolic nor IS it written in such as way that\u00a0men can merely believe that they ARE DOING so; His words are clearly stated for us in our trifecta<\/strong><\/em> of spiritual reality which we repeat here again:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  • “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<\/em>“ (John 8:31-32).<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n
  • “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”<\/em>\u00a0(Matthew 7:21).<\/span><\/li>\n
  • “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”<\/em>\u00a0(John 14:21-24).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    And this trifecta<\/strong><\/em> then leads us back into our view of Paul’s words that ARE speaking to men who ARE keeping His words<\/em> or else ARE striving<\/em> toward that goal albeit in a way that IS confused by the doctrines of others which\u00a0we read\u00a0in the way that the apostle opens his epistle to the Galatians. While we can only imagine what teaching it IS that could “pervert the gospel of Christ<\/em>” (Galatians 1:7), we could reasonably assume that it IS the introduction of moral\u00a0doctrines that where followed by the Jews, doctrines that Jesus railed against but which DID NOT include the common ideas that have been attached to Paul’s words on “the works of the flesh<\/em>” by religious ‘authorities’. We list these here again in our subject sayings from Paul’s Epistle.<\/span><\/p>\n

    “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.\u00a0But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.\u00a0Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,\u00a0Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,\u00a0Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.\u00a0But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,\u00a0Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.\u00a0And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts<\/em>” (Galatians 5:17-24).<\/span><\/p>\n

    It IS when we can understand that carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE\u00a0more than those common ideas that have been attached to Paul’s use of the Greek words, that we can rightly see into his intent and understand what must be DONE in order to be among those who ARE\u00a0“partakers of the divine nature<\/em>“. That one must be free of the base carnal ideas that we find in the common understanding of the rendered words IS readily apparent but it IS when we can see the Truths that lie beneath the doctrinal illusions<\/strong> that we can be Truly free<\/em> as the Master tells us. This IS a freedom<\/em> and a deliverance<\/em><\/strong> that comes to the man who will “continue in my word<\/em>“. It IS when we can understand that there IS more to the “the corruption that is in the world<\/em>”\u00a0than the gross offences that ARE generally attributed to Paul’s list, that we can Truly appreciate the ideas that ARE clearly shown to us in the Great Commandments which\u00a0we have again at the top of our essay. And when we can see how that it IS in keeping these Great Commandments of Loving God and Loving our neighbor, our brother and the stranger who qualifies as both in the reality of agape<\/em>, we can then see what it\u00a0Truly means to keep His words<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This IS ever the KEY to our own salvation<\/em> and our own deliverance<\/em><\/strong> “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God<\/em>” (Romans 8:21) and when we can\u00a0see this in accord with the Apostle James’ saying that men must\u00a0“be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves<\/em>” (James 1:22), we can then better understand the depths of the illusion<\/strong> and the glamour<\/strong> in which men live….the vanity<\/em> to which ALL men ARE subjected. It IS this illusion<\/strong> and this glamour<\/strong>, this vanity<\/em>, that IS the “the corruption that is in the world through lust<\/em>” and it IS this vanity<\/em>,\u00a0which\u00a0IS rendered from the Greek word\u00a0mataiotes<\/em>,\u00a0that\u00a0IS the affliction of men that Vincent tells us IS:\u00a0a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends<\/em> 4<\/sup>. It IS this that must be overcome; this IS the corruption<\/em> that keeps men in bondage<\/em> to the world and to the deeper reality of sin which must eventually be seen as ALL things that ARE NOT in accord with the Great Commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n

    This IS ALL a part of the great mysteries that the gospels and the epistles can reveal to the man who Truly seeks, the man who sees past the doctrines that men have constructed for their own convenience and which ARE based in this same illusion<\/strong>, this same glamour<\/strong>….this same sense of vanity<\/em>\u00a0which IS ONLY resolved in keeping His words<\/em>. We should try to see here how that the reality of the Great Commandments IS shown to us by the Master and His apostles, how that this IS shown in Jesus’ words on Love and the importance of Love and how this IS shown through the clarifying and amplifying words of His apostles. It IS in seeing this that we can better understand Paul’s many words on the failure of the law, how that the law IS superseded by the reality of Love that was taught to the Jews and NOT seen, and which has been further taught to us and again NOT seen as the KEY to keeping His words<\/em>. It IS keeping His words<\/em> that IS the KEY to our attaining the Kingdom of God and KNOWING God and it IS Love, as agape<\/em>, that IS the KEY to keeping His words<\/em>. This IS clearly shown to us in such sayings as we list here:<\/span><\/p>\n