{"id":12021,"date":"2016-03-08T06:41:52","date_gmt":"2016-03-08T13:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=12021"},"modified":"2016-03-13T08:03:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T14:03:46","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1345","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/08\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-1345\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 1345"},"content":{"rendered":"

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0CMLXXXIV<\/span><\/h2>\n
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\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<\/blockquote>\n

We ended the last essay with some thoughts on the ideas that the Apostle Paul expresses to the Ephesians regarding their journey from a focus<\/em> upon the things of the self and the self in the world to a focus<\/em> upon God. He tells them that they “were dead in trespasses and sins<\/em>” and we should try to measure this against our current topic of the apostle’s list of “the works of the flesh<\/em>“; NOT according to the common renderings and understanding of his words, but according to the way that these were intended to be understood. In the idea of dead<\/em> we should be able to see the apostle’s point as this idea reflects the spiritual state of the man who lives in “trespasses and sins<\/em>” and this IS a theme that IS constant throughout the New Testament. That these ideas of “trespasses and sins<\/em>” ARE ONLY seen in relation to the gross offenses that a man can DO in this world is unfortunate as the reality of this IS primarily in the focus<\/em> of the man: spiritual Life comes in focus<\/em> upon the things of God while carnal Life,\u00a0which IS\u00a0“trespasses and sins<\/em>“, come in one’s focus<\/em> upon the self and the things of the self in the world. And this IS the meaning of Jesus’ words saying “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also<\/em>” (Matthew 6:21).<\/span><\/p>\n

This IS also the message of the Great Commandments and, in Truth, this IS the message of the entirety of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles. This idea can\u00a0be more clearly understood when we see that the apostle includes himself in his words\u00a0as one who was\u00a0“fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind<\/em>“. We should see here how that he includes himself as\u00a0having been among<\/em> “the children of disobedience<\/em>” as he says that he too had his “conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh<\/em>“. Here again the common understandings of doctrine confound and confuse the message as ONLY the gross idea of “the lusts of our flesh<\/em>” is understood rather that the totality of those thoughts, attitudes and actions that ARE contrary to keeping His words<\/em>. Repeating Paul’s words to the Ephesians again we read:<\/span><\/p>\n

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;\u00a0Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:\u00a0Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.\u00a0But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,\u00a0Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)<\/em>” (Ephesians 2:1-5).<\/span><\/p>\n

As we discussed in the last post, the idea of conversation<\/em> IS better understood seen as lived<\/em>; the Revised Version renders this as “Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind<\/em>“. Again, we should try to see these ideas of passions<\/em> and desires<\/em> as those\u00a0“trespasses and sins<\/em>” which ARE the normal activities, the normal thoughts and attitudes, of men whose focus<\/em> IS NOT upon the things of God. And we should understand the point that the apostle makes as saying that God, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ<\/em>“; we should try to\u00a0see in this that change of focus<\/em>, that Repentance<\/em><\/strong>, away from “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind<\/em>” and onto the things of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Paul’s own words we should see how that he was NOT, and his thoughts and attitudes were NOT, into the gross offenses that ARE the common understanding of\u00a0“the works of the flesh<\/em>” but that his own Life was according to his sense of doctrine. We read from the Book of Acts two things; first Paul’s words to the assembled Jews in his own defense saying “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet 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, as ye all are this day<\/em>” (Acts 22:3). And second his words to King Agrippa saying: “My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;\u00a0Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee<\/em>” (Acts 26:4-5).<\/span><\/p>\n

While the common Christian idea of the Pharisee IS extremely negative, we should see that the whole of Paul’s\u00a0“trespasses and sins<\/em>” ARE religious in nature; they ARE found in his adherence to doctrine rather that to the word of God and in this we should see yet again the words of the Prophet Isaiah which Jesus repeats saying:\u00a0“Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men<\/em>” (Mark 7:7). This IS the reality of\u00a0“trespasses and sins<\/em>” which ARE apart from those gross offenses and we should see here that both this idea regarding doctrine and that of the gross offenses ARE contrary to His words and contrary to the Great Commandments.<\/span><\/p>\n

While we can see that some in Paul’s audience of aspirants and disciples may have been involved in the more gross offenses of men, that there IS NO requirement that this be so.\u00a0We should see here how that it IS the common and the ordinary view of men which IS NOT focused<\/em> upon the Truth and the things of God that ARE\u00a0“the works of the flesh<\/em>” and that the whole idea of methe<\/em> can be seen in Paul’s Life as he tells us “that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee<\/em>“. \u00a0It IS in their sense of methe<\/em> that the Jews DID NOT see the Truth of Jesus teaching nor the reality of His Presence and, as we said in the last essay:\u00a0it IS here that we should see Paul’s meaning in using\u00a0methe<\/em> and understand this as a sense of drunkenness<\/em> which IS an\u00a0affliction under which\u00a0men can become full of themselves and drunk<\/em> on their own sense of spiritual worth.<\/span><\/p>\n

When we can understand this drunkenness<\/em> as the translation of methe<\/em>:\u00a0<\/em>as that a man\u00a0IS overcome with some sensation that distorts reality, we can then better understand the way of the scribe and the Pharisee as well as everyman who believes himself to be “zealous toward God<\/em>” while NOT keeping His words<\/em> in thought, attitude and action….or who IS NOT striving<\/em> to DO so. Repeating Paul’s words to the Galatians again:<\/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 \u00a05:17-24).<\/span><\/p>\n

We have one last word from the apostle’s list of\u00a0“the works of the flesh<\/em>” which, like methe<\/em>, is in regard to the condition of a man, the condition of his thoughts and his attitudes regarding the Truth. This is the reality of this third segment: the condition of one’s thoughts and attitudes. The first two segments were in regard to a man’s relationship to God through the first of the Great Commandments and his relationship to his fellowman through the second. This Greek word, komos,<\/em>\u00a0which IS rendered as revellings<\/em> IS perhaps the more difficult one for us to treat as the meaning seems obscure. The lexicon’s reference IS to a specific action while Vincent points us to other uses where he says that this idea of komos<\/em> IS:\u00a0coupled with drunkenness<\/em> 4<\/sup>. If however we DO NOT see drunkenness<\/em> as merely overindulgence in wine or strong drink, then we CAN NOT see komos<\/em> only in the way that this IS depicted, as\u00a0revellings<\/em> and rioting\u00a0<\/em>2<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The lexicon explains komos saying that it IS:\u00a0a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity, and sing and play before houses of male and female friends; hence used generally of feasts and drinking parties that are protracted till late at night and indulge in revelry<\/em>\u00a02<\/sup>. While Vincent agrees with this he adds a religious overtone saying that:\u00a0These revels also entered into religious observances, especially in the worship of Bacchus, Demeter, and the Idaeau Zeus in Crete. The fanatic and orgiastic rites of Egypt, Asia Minor, and Thrace became engrafted on the old religion. Socrates, in the introduction to \u201cThe Republic,\u201d pictures himself as having gone down to the Piraeus to see the celebration of the festival of Bendis, the Thracian Artemis (Diana); and as being told by one of his companions that, in the evening, there is to be a torch-race with horses in honor of the goddess. The rites grew furious and ecstatic. \u201cCrowds of women, clothed with fawns’ skins, and bearing the sanctified thyrsus (a staff wreathed with vine-leaves) flocked to the solitudes of Parnassus, Kithaeron, or Taygetus during the consecrated triennial period, and abandoned themselves to demonstrations of frantic excitement, with dancing and clamorous invocation of the god<\/em> 4<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of feasts<\/em>, drinking parties<\/em>, and the\u00a0fanatic and orgiastic rites of Egypt\u00a0<\/em>ARE NOT what we should see here however as these ARE based in the sexual connotation that IS given to ALL of Paul’s list. When we apply the ideas of religion however we can begin to see Paul’s use of this term in regard to the condition of one’s thoughts and attitudes and, when we can see this word in relation to the ideas that we have taken from methe<\/em>, we can perhaps understand the sense of excitement and joy that accompanies the religious\u00a0intoxication which Paul IS speaking against. This view IS much more feasible that the idea that Paul IS cautioning the aspirants and the disciples to whom he IS writing about the type of komos<\/em> that IS depicted above by the lexicon and by Vincent. And this view IS likely True across ALL uses of komos<\/em> in the epistles of the apostles who ALL write to men who have overcome such frivolity; to this we should add that there IS NO relevant spectacle outside of the Greek ideas here that could impact the thinking of the Christian save our view of revelling<\/em> in the intoxication of\u00a0being\u00a0full of themselves and drunk<\/em> on their own sense of spiritual worth.<\/span><\/p>\n

This IS a real caution and one that the apostle speaks of in other places as we have discussed; this IS the same caution that we should see in Paul’s words to the Romans saying: “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith<\/em>” (Romans 12:3). We should understand here that\u00a0“the measure of faith<\/em>” that Paul speaks of IS NOT arbitrary with one man having more than another by allotment of\u00a0God, but rather that one’s measure IS earned, it IS the wages if you will of one’s labors in Love and in keeping His words<\/em>. This faith<\/em> IS that KNOWING that comes in our trifecta<\/em><\/strong>, the KNOWING of the Truth that IS the realization<\/em><\/strong> of a man of the Presence of God; this we see again in our trifecta<\/strong><\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n