{"id":6928,"date":"2013-06-02T21:00:25","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T01:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/?p=6928"},"modified":"2013-06-02T21:06:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T01:06:33","slug":"in-the-words-of-jesus-part-693","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newagedevelopments.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/02\/in-the-words-of-jesus-part-693\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THE WORDS OF JESUS\u2013Part 693"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law<\/span><\/h2>\n

ON LOVE; PART\u00a0CCLXXXII<\/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
\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

Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd 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>\u201d (Mark 12:30-31).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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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.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cTherefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them\u201c\u00a0(Matthew 7:12).<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the last post regarding our current topic of Love, we began an exploration of the ideas included in the word meek,<\/strong><\/em> a word that is currently misunderstood, at least from a biblical perspective. We were brought to this word by our own statement that:\u00a0For many the ideas of scripture on how to deal with others seems to be a form of\u00a0weakness<\/span>. In this saying our intent was to show that most ALL of the good that the Master teaches us in regard to how we treat our neighbor, our brother and the stranger who qualifies as both, is seen by many as being weak as we let others perhaps take advantage and whether this is led by the current defining terms for the word meek<\/strong><\/em> or if the current defining terms are the result of this attitude of not showing weakness toward others, is\u00a0unknown. The reality is however that the word meek<\/strong><\/em> has obtained a definition which was NOT the intended one based on its use in the New Testament and has taken on the context of\u00a0weakness and pusillanimity\u00a0<\/em>as Vine’s notes or the\u00a0overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame\u00a0<\/em>definition from our modern dictionary 7<\/sup>. We showed that the 19th Century understanding of meek<\/strong><\/em> was much more aligned with the Master’s thoughts as we can see in this from Webster’s 1828 dictionary:\u00a01. Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries.\u00a0Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men. Num.12.\u00a02. Appropriately humble, in an evangelical sense; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient or refractory; not peevish and apt to complain of divine dispensations. Christ says, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Matt.11.\u00a0Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5<\/em>\u00a01<\/sup>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now this evolution of meanings over the last nearly 200 years, and where this starts is unclear, has given us today a negative understanding of this word and has caused the more recent bible translations to change the rendering from the original meek<\/strong><\/em> as it is used in the King James Version of 1611 (KJV), the Revised Version of 1881 (RV) and the American Standard Version of 1901 (ASV), to gentle,<\/strong><\/em> which word in our understanding DOES NOT rightly serve the sayings where it is used. From our look at the several sources of information on this word in the last essay, we found some ideas that agree with our view of what the Master and His apostles are trying to convey through this Greek word praus<\/em> or praos<\/em>\u00a0and, as we noted, the lexicon gives us different\u00a0understandings\u00a0of these by greatly expanding their explanation of the former. As we read in the last post the doctrinal view of these words places the idea in regard to God; the lexicon tells us that:\u00a0Thus,meekness toward evil people means knowing God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He is using them to purify His elect, and that He will deliver His elect in His time<\/em> 2<\/sup>. Vines, in a similar view tells us: Rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting;……the adjectives….”meek and lowly;” … it is only the humble heart which is also the meek, and which, as such, does not fight against God and more or less struggle and contend with Him. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of a sense that these, with the insults and injuries which they may inflict, are permitted and employed by Him for the chastening and purifying of His elect <\/em>6<\/sup>. These doctrinal presentations show meek<\/strong><\/em> as acceptance of what may happen based upon the understanding that it is ‘God’s Will’ and this IS from our perspective nonsensical as the whole of this theory of the actions of God in the world and toward His ‘elect’ bypasses the reality of the limited free-will<\/em><\/strong> that man has in this world. It IS because of the free-will<\/strong> <\/em>that there IS NO intercession in the affairs of man and this precludes any\u00a0chastening and purifying of His elect,\u00a0<\/em>and, this is covered as well under that statement by the apostles that “God is no respecter of persons<\/em>” (Acts 10:34) and our own understanding that the link to God by every man IS through his own Soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we said, we do get some help in understanding this word as well from Vine’s who tells us that:\u00a0Described negatively, meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest; it is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all<\/em>; Vine’s also tells us that meek<\/strong><\/em> as used:\u00a0In Gal. 5:23 it is associated with enkrateia, “self-control.”<\/em>6 \u00a0<\/sup>In the combination of these ideas we see the self control<\/em> that we will speak about in our own terms as well as the reality that the self, one’s presence in the world and his interests, are not the subject of meek<\/strong><\/em> as we must try to understand it. Vincent also gives us an interesting\u00a0understanding\u00a0of meek<\/strong><\/em> from within his doctrinal oriented statement; he says in part that:\u00a0The Christian word….describes an inward quality, and that as related primarily to God. The equanimity, mildness, kindness, represented by the classical word, are founded in self-control or in natural disposition<\/em> 4<\/sup>.\u00a0<\/em>In both of these defining explanations of the Greek word that IS rendered as meek<\/strong><\/em> we find reference to self-control<\/em> and we should understand that THIS self-control<\/em> comes from the Soul as the whole of the idea of meekness<\/strong><\/em> is tied to Love and the Soul IS the source of this Love. Again we must repeat that this IS the Love that the Master teaches us and NOT that emotional attraction in the world. We have used two different thoughts to characterize this meekness;<\/strong> positive harmlessness<\/strong><\/em> and humble restraint<\/strong><\/em> and both of these do capture our understanding of meek<\/strong><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both of these ideas are the attitude of the Master and the character of His teachings; it IS in this spirit of meekness that He tells us that we should “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you<\/em>” (Luke 6:27). Can we see here the idea of harmlessness<\/em><\/strong> and restraint<\/strong><\/em> as compared to the worldly attitude that one would have toward an enemy<\/em> or toward one who hates<\/em> us. For one who would curse<\/em> you or use<\/em> you or strike<\/em> you this idea IS the same and in Jesus teaching we should be able to see the positive nature of this harmlessness<\/strong><\/em> as this IS a conscious endeavor to treat these who ARE as\u00a0such to you in that same Love that we would treat those who we see as Loving us. Can we see the self-control<\/em> that we read about from Vine’s and Vincent, again, a conscious endeavor to NOT act the man in the world but the Soul whose nature IS Love. This attitude of positive harmlessness<\/strong><\/em> and self-control<\/em> IS meekness.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Similarly we have the idea of humble restraint<\/strong><\/em> which is also a conscious endeavor and should give us the understanding that when pressed as a man in the world to a point of retaliation of any kind, the meek<\/strong><\/em> man steps back and goes his way without much ado; here we have the understanding that although one can take action, he DOES NOT and a note in this area from the gospels may help us to understand how this IS seen by the Master:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village<\/em>” (Luke 9:51-56).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now these are difficult verses to put into perspective; we KNOW that the Master senses the time IS come to go to Jerusalem and that He begins this journey but the rest is bewildering. First that he has an advance party as we read this nowhere else; the second is the attitude of the\u00a0Samaritans\u00a0who seem to be against Him but for a reason that we do not understand and third is the attitude of the disciples who are looking to ‘retaliate’ against the Samaritans because of their attitude and to do so with much\u00a0vengeance\u00a0showing their lack of\u00a0understanding\u00a0at this time. The Master however is meek<\/strong><\/em> and exhibits this positive harmlessness<\/strong><\/em> and humble restraint<\/strong><\/em> that we speak about above and this is the lesson to His disciples; to tell them that their attitude is wrong and to tell them why in reminding them of the reason for His presence as well as the mission of the disciple, saying to them: ”the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them<\/em>” and in this and most ALL references we should try to see ourselves also as the Son of man<\/em>. And to our point, they move on to another village, KNOWING that He could have acted in \u00a0a worldly fashion in anger, He just moves on. This IS the meaning of meek<\/strong><\/em> from the Master’s\u00a0perspective\u00a0and His teaching to His disciples.<\/span><\/p>\n

We close today with this from a previous essay which encapsulates our understanding of meek<\/strong><\/em> from the perspective of the aspirant, being meek<\/strong><\/em> and practicing those qualities of\u00a0positive harmlessness<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0humble restraint.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Harmlessness<\/strong><\/em> is not to be seen as a form of weakness or of inability but it should be seen as a form of strength that gives the one who expresses it a Quality that we find in the Master and this is the Quality of being MEEK.<\/strong><\/em> The word meek<\/strong><\/em> appears three times in our King James Version and is rendered as gentle in other versions. These are our gospel references for this:<\/span><\/p>\n