Knowledge of Word, the image of Life or God depending on our beliefs, reveals that envisioning is key to having agapé by stating: “We will be like him (Word) because we will envision him just as he is.”
Great read, but with inverted theology. Agape isn’t some metaphysical concept, and it was never about envisioning divinity inside yourself. Jesus gave willingly of Himself without reward. The whole point of Scripture is that we’re not the divine. We are meant to listen, obey, and respond. When you turn that into visualization and self-reflection, you strip out the discipline and make it about control. That’s basically Baalism in newer language. Basically, the danger of this is we run the risk of becoming self-reverential and we see the flaw of self-reverence in figures like King David. David is the seed of the line, but it's a dark seed. He was impetuous, deceitful, and his arrogance crippled him in old age. When Jesus arrives later, He says to "Love one another as I have loved you." This applies to everyone, and is offered freely. This is agape love.
Not too long ago, I was in total agreement with you. And when someone said what I am about to say, it made me "righteously angry". So I hope you hold your righteous anger and please listen respectfully. Hebrews tells us to move on to maturity and this we will do if God permits. What is maturity? Jesus told us to love our enemies and be mature (teleios in Greek, same word Hebrews uses in the noun form, maturity) as our Father is, but teleios cannot be translated mature when it comes to God, for it means "completed". God, of course, does not need to be completed in any way, but we undergo a transformation that --on earth-- is completed when we reach maturity. When we translate teleios "perfect" in reference to us, when it can only be done this way for God, we assume that it must refer to after the resurrection, so we leave it at that.
However, Hebrews tells us to move on to maturity and to do that, according to Jesus himself, we must learn how to love our enemies. Yes, learn, not just pray for them or have faith that God will do it for us without our participation. We are to use the grace given to us to move on to such maturity. So how is that done?
Paul said that our love grows through knowledge (epignosis, meaning higher or mature knowledge) and all perception (not insight as is commonly translated). Jesus said that he came into this world to give sight to those who cannot see and take it away from those who do. This is spiritual sight, the eyes of our heart as Paul called it. To love our enemies, our love must grow and this is how.
Your view of David is only half true, all before his repentance. In Acts, it states that God found in David someone who was after his own heart, who would do all of his will. In Psalm 35:13, David said that he mourned for his enemies when they were sick as though it was his mother or brother. That is love for his enemies. But how? In Psalm 89:19-20, it says that God spoke to his beloved in vision and that he anointed David, which explains how David spoke to God in vision in 63:2, saying that he envisioned God in the sanctuary. The Hebrew is not "see", it is khaza, which is "to mentally perceive (with the eyes of our heart)".
John taught the same, saying that when we envision Jesus as he is, we will be like him. Not see him, but envision, horao, mentally perceive (with the eyes of our heart). David and John had no illusions of being divine just because they were taught how to envision and envisioned him. They knew they could do nothing without Jesus as we cannot, but were, in fact, with the grace given them, able to move on to maturity as we are and begin to love others the way Jesus did and commands us to, commands all of to -- when it is time for us to move on to maturity. All glory to God in the name Jesus.
Does that offer a reasonable basis for theoretical religiousness to be questioned or accepted? Does prescribing to one dogma lead to blindness or is it mostly through indoctrination and extremism?
The moral standards of religion are the cause for so many problems. They should be used as a guideline under the vision of agapé governing our suneidesis, unconditional love governing our conscientious awareness of everyone's inherent value.
I frequently have to explain that everyone has value. We may not understand it, we may not hold it dear, however everyone has value and should be loved. The hardest thing is to love enemies. People may think loving your enemy is weakness, but it’s the most courageous act. When someone hurts us, we can accept the lesson with grace and not repeat the harm to ourselves or anyone else. Makes me think that the abused who become abusers are choosing not to love. You have given me so much to think about today.
The best chance the abused have of not becoming abusers is if they have the tools to love their abusers with agapé before they are abused. If we do not have the tools, we are already in the abusive cycle of conditional love. Here, everyone is vulnerable to physical abuse, for it always works from the inevitable failure of conditional love.
If we our blinded by our own preconceived notions and hypocrisy, then agapé cannot be used because it’s not understood in the principle by the people who are blind?
Spiritual blindness is the inability to use the agapé light in us. It still works in a singularity between all of us. By showing agapé to a blind person, we give them access to their position in our singularity. It is still up to them to receive it or not and that can take time.
Great read, but with inverted theology. Agape isn’t some metaphysical concept, and it was never about envisioning divinity inside yourself. Jesus gave willingly of Himself without reward. The whole point of Scripture is that we’re not the divine. We are meant to listen, obey, and respond. When you turn that into visualization and self-reflection, you strip out the discipline and make it about control. That’s basically Baalism in newer language. Basically, the danger of this is we run the risk of becoming self-reverential and we see the flaw of self-reverence in figures like King David. David is the seed of the line, but it's a dark seed. He was impetuous, deceitful, and his arrogance crippled him in old age. When Jesus arrives later, He says to "Love one another as I have loved you." This applies to everyone, and is offered freely. This is agape love.
Not too long ago, I was in total agreement with you. And when someone said what I am about to say, it made me "righteously angry". So I hope you hold your righteous anger and please listen respectfully. Hebrews tells us to move on to maturity and this we will do if God permits. What is maturity? Jesus told us to love our enemies and be mature (teleios in Greek, same word Hebrews uses in the noun form, maturity) as our Father is, but teleios cannot be translated mature when it comes to God, for it means "completed". God, of course, does not need to be completed in any way, but we undergo a transformation that --on earth-- is completed when we reach maturity. When we translate teleios "perfect" in reference to us, when it can only be done this way for God, we assume that it must refer to after the resurrection, so we leave it at that.
However, Hebrews tells us to move on to maturity and to do that, according to Jesus himself, we must learn how to love our enemies. Yes, learn, not just pray for them or have faith that God will do it for us without our participation. We are to use the grace given to us to move on to such maturity. So how is that done?
Paul said that our love grows through knowledge (epignosis, meaning higher or mature knowledge) and all perception (not insight as is commonly translated). Jesus said that he came into this world to give sight to those who cannot see and take it away from those who do. This is spiritual sight, the eyes of our heart as Paul called it. To love our enemies, our love must grow and this is how.
Your view of David is only half true, all before his repentance. In Acts, it states that God found in David someone who was after his own heart, who would do all of his will. In Psalm 35:13, David said that he mourned for his enemies when they were sick as though it was his mother or brother. That is love for his enemies. But how? In Psalm 89:19-20, it says that God spoke to his beloved in vision and that he anointed David, which explains how David spoke to God in vision in 63:2, saying that he envisioned God in the sanctuary. The Hebrew is not "see", it is khaza, which is "to mentally perceive (with the eyes of our heart)".
John taught the same, saying that when we envision Jesus as he is, we will be like him. Not see him, but envision, horao, mentally perceive (with the eyes of our heart). David and John had no illusions of being divine just because they were taught how to envision and envisioned him. They knew they could do nothing without Jesus as we cannot, but were, in fact, with the grace given them, able to move on to maturity as we are and begin to love others the way Jesus did and commands us to, commands all of to -- when it is time for us to move on to maturity. All glory to God in the name Jesus.
Does that offer a reasonable basis for theoretical religiousness to be questioned or accepted? Does prescribing to one dogma lead to blindness or is it mostly through indoctrination and extremism?
The moral standards of religion are the cause for so many problems. They should be used as a guideline under the vision of agapé governing our suneidesis, unconditional love governing our conscientious awareness of everyone's inherent value.
I frequently have to explain that everyone has value. We may not understand it, we may not hold it dear, however everyone has value and should be loved. The hardest thing is to love enemies. People may think loving your enemy is weakness, but it’s the most courageous act. When someone hurts us, we can accept the lesson with grace and not repeat the harm to ourselves or anyone else. Makes me think that the abused who become abusers are choosing not to love. You have given me so much to think about today.
The best chance the abused have of not becoming abusers is if they have the tools to love their abusers with agapé before they are abused. If we do not have the tools, we are already in the abusive cycle of conditional love. Here, everyone is vulnerable to physical abuse, for it always works from the inevitable failure of conditional love.
If we our blinded by our own preconceived notions and hypocrisy, then agapé cannot be used because it’s not understood in the principle by the people who are blind?
Spiritual blindness is the inability to use the agapé light in us. It still works in a singularity between all of us. By showing agapé to a blind person, we give them access to their position in our singularity. It is still up to them to receive it or not and that can take time.
Agapé is rooted in choice? We choose to be blind or not, yes? Can you imagine what the world would be like if more people chose not to be blind?
Yes, through choice we learn the value of agapé. The more people choose it and demonstrate it to those without it, the choice becomes clearer.