There is essentially one Law; and it is the “Greatest Commandment.” On that hangs all the Law and the prophet’s sayings. [i] The “Greatest Commandment” is two in one: The Law of Love — love is the fulfilling of the Law. [ii]
So,what is love? Is it an emotion? If so, then how could it be done? Emotions are intrinsic and feelings cannot be dictated but only emoted. However, God commanded love, meaning that love can be controlled. Love, in the Greek, is agape.
Erotic love is lustful, and that is in the nature of the “beast.” Sturge, or familial love, is instinctive for even the wild animals. Mothers and fathers in most of animal kind serve and preserve their kinds. Philio, or brotherly love, is harder. Even animals have a strong sense of preservation and will struggle with the members of their womb for the teat.
Therefore, lust and familial love are inborn, but brotherly love must be strived for. Hence, it too is commanded because it is not inborn. In fact, throughout the Bible, even brothers often struggled for power: Cain with Abel, Ishmael with Isaac, Esau with Jacob, Pharez with Zarah, and many more. Quite often there was contention among fraternal twins. How is it known that they were fraternal? Because most often the twins were opposites, and one was often ordained by God for a purpose and the other another purpose.
Agape love is goodwill, or benevolence, toward others. Hence, love is extremely hard work; not in a physical (dynamis) sense, but with the faculty of the will.
Love for God and others is an outcome of the human will. Jesus described agape love as ischys in the Greek as force. It is dynamic force.
Force over time is work. So, again, love is not emotional but extremely hard mental work because each person is at odds with their “inner man.” To love God, a person must overcome their inner nature that is of their “father, the Devil.” [iii]
Since the Devil, Lucifer, is mighty, individuals as well be fighting a roaring lion attempting to devour them! That cannot be done by human strength so it is dependent on Almighty God — the “Lion of Judah.”
To overcome the Devil and the world, mere humans must have dependence on God. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33b).
Jesus already did that for us! The viper on the pole (John 3:14) was symbolic of Jesus overcoming the Devil and his world. That ancient “Caduceus” represented Judas with Satan in him, hanging from the Judas Tree.
On the day that Jesus died by the decree of His Father, Judas died by his own decree and Satan went down with him! Jesus merely thought and the tree delivered Satan into Hell!
What Jesus did on the cross was hard work (ergon) but Jesus defeated Satan ergonomically — He merely thought and it came about! That type of work is mental — katergazomai — to accomplish not necessarily by ergon work but considering truth. Rebirth comes about not by doing things but considering the evidence and being persuaded. That is the “accomplishment.”
All that to say that love is not work but controlling the inner man. It is diminishing ill-will and emitting goodwill. It is not physical work but dynamis — emitting virtue. From where does virtue come? Only God is good, [iv] so any good that Christians do is lost (emoted) from God. For that to be, then Christians must have Christ, the Ghost of Jesus, in them!
The conclusion is that the Ten Commandments are not ergon work but accomplishments (katergazomai). Working out your own salvation is accomplishing the Will of God. That is the Way that Christians love God in an agape manner. Those are Ten Ways to commune to God that you love Him! It is not just saying but mentally doing those tasks.
For instance, Abraham was willing to sacrifice is son, but God made the sacrifice of a ram on his behalf. Abraham willed to do but did not do it! That was accounted to him as faith as is written, “faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness” (Rom 4:9).
Christians naturally focus on the Ten Commandments for they are ways to love God and others. Often neglected are the metrics for those Ten Ways in the chapters of the Book of Exodus subsequent to the Ten Ways. Today’s focus is one of those metrics on how to demonstrate love:
If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. (Exod 22:25)
The first thought is about Judas. The chief priests gave Judas thirty-pieces of silver to betray Jesus. Judas, even before the bloody deed, endeavored to give it back. The chief priests considered it blood money and used it to bury Judas in the Potter’s Field in the Valley of Gehenna. The chief priests did not pay Judas for actual work but merely to betray Jesus. Judas was not a murderer but an accomplice, however, Jesus implied that Judas and the chief priests had the greater sin [v] than those who by their own authority and hands killed Jesus. It was their thoughts that killed.
The work that Judas did was accomplished not by himself but by others by his betrayal. Judas accomplished nothing but his own death.
Judas worked out his own salvation (katergazomai) but did so wrongly. He sacrificed himself to Satan in that he did what Satan willed for him to do. His work was not honored, and Judas went to Gehenna rather than Paradise where the repentant thief went that day. He (Dismus) depended on Jesus, who by the way, was the One who put Satan down vicariously. When Jesus said, “It is finished,” what was finished? He accomplished the task of putting Satan down by only thinking! Now back to usury.
Usury is the cunning to use others to accomplish objectives. It is usually associated with exorbitant interest rates for the use of money. The objective of the chief priests was to use Judas to finish off Jesus; to accomplish their objectives.
The thirty-pieces of silver were the wage of that sin. Judas earned that pay whether it was good or evil. That amount was his due for the simple task of thinking and betraying. At best, he kissed Jesus and that was not work!
Usury was the sin of the chief priests. Judas earned the silver, but the guilt that ensued was the exorbitant interest. Judas could not afford to pay off that excessive debt to God, so he defaulted. Like many indebted people before bankruptcy could be filed, he committed suicide.
The sin of the chief priests was one of the greater sins. Their sin was usury.
Judas tried to return the silver, but the chief priests knew the Law inside and out! If thy kept the money it was blood money. The silver pieces were the “weapons” that the chief priests used to murder Jesus, and what did they do? They “buried” the weapons, so to speak — they bought a gravesite with the money and essentially the love of money was buried with Judas. The “root of all evil” went to the grave with evil and is in Gehenna where it belongs.
If the love of money is the root of all evil, [vi] then “avarice” (philargyria) was “planted” in Gehenna the day that Jesus and Judas died. The death of Jesus overcame avarice since the money was worth nothing to anyone that day!
In essence, the chief priests lent money to Judas. The “interest” for a few hours work was massive! What amount of “interest” did Judas pay to the chief priests? He paid his life for a paltry amount and each time a “friend” of Jesus sins, his wage is excessive as well, and that is guilt.
So why would usury be one of the metrics for God’s Commandments? First off, not doing things and reverence are not physical work; they are accomplishments to satisfy God. His goal is not to make anyone work hard for their salvation, but work ergonomically — to work smarter, not harder! The smart thing to do is not to do things but think kind thoughts!
Any money that is made on the backs of the poor is oppression. Capitalism is fair wages or profits for physical and mental work, respectively. People are paid equitably for their energy and potential.
The energy is their physical work, and their potential is for their thought processes. The pay is generally higher for thoughts than for works. In the case of Christianity, work gets no reward, but thoughts do. Christianity is “working” smarter but not harder for the reward of eternal life.
Judas worked hard. He made the hangman’s noose, climbed the tree, tied the rope, then lunged from his perch. Where did he end up? In Hell!
On the hill of Calvary, the Romans did much work for the malefactors: they made the crosses, they made the nails, they hammered the nails, and they waited in the hot sun.
One man, Gestus, the unrepentant thief, bought into their work, but they would not free him as they had Barabbas. Perhaps he figured that Pilate and the priests would have mercy on him as well.
On the other hand, all those works were not on the mind of Dismus. He did not count on Pilate for mercy, nor the soldiers. All that he did was look at Jesus and he saw Jesus as the Savior. It was what he thought; not what he did!
Just what did he see? Perhaps what Luke had seen at the baptism of Jesus: Just as “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him (Jesus)” perhaps Dismus saw the Holy Ghost ascend from Jesus and again in bodily shape.
That is what I saw when Jesus gave up the Ghost and perhaps what Luke, Mark, and John saw when it was finished! Jesus accomplished something. His accomplishment was not on the hill of transfiguration but on Calvary where he was disfigured and sanctified as his body and soul were set apart, and as He felt isolated from His Father.
What happened on the cross is the opposite of the hill of transfiguration whereon God’s three substances were revealed as One. The cross more than disfigured the man, but disfigured Jesus in Mind, Body, and Spirit!
Judas was paid to do the work of disfiguring Jesus, but the mob did that. It was their blood money that should have been belonged to them, but the only pay the mob would get was the wages of sin— death. [vii] They got their just deserves and suffered no apparent guilt from their works.
However, the chief priests used the mob for justice. They were judge, jury, and executioners. They did all the work with no payment at all! The chief priests committed the sin of usury with them as well, especially when Jesus said, “They know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
What had they done? They had worked for free! The chief priests got them to do all the work, and the crowd would remain unpaid that day. That is the epitome of usury — work with little or no pay.
On the other hand, usury is also working hard for part of the pay to be confiscated. That describes socialism. It too is the sin of usury, as they take from those with the ability to work (usury) and give to those without the incentive to work.
The chief priests tried Jesus, unfairly of course. It took them much planning to do that bloodless deed. However, they did not get blood on their hands, just as Moses would not with his son, Gershom when he used Zipporah to do his work. Moses had committed usury against Zipporah when he had her do what he would not do, and without any pay!
Why then is usury so offensive to God? The chief priests used that sin to kill His only Son! Usury is evil-will against another in contrast to goodwill that God desires.
Whenever anyone pays less than a worker deserves, that sin is as bad as the greater sins of the chief priests. Everyone should pay a fair wage! The problem with capitalism is that crony capitalists commit the sin of usury, and others, knowing not what they do, do the same sin of usury disguised as the common good.
Rather than socialism for the greater good; it is for the “common evil,” for only God is good.
Jesus was killed under the pretense of the common good, but it was for the dreams of the chief priests as king.
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