Student Labor

There is an exercise to everything. Everything that has life within it, and everything that needs a spark of life to work, takes exercise. This scheme, concerning the growth and the development of our conversation, is no different. 

We shouldn’t think to breathe without exercising our lungs. We shouldn’t think to write without exercising mental and physical faculties. We shouldn’t think to love without exercising trust. We shouldn’t think to speak without first exercising thought. Yet, when it comes to our conversation’s belief, we do not think to exercise it. 

When it comes to our devotional conversation, it is acceptable to let another exercise it for us. When it comes to our faith’s intellect, it is acceptable to let a ritual handle it. Why is this acceptable? Why does a care for personal learning turn off when perceived belief arises? Why, when in the religious world, is there no heart to say to self, “Why is my liberty judged of another man’s conscience?” 1 Corinthians 10:29

Paul’s attitude is for the conversation desiring self-regulating learning. Paul understood the negligence in handing over the intellect of our faith to minds outside of our experience. In response to ministers seeking to not only rule the mind of other ministers, but also his own, Paul writes:

“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing by myself,” 1 Corinthians 4:3,4.

Paul gives to us an exercise that is contrary to the exercise given to “the sons of men.” Making fun of “the sons of men,” concerning how they govern themselves, Paul writes, “…ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ,” 1 Corinthians 4:15. He is mocking them because, with so many instructors, he still has to say of them, “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” 2 Timothy 3:7. 

The curse of “the sons of men” is a curse where they are forever learning and yet never able to understand, concerning the Bible’s philosophy, one bit of truth. Instead of giving one’s time to such a lifestyle, Paul advised minsters to collect their minds and to independently labor within the scriptures for understanding. He writes: 

“And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,” 1 Thessalonians 4:11. 

There is an exercise given to the conversation that would sincerely claim its experience. That exercise is an experience involving the conversation building a relationship with the Bible’s words. Above suffering the “judgment” or the commandment and theory of ministers, the Bible would have the mind personally active, which is why it says, “He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread,” Proverbs 28:19. 

The “land” to till is the heart of our mind. This is understood from how it says, “Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you,” Hosea 10:12. 

What is to be rained on, according to the Bible, is the mind, meaning that words are to be poured out. This is also understood from how it says, “I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you,” Proverbs 1:23. 

The exercise given to the Bible’s student is an assignment where an outpouring of words is occurring upon the ground of the conversation’s heart. Again, it is understood that the “ground” spoken of is the heart of the mind from how it says, “On the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience,” Luke 8:15.

The previous blog post highlights the most fraudulent and vain experience we can have with the Bible. The lifestyle highlighted is for the mind having a concern not for human and inward wellbeing, but for the theatrics of theologians and philosophers. The mind within the Bible would have its student form a relationship with its words, even a bond wherein its words may become the healing influence within the life. 

The Sons of Men

What would you do if you came across an important secret? What if this secret could change the way you think about your self? What if this secret could offset the weather of your energy? What if you learned that, what you thought was for you, actually wasn’t? What would you do?

There are many secrets within the Bible: secrets that have to be searched out, translated, examined, and refined for understanding. But then there are secrets that are hidden in plain sight, secrets that if unconscious to, we will pass by them as if they aren’t there. I guess, then, such a secret, if passing by what is plainly in front of us, isn’t honestly a secret, but is a mistake on our part. 

The Bible tells us the secret exercise of theologians and scientists within the religious world. This secret really isn’t a secret, but because we may not give enough care to language and context within the Bible, we pass over two very telling verses:

“I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end,” Ecclesiastes 3:10,11.

The author of the book of Ecclesiastes put their self to the test, exercising themselves in the lifestyle of the sons of men. Who are the “sons of men”? The phrase is revealing, because these are men that are born from or conceived by men. This idea is put together from how it says, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,” Hebrews 5:1. 

“Son,” to the Bible’s mind, doesn’t actually mean a biological son to a father. “Son” is a term understood from how it says, “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith,” Titus 1:4, and, “Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,” 1 Timothy 1:2. 

When the Bible mentions “son,” in its truest context, the Bible is mentioning no literal or biological child, but a priest or a minister that has become the priest or the minister of a priest or minister, these two bound together by the passing down of doctrine or philosophy. This idea is again understood from how it says, “He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length,” Proverbs 29:21. 

The “sons of men” are a category of individuals within the Bible. The “sons of men” are priests born from priests; said in present terms, these are priests and ministers graduated from universities and seminaries with the “seed” of men within their mission and understanding. 

The Bible tells us a secret about this group. The author of Ecclesiastes spent time living the lifestyle of the “sons of men” and wrote a report on the experience; Ecclesiastes is that report. The author found out that the “sons of men” are given a curse from God. This “curse” is as its says:

“I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith,” Ecclesiastes 1:13.

The “sons of men” are plagued with a desire to only know what is within “the world” of religion and nothing more. Said again in present terms, the mind of the “sons of men” cannot extend beyond their philosophy or theology. It is not I that is making this report, but the Bible, and we do well, if our concern is inward growth and development, to take knowledge of what the Bible is saying. 

Why is this important? Why is the Bible saying this? Why is the Bible “hating” on “the sons of men”? There is a dislike for the “sons of men” because this group dislikes the actual philosophy within the Bible. Instead of understanding what the Bible is articulating, they meander through handwritten philosophy and theology. The Bible speaks ill of them because they speak ill of the Bible, even while professing to speak from it. 

This is important to know because the exercise of the “sons of men” is not our exercise. After living the delusion of the “sons of men,” the author of Ecclesiastes concluded that their religious or doctrinal lifestyle and habits were vanity. Taking their experience into consideration, the author writes:

“I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts,” Ecclesiastes 3:18. 

The exercise of the “sons of men” should be left to the “sons of men.” We spend our mind, time, and energy in the realm of the “sons of men,” peddling their theories, maintaining their approach, and consenting to their frame of mind. Our conversation does not know its self because the “sons of men” have control of it. True justification is resurrecting from the threshold of the “sons of men”; we have to know this. 

The Reality

You’re in a car. You’re in a car that you love. You’re enjoying your drive. Your thoughts are free, you feel one with the road; every journey in this car is the hallmark of your day. But there’s an issue. The car, from under the hood, is making all kinds of violent rattling noises. The car, when it shouldn’t be driven, is driving, and you are ignoring every sign that it needs to be fixed. 

Who would do this? Why would anyone do this? Having a car that is, at any time, clearly about to break down, who would risk further damaging their car, ignoring the fact that it needs to be taken to a shop? 

We have our reasons. One reason could be that we love our car and want to, until it kicks the bucket, get every last moment with it. Another reason could be that we don’t have the money to get it fixed, and are therefore, until the car decides to stop working, forced to carry on. Yet another reason could be that we just don’t care, or that we have too much going on in our life to worry about it. 

This is how we naturally treat our devotional conversation. To us, our conversation is divine. To us, our conversation is naturally entitled. And, when you think about the belief our conversation either adopts or inherits when conceived within the religious world, this is the only condition our conversation can have. Herein a, “Thus saith the living God,” is needed:

“I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,” Amos 5:21-24. 

Notice that what is quoted is in present tense. That means the voice and the mind that is speaking is not ultimately sectioning out a particular or a specific group of people, but is calling out every group and individual fulfilling the saying, “O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel,” Isaiah 48:1. 

The Bible isn’t a book commending worship and service. The Bible isn’t a book coddling the ego of one’s religious conversation. Once passed the lore of the scriptures and are found beneath its surface, one will understand the Bible to be a book giving counsel, correction, and advice to the personal devotional conversation.  

Our belief is birthed out of the religious world. While birthed out of the religious world, our belief is first conceived, although not by any act of self, within our self, where there is no trace of the philosophy within the religious world. Once we take what is conceived within us and bring it into the religious world, our belief becomes a violent vehicle. Because we are too lazy to either notice or care, or are too attached to what it has become within the religious world, we ignore the fact that our conversation is sick. 

The Bible is a book whose philosophy informs its careful student of the condition of their conversation. It doesn’t matter what we denominate our conversation to be, if we are saying the “God” of Israel is our “God,” then we naturally possess a damaged and a damaging conversation. Maybe we don’t know this, but the Bible is not shy to tell us. 

Why is our conversation damaged and damaging?  Religious theory keeps our spiritual thoughts flesh-based or confined to the “box” of religion and theology. We don’t know it, but this “box” of religion and of theology is the “curse” or “plague” given to the religious world. The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter three and verses ten and eleven make this quite plain, which is why it is so hard to truly hear how and why it says, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven,” Psalm 119:89. 

The philosophy within the Bible is about our conversation’s justification. If something must be justified, or cleansed, or purified, that means its natural or original condition is filthy and broken. The sooner we accept that justification is firstly for the conversation, the sooner we can begin to correctly understand what to spiritually or philosophical revere.