IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 141

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

So what is it about the Faith of the centurion that causes the Master to remark about him “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Matthew 8:10)? Or of the Faith of the woman who came to Jesus looking for healing for her daughter; what was it that caused the Master to say: “O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt? And her daughter was made whole from that very hour” (Matthew 15:28). These were presumably ordinary people who had heard of the Master and perhaps of His works. The centurion met the Master soon after the Sermon on the Mount. After healing a leper and instructing him to keep it quiet Jesus, coming to Capernaum, was met by the centurion. What had he heard, what did he know? We will likely never know but whatever it was it was enough to cause that Faith to well up in the personality of the centurion and give him the boldness and the trust and KNOWING to come to Jesus and ask for the healing and to leave His presence KNOWING that it was done. Not only did the Master sense the his Faith but He remarked on the level of it….of the centurion’s KNOWING. This is the ultimate of believing which, as we have discussed, is a measurable indicator of Faith. Now if, as we have said, Faith comes to our personality consciousness from the Soul, if it truly is a spiritual fruit, then this centurion must have to have had some degree of Soul Light flowing through his personality. This should show us that the reality of Faith is not some thing that is new and just for the Christian. This man was a Roman and considered a heathen, even by us today, but he believed something which caused him first to Love his servant and then to break out of his Roman mold, perhaps under the threat of penalty, and to humble himself before the Master and to ask while KNOWING that the outcome was to be what he sought. This is Faith and this is Faith that causes the Master’s response “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel“

What of the woman? She also was not a Jew, and she came to the Master for the healing of her daughter. She entered into a house where Jesus was and fell at His feet asking for His help. He refused with His infamous saying that “let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs” (Mark 7:27) which some interpret as Jesus’ insulting her. But she replies that just the crumbs or whatever little you can give will be enough to heal and Jesus grants her request. Again we have Faith coming from above and causing the woman to act and to humble herself and perhaps even be insulted to get the healing for her daughter which she KNOWS that Jesus will give to her. Again this is a Faith that is KNOWING, a spiritual Faith that came from somewhere to a woman who was presumably a heathen but who did, as the centurion, believe in something that caused her to act and that the Master saw this and remarked about her saying “O woman, great is thy faith“. This is Faith from above, from within, which again should show to us that the working of the Soul is in everyone; the prompting is in everyone and the potential to listen and to heed the call is in everyone. This is testified to by the nature of the saying by the Apostle Peter which we have used before “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him” (Acts 10:34-35) and which can be seen at work here. The Master said to neither of these that they should sin no more as He did say to many that He healed and helped and we can expect here that these both, though considered heathen, accomplished the two criteria given by Peter; they “feareth him” and they “worketh righteousness“. We should understand feareth as this definition from the lexicon: to reverence, venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience² and understand that although these people were not Jews or Christians, that they did believe in God from whom they received the Faith to be healed.

There is much more to Faith than we have covered here in these few posts and we will likely be back here again soon; before we leave let us look at a few more of the Masters thoughts regarding Faith. One would think that for a person to get to the place of being a disciple of the Master, even to be one of the twelve as apostles, that that person would, or at least should, have unfailing Faith but this is not so. There are several places in the Gospel of Matthew where the Master chides His disciples about their lack of Faith:

• “And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying , Lord, save us: we perish.  And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose , and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:23-25). This not long after the episode above with the centurion. This is His disciples who have been with Him and saw His miracles; they came to rely on Him, perhaps not yet knowing that by their own Faith they could endure.
• “when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying , Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to goto Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased” (Matthew 14:26-32). Here again we see the disciples reliance on the Master and we see Peter stepping out and KNOWING that a thing could be done, that he could walk on the water. But the great enemy of Faith and of Hope overcomes him and in his doubting he begins to sink. Closer to understanding Faith but they still had not overcome doubt and its ally fear.
• “And when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?” (Matthew 16:5-11). This is now the third time that the Master speaks to them on their littleness of Faith but here His comment is not against any apparent act of fear or doubt on the part of the disciples; it is in regard to their judgement and to their not relying on the inner understanding which He knows that they have and which He sees that they are not using. Rather than use their individual Faith to discern the saying of the Master, they, in doubt, defer to each other showing the lack of any confidence in their own understanding.

In the Gospel of Luke, in his version of the first instance above, Luke records the Master as saying “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25) in place of “O ye of little faith” but the effect should be seen as the same. He is perhaps thinking or, better still, KNOWING that they should be able to exhibit more Faith. Chronologically, according to Matthew, all three of these events happen before Jesus discussion with them regarding Faith and its power in His saying that we began this series of essays with: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20) and it is likely that Matthew is taking us through the progression of the possession of Faith by the disciples. We should believe that as these events unfolded, the disciples gained more and more in Faith and in all that the Master taught to them. We, here and now, have the benefit of this written record; we know and we understand Faith and Hope and Love by His words.

We will conclude this journey through the theme of Faith and Hope with two additional observations. The first regarding Peter who, because of his strength among the twelve, is left in many ways responsible for his brothers. We should remember that the presence with the Master of the twelve, and likely the seventy as well, was not an accidental occurrence but rather a part of the Plan; their destiny and their prior spiritual achievement brought them to this place and this time and they are forever among the Saints and the Masters.

First we have this dialogue between the Master and the disciple Peter near the end which goes thus: “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31). These are still men, as we are, and subject to the wiles of the flesh. Here, Jesus admonishes them all because of their prideful talk about who should be greatest and then speaks the above direct to Peter saying that Satan, the ways of the world through his carnal self, wants him much. The Master tells Peter that He has prayed for him that his  faith fail not which should serve to show us the importance of maintaining our focus on things above. He says further when thou art converted, of which Vincent tells us that: converted is simply the Latinized rendering for the word to turn round (convertere). Rev. renders the aorist participle, denoting a definite act, by once: “when once thou hast turned again.⁴” which lends a different perspective than does converted. Reading this in this way we can see the Master is presuming that Peter’s Faith will fail and that when he does get it back again, that he should  strengthen thy brethren. This dialogue is just before the Master’s prediction of Peter’s denial and the cock’s crowing. Focus.

Last we have a question posed by the Master regarding Faith, our Faith. At the end of the Parable of the Persistent Widow the Master puts forth this saying which is rather unrelated to the parables outer meaning: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh , shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). He will find Faith among those who are focused on the Kingdom and the degree of that Faith will depend on the intensity and the steadfastness of that focus. Seek and Strive and faint not.

Before we end for the day we should take in another part of the prayer that we started reviewing from Paul and which is below as the Quote of the Day. We ended yesterday with an understanding of Paul’s meaning and the intent that we, as personalities on the Earth, should be strengthened by the Spirit of God as He exists within our Inner Man, our Souls. Granting us, in this way, the Power and the Fruits of the Spirit to be exhibited and used in our daily lives. Continuing this Paul says, as a part of this same thought, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love”. Now we just finished discussing this theme of Faith and here Paul is telling us more of the workings of Faith and the Christ Within. Following along with the idea of our outer appearance being strengthened by the power from the Inner Man, he goes on to explain that this is that we have the Christ Within come into our hearts, our conscious personalities, and that this works out by and in Faith. Vincent tells us here that by Faith should be read as through your (the article) faith, as the medium of appropriating Christ. Faith opens the door and receives Him who knocks. Apoc iii.20 ⁴ . 

This should show us more clearly Paul’s intent and clarify some of what we have been trying to say as well. The Soul, the Christ Within, prompts us; He knocks and this Light, this Power,  is shining at the door and awakening Faith in the consciousness. This Light or Power is the Source of Faith and of all the fruits of the Spirit. The conscious personality senses this prompting and answers the door…Faith opens the door and receives Him who knocks. As we do say, this is all difficult to understand with our finite minds but the picture should be clearer as we go through these posts. The carnal personality is the living expression of the Soul on Earth and somewhere in the recesses of our minds and emotional being we, most all of us, know this to be true. We are however so entwined in this Earthly life that it is difficult for our Souls to get the attention of the mind or the emotions and when this does happen, it happens in steps of which we could even say in fits and starts. At some point comes our focus and from there we would have sufficient Faith to continue and progress; but, as we have seen on the discussion today, Faith can be fleeting. This is Paul’s prayer for us; that by the Power of the Spirit we are able to be strengthened in our conscious lives through Faith and that Christ become a part of our conscious daily living. Our Faith in conscious form life can also be seen as the power that strengthens; its source is the Spirit in the Inner Man and through it we bring the Christ into our hearts.

And with the Christ in our lives we become “rooted and grounded in love” which is the chiefest of all the virtues and fruits. We will conclude this prayer discussion in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day