IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 175

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he (Matthew 11:11).

This is the end of the common dialogue in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. From here Matthew has a bit more of the Master’s sayings while Luke has a bit of his own commentary; both of these lead up to what we called the Parable of the Baptist. For clarity, let us look at the words from Luke and then at the sayings of the Master in Matthew:

From Luke: “And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him” (Luke 7:29-30). Luke paints for us a picture that the crowds of people and the publicans, which word likely refers to more that than just the tax collector, were happy to hear such good things about John from the Master as it reinforced their faith in the baptism that they had received. The Pharisees and the lawyers, and we should assume the scribes as well, however rejected the words of the Master about John much the same way as they had rejected John. This is their sin, and the sin of all who follow in a similar pattern to these Pharisees even to today; rejecting a new testimony and a new teaching because it threatens to usurp power and to change the conception of religion for those who follow. Do not misunderstand this as advocating that one should just pick up on every new idea but it is rather a statement on men’s reason for not even looking at a new idea seriously in order to ascertain its origin. The Pharisees and others since their day who dismiss what is new based on pride and arrogance rather than based on right and righteous thinking are not hearing nor listening for that inner voice that emanates from the Soul and by which a spiritual thing can be discerned.

From Matthew: “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 12-15). The first part of this saying regarding the Kingdom of God appears in Luke’s Gospel as well but several chapters further on. We covered the last part, about the relationship between John the Baptist and Elias, early in this series of essays on the Baptist and as part of The Parable of the Baptist that follows here in the text. We did this first because we were relating it to the concept of reincarnation found in some of the other sayings of the Master at the time (In the Words of Jesus parts 165-169). For this post, the first part here becomes our subject verse which appears in Luke as: “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached , and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16).

What does this mean? In the last post we discussed the opinion of some in the church regarding what we called the newness of the Kingdom, that it came into existence with the arrival of the Master. We reject this idea and there is nothing in the scriptures that tell us that this is so except by the summary deductions made by men and based on the misunderstood words of the Master. The source of much of this confusion is found here in these statements. “The law and the prophets were until John” is a statement of fact by the Master but is this not intended to be an understanding of a new way to look at the things of God? The people practiced their religion as followers of the law and not followers of the Lord; this change to following the Lord required the law be taken out of the books only and its ritual practice and placed into the heart for a willing practice. This idea is spoken of by the Prophet Jeremiah speaking the word of God and saying: “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33). From the perspective of the Jews, the arrival of and the Truths spoken by the Master are this new covenant for a new dispensation and should not be seen as the creation of a new realm. The Master speaks also of this same thing, the need for the law to be in the heart, saying that: “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). In Jesus saying is the still greater condemnation of the attitudes of the Jews in that day; not only were they following the book of the law as the law but they were interpreting it in the terms of men. This is a carnal trait that still afflicts men of most every religion.

“The law and the prophets were until John” should be for us the introduction of a new understanding and both John and the Master clarify this by the same statement saying that:

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:1-2).

“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

Here we see the crux of the new message; the reality of the Kingdom of God is here and now and the only way to see this and to experience it is to repent, to change from the old ways to the new way that is now taught. We know that in that day, and still to today, there are few that really understand this saying that the Kingdom is at hand. The importance of this saying is found in the words of the Master’s instructions to His disciples as well when we sent them to preach the word on their own:

“These twelve Jesus sent forth , and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 10:5-7)

We should understand here the deeper meanings of the idea of at hand. The alternate translation of this in most bible versions is “the kingdom of heaven is near” but this does not adequately give us the intent of the Master either. The Greek word used here is eggizo of which the lexicon tells us the meaning is to bring near, to join one thing to another. to draw or come near to, to approach². Looking at the Kingdom in its reality, as within us, we can find here the better ideas of joining and drawing near. Strong’s gives us the single definition of eggizo as to come near; to draw near³. Vine’s⁶ agrees with these ideas in our context here and in the combination of all these we should have a clearer understanding of the message of the Master; that the Kingdom of God is coming near to you who have put the law and the words of the Lord into your hearts, your conscious everyday attitude. An attitude where one no longer does a thing because he is compelled by the law but rather does a thing because it he is compelled to do so by his own inner self and consciously doing what is right.

The proper understanding of this idea of the drawing near of the Kingdom explains the saying that the Master tells us of John; a saying that in the converse fashion says that ‘since John came preaching the Kingdom, the era of simply following the law is ended’. John came preaching the Kingdom as did the Master and to this end Jesus sent His disciples also and this is the simple statement “the law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached” and this preaching is that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” or, as we say, the Kingdom of God is drawing near and is near for those who have put the law into their hearts and who are striving to act and live in His righteousness and not in the satisfying of the words of the law in the books. The one thing needed to understand this all is the acceptance of His words telling us that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) which is not a fanciful statement by the Master but a statement of fact. When we can see the reality in this saying we can then see the same reality in so many of the sayings of the Master including our subject verse and those other sayings above regarding the Kingdom of God.

We end here with the other part of our saying which is “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” which is modified a bit by Luke in his rendition of Jesus saying it as “and every man presseth into it“. We came across this saying from Matthew’s Gospel before and our understanding then was to say this: Now the word violent here is not to be understood as it is used in our modern language but should be understood as a type of spiritual violence for, in taking the Kingdom, we are but bringing down into our consciousness the Light of the Soul and the precepts of God. The disciples and followers of the Master saw and knew the new dispensation of John and of Jesus and their teachings and this awakened in them spiritual thoughts and ideas causing them, and now us, to cast aside the carnal ways, to focus on the Kingdom and to bring it forcibly to bear on their daily lives. Remember, all of His teaching is in parable. There is little that the Master says, or the writers of the epistles for that matter, that is not concerned with bringing the Power of the Spiritual Realm to bear on our lives in this physical form and on this Earth. (In the Words of Jesus part 143)

We have much the same to say here today and we will add some observations by Vincent as well as our own ideas that can tie this all together. In Luke’s rendition of “presseth into” we should see a bit more clarity that looking at Matthew alone. Presseth comes from the Greek word biazo which Strong’s tells us means to force one’s way²; other guides tend to relate this to violence as well because of the reading in Matthew but let us look at what we have already said as a better guide as we are trying to define a spiritual thing with words of physical encounter. To force one’s way, to take it by force are, in this spiritual context, in the realm of the idea of seizing; we who what the Kingdom, seize the Kingdom, we take it to ourselves. We no longer stand idly by waiting and not knowing what to do; we are told that it is near, that it is within us, and we take it to ourselves. In the ordinary terms of life and death and heaven the whole of this idea as said by the Master makes no sense and those who can see this as a fact are no longer waiting to get there but they are taking it to themselves here and now.

Vincent helps us here some with the ideas of “the violent take it by force” saying that the words mean literally to snatch away, carry off. It is often used in the classics as plundering. Meyer renders, Those who use violent efforts, drag it to themselves. So Tynd., They that make violence pull it to them. Christ speaks of believers. They seize upon the kingdom and make it their own. The Rev., men of violence, is too strong, since it describes a class of habitually and characteristically violent men; where as the violence in this case is the result of a special and exceptional impulse⁴. There are a variety of ideas here from which we should take the thought that we have stated above and these are to seize upon the Kingdom, to drag it to one’s self and to pull it to one’s self.

So what is the message in all this? Simply put, the Kingdom of God is being preached to us all since the time of John the Baptist and the Christ. The preaching of the Kingdom is that it is here and now, it is at hand; it is come near to those who desire it and it is within us all by way of the Christ Within. Union with the Christ Within is union with the Kingdom and when we understand this we can make that conscious  effort to seize it, which we should see in Christ’s words to us saying “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). All these things are the same, striving to enter, making conscious effort to seize it, take it by force an presseth into; they are all the act of bringing down into our consciousness the Light of the Soul and the precepts of God.

We never did get to the Christmas part today we can try this again tomorrow as we need a new topic as well.

Note on the Quote of the Day