IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 227

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part XIV

Yesterday’s topic regarding the RESPECT that the Lord DOES NOT show toward His children is an example of the differences in interpretation that are possible in the understanding of scriptures such as these. If these sayings are true insofar as the Strong’s definition of prosopolepsia being favoritism, partiality³, then we must see the Lord this way in all of His dealings and not in the specific context in which it appears. This is so from our perspective because we are speaking about an attribute of God and, since so many are so willing to take out of context those things that are convenient to become doctrine, they should also be willing to do so for sayings such as these that are not so easy to fit into our lives.

• “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34).
• “For there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11).
• “Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons” (Colossians 3:24-25).
• “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him” (Ephesians 6:8-9).
• “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Peter 1:17).

The overriding message in all of this from the Apostles Peter and Paul is in the saying itself and not in the context in which it is found. Knowing the Love of God and the teaching on Love by the Christ can there be any other way to understand this? Our view from the last post is that this saying, this attribute of God that exemplifies His Perfection, carries through in ALL of His dealings with man and, a case could be made that this attribute extends beyond this and to all His creation and is well to be considered His Law. This is ALL seen in the saying of the Master that “…he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) which, as we discussed, should be seen as an example of the Way of God and not with an understanding of sunshine and rain only. It is only in looking at Life as this Life in form only that we can find refuge in the understandings that come forth in the context of the sayings but then what does this say about OUR GOD? As we said in the last post, if we accept that this is the Life and the only Life, we must find ourselves at a loss in trying to explain or understand the great disparity among individuals in the world today and throughout history. Aside from the issues of wealth and of health and the fact of the ‘gifted’ child there are so many other differences through the ages. It is only in the understanding of ourselves as Souls and not as men in form that we can in any way grasp this disparity and understand the Truth of “God is no respecter of persons“.

We should also not miss the understanding that Peter and Paul are speaking to us today and not only about this attribute of God but they are instructing us in how we should act toward others. In the first point above Peter is acknowledging that he should not differentiate between men, between Jews and Gentiles, but should give the same to ALL. Paul, in the citations above from Romans, Ephesians and Colossians is speaking to followers about the judgement of the Lord, that He will judge and that they should not and that they who “serve the Lord Christ” should follow accordingly and be also “without respect of persons“. Peter, in the last point above, is telling believers that they should be wary of the end and remember that no matter who one is or what one has accomplished, judgement is based only on what things he does.

Keeping with our general understanding of the afterlife and with all this speaking of judgement, we should keep in mind that this judgement is the self adjustment that is made by each of us as Souls and Spirits according the the Law of Life, at the time of departure from this Earth. It is this judgement that allows us to be in a state that is a sort of continuation of one’s consciousness in Life. In this sense, we all know what good and what bad we have done in consciousness, this does not lie and, while it may be the overall state of consciousness that prevails at death to bring one to his state of being, there may also be karmic responsibility for certain things done in Life. Remember that it is the Master who equates thinking lustfully of a woman with adultery and who sees anger much the same as killing and we should note that it is lustful thinking and harbored anger that can wreak havoc on one’s consciousness more that a isolated act of adultery or even killing; in doing things such as these is where the work of True repentance saves.

Moving on to our next attribute of God we find “God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9, 10:13) and this too is a sign of His Perfection and also of His Love and this attribute does, in may ways, go together with the previous attribute. We have listed this among our attributes because it is stated by the Apostle who uses it in two different contexts. While this word is close to the idea of Faith and can carry the same connotation from our perspective as men believing and KNOWING things to be so, we cannot say that it has the same meaning when speaking of God. God is All KNOWING and needs not to have Faith as we understand the word. Strong’s tells us of the Greek word pistos, translated as faithful here, that is it means faithful, trustworthy, reliable, believing² and in the context of speaking of God we should accept this as trustworthy and reliable because, to be sure, God is these things and He is these things for ALL that He says. We should also understand that this is, as an attribute of God, universal in its application which enhances the idea that “God is no respecter of persons“. In the first instance of this saying by Paul we find him assuring his followers that the word of Christ, the word of God, will be done and in this particular place he appears to be speaking of the Master’s return. In the second instance Paul saying is a bit more obtuse; speaking in regard to the temptation of the followers; we are asked to understand that “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). From Paul’s perspective this is an affirmation that whatsoever one may be tempted of in the flesh, that the Soul is able to withstand and so to triumph. This is in affirmation of all of the teaching of the Master regarding how one should be and act if his intention is the Kingdom of God; it is an affirmation that if one’s focus is on Him that he will find the strength to endure. The essential application of this to ALL is that no matter who one is and no matter what one’s station in Life, the power of the Christ within is there; it is “a way to escape” should one choose to avail himself to it.

To this we must add that the saying also stands on its own; “God is faithful” and is so in ALL. ALL that the Master said will be done; if man does his part, the Lord will do His, holding nothing back. We can rely on the fact that if we do as He tells us to do that the reward will be as He said in both His positive sayings and in His negative sayings. The promise for us is the Kingdom of God and not an abundant Life upon the Earth and the right reading of His words tells us that this is True. Our part is to do the will of the Father and, in doing so our Christ Within becomes alive in our lives, leads us to the strait gate, the Path to God, which leads us then into His Kingdom. There are many in the Christian churches that continue to preach on the promises of the Old Testament both for the Gentile and the Jew and there is much confusion over just what these promises are. For some these are the what is called the Blessings of Abraham and for others there are other citations, but most all have to do with physical abundance here on Earth. They profess also that Abraham was rich and so He was but his has little if anything to do with us here and now. The same dynamic however is in the verses of blessing from Deuteronomy as there is in our idea here that “God is faithful“; the man today and the man and the nation in that day has to do his part. For them in that day this was as set forth in the beginning of the chapter which says: “And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). Clearly the idea here is that one must “hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day” and in so doing ALL of the listed blessings will come upon him. Needless to say the Jews as a nation did not “hearken unto the voice of the LORD” and the other part of this chapter took hold on them as the promised curses: “And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.  But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee” (Deuteronomy 28:14-15). We should understand that the curses here far outnumber the blessings and we should see in this the reality of repentance. Man in that day was drawn into being man and to keep the words of the Lord took a special effort that they could not muster; this does not mean that they were evil people it means simply that they did not do what was necessary to earn the blessings.

Some fifteen hundred years later the Christ came among them and found them a nation that was still in bondage; a bondage that started with the captivity of the ten tribes in 722BC and then the fall of Judah and Jerusalem some hundred and fifty years later (586BC). Now it is not our place to discuss the plight of the Jews from this point on except to say that with the coming of the Messiah, the era of the law was effectively abolished and it may be more likely that their way of Life and their National attitudes had more to do with their continued persecution even until modern times than did the wrath of God. There is a large body of support for the Jews and the Jewish nation in much of the Christian Church today and for varying reasons among which is the belief that Israel and Jerusalem have some importance in the overall theme of the eschatological doctrines that they preach and this largely due to their varying interpretations of the Book of Revelation. Somewhere in the six hundred years that elapsed between the final captivity of Jerusalem and the advent of the Christ the Jews developed for themselves the religious system that the Master addressed when He spoke to the scribes and the Pharisees; His condemnation of this system is that it took the Law and made a rather ritualistic and ceremonial fare of it. Jesus acknowledges that the idea was always to make the way of the law a way in which the man would want to conform from his heart and that he not view it as a forced obedience. He says to them “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” Mark 7:6) which is His testimony to the state of the Jewish religious Life.

Undoubtedly the promises would have flowed if the Jews had obeyed but they did not and for us to think that we can get these promises without obeying is an absurdity. There is no half way rule here that says that if you do a bit of obeying you will get a bit of the promise; the context here is ALL. The Master, in ALL of His teaching is clear on this for us today as well as for those back then and this is evident in His telling us what we need to do the be accounted worthy of the Kingdom; we should recognize that this is what it is all about. What we call the Blessings of Abraham from Deuteronomy are recorded into the law nearly seven hundred years after Abraham was called by the Lord and it is hard to understand the relationship between these blessings in Deuteronomy and Abraham. However, these are promises and we have addressed them as such. The more actual blessings that Abraham received are much more modest and personal and one would have to believe that these are what is referred to by Paul when he speaks of it. So here is the disconnect; many today believe that the so called Blessings of Abraham are apparent in his riches and in his longevity and in the promises that are made to Israel as a nation; they see it all as things of this world and they base much of their eligibility for these blessings on the writings to the Galatians by Paul where he says, among other things, that: “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham…..Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:7-9, 13-14).

Now this is out of the context in which it is said but these are the verses relied upon for the promises to come to Christians even to today. It is said here, and it is an important part of the teaching of Paul, that “Christ hath redeemed us” and this is True and our failure, if we can call it that, is in not understanding the message that Paul is delivering. What we call the Blessings of Abraham and what are actually those Blessings are written and include much to do with worldly Life and, what these worldly things were to Abraham and to the Jews as a nation, the Kingdom of God is to us. In the era in which these things are spoken they are what is important for the progression of the people upon the spiritual Path and are achieved by obeying the law; with the coming of the Christ, these things are no longer so important and are replaced with the conscious attitude of man toward God and toward each other. Here two thousand years later we are still trying to learn the lessons of the Christ and many are failing to see that the reward is the Kingdom of God here and now and that the price is that we do the works of the Father as they are iterated to us by the Master. Paul does not record for us a shortcut and reading his words in context will help us to understand this.

We will continue with this in the next post along with the balance of our list below.

• For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33)
• God is one (Galatians 3:20)
• For our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29) For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24) For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. (Deuteronomy 4:24)
• God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)
• God is love (1 John 4:8)
• God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1)

Note on the Quote of the Day