Monthly Archives: February 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part XXVI

It has not been our part to become involved in the social issues of our day nor of days past except as to comment briefly at times regarding the free will of the human family to conduct themselves as they adjust to the various potentcies of the Plan of God as it effects our world. This is to say that there are times and cycles to all things under the Plan which is ruled by Law, if we can use such a simple word. Our discussion on the movement of our entire system through the zodiacal signs is an example on a broad scale of what this entails; as the cosmic energies and the forces play upon the Earth, the outer traits and trends of any particular ‘sign’ play also upon the human psyche. This is all a part of the evolution of the consciousness of the race of men and should be seen as an effect of these changes and not as a reason for them as the complexity of God’s Created Universe is much vaster that we can ever imagine or speak of in human terms.

As America moves headlong into what is likely a raucous presidential political season there is a strikingly apparent move toward using the social issues of our time as another dividing line between perceived rights and wrongs and, while this may seemingly be a rather normal event, it is today being done under the guise of religion and Faith. So we have pitted against one another those who presume that they are morally right from a Christian perspective, a perspective that is doctrinal and not biblical and which is insisted upon by the religious leadership and drummed into the awaiting public’s mind. To complicate matters there is not a uniform approach to this by the churches but rather an abundance of differing views. What are the issues? we know them well as they are a part of the fabric of society today and, especially in times like these when there is much political maneuvering among candidates, they are in the daily news cycle which leaves the average person with but bits and pieces of the real debate. Abortion, contraception, prenatal testing for deformities are among these hot button issues but it does not stop with these reproductive measures as they compare to woman’s rights. There is homosexuality and the gay and lesbian lifestyle in general of which gay marriage is become a great divider. The issues go on to include the growing divide between rich and the poor, the status of Israel and the seemingly endless near-persecution of those of the Muslim Faith. All these and more social issues are become dividing lines between people and groups and the most unfortunate part is that the various churches take strong roles in promoting what the deem to be right with every attempt to force their view upon others.

Not a one of these issues is ever even broached by the Christ nor by His apostles except for Paul’s comments regarding homosexuality and these pale in comparison to his words of condemnation against the other vices of man that the churches have so little to say about. Should there be debate on some of these issues? should there be laws and ordinances? Yes there should be but these should not be framed as right and wrong by the church based on their doctrinal positions which only serve to further divide the ONE GOD and the ONE CHRIST and to further fragment His True message of Love, Peace and GoodWill. There is much Truth and force in the commandment of the Master who tells us: “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37); is this not akin to that more modern saying that whatever goes around comes around? And further the Master tells us that we should “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24) which should be a sign to all that there is ever something more than what appears to be and something that a man may not understand regarding another’s Life and problems. This thought leads us to another word by the Master which should govern everyone’s interrelationships with his neighbor, his fellowman; Jesus tells us this which we take from the New King James Version (NKJV) for better understanding: “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:3-5). We should know that in the right understanding all of these reference verses, the offence need not be related to one’s own ways but that we should see that if we have any offence in ourselves, that we should not be judging nor trying to change another from a religious  or spiritual standpoint. The Buddha puts this into perspective for us in this saying from the Dhammapada:

To straighten the crooked, You must first do a harder thing – Straighten yourself.

Perhaps the separation of church and state should go in both directions.

We did not intend to go so far afield on this and hopefully there will be some good to come from what we say here. We continue now with our theme of  ON GOD on which we have spent several days discussing the ideas that came from the saying by the Apostle John that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). While this does not appear to have that direct connection to what we have been writing on, there is this thread of Love in all of this creation and it is by this Love, the Christ, that all is created and it is in this aura of Love that mankind finds it liberty both in and out of form. Through the very structure of this manifestation mankind experiences the wonders of its evolving Life, both in and out of form, building upon, with each successive incarnation, the eternal experiences of the Soul and having always the opportunity to break away in freedom from the karmic cycle of rebirth through that regeneration that we call being born again and its succeeding entry into the very Kingdom of God. In a way this being born again is the Grace of God that is spoken of by the churches; it is man’s free and unfettered passage out of the circle of Life and death and into that spiritual bliss of His Kingdom. We must remember too that the True meaning of being born again is the free and unfettered passage of the Love of God as it exists in one’s Soul, his Christ Within, through the personality consciousness and out to the world of men; being born of the Spirit is to express the qualities of the Spirit throughout all that a man does and the primary quality is of course LOVE.  That “God is Love” is a Great Truth as is the fact that we are in His image and His likeness and therefore we are Love as well. That “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) is a Great Truth as is the fact that we are in His image and His likeness and therefore we are Spirit as well. And, that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) is a Great Truth as is the fact that we are in His image and His likeness and therefore we are Light as well. It is these things that we are destined to share with the world of men and the beginning of this journey is in the Truth of being born again.

This brings us to the last of our list of what we had called the direct statements about God from the bible which we list here lest we forget where we started with this theme. We should remember, as we see again above, that because we are in His image and in His likeness, that we share each of these Qualities of God:

• Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).
• Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful (Luke 6:36).
• God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32).
• The Lord our God is one Lord  (Mark 12:29).
• God is true (John 3:33).
• God is a Spirit (John 4:24).
• God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
• God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9, 10:13).
• 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).
• 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).

This last item is the only citation that we take directly out of the Old Testament; two others have their beginnings in the Old but we have taken  them from a repitition of them in the New Testament and these are first that “The Lord our God is one Lord” which comes from the Book of the Law in Deuteronomy and the other is that ” our God is a consuming fire” which is from the same book.

Our last entry here is from the Book of Psalms and there are a few other related sayings that this has served as a place marker for. All are related by way of praising the Lord for the strength that He provides and to this we should add for those who do His Will. In these days of covenant there was a different relationship between man and God, a relationship that is epitomized by the saying of the Lord that we discussed recently in considering the Blessing of Abraham; again, this is from this same Book of Deuteronomy.

• “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)

For us to get too far into the reasons for this relationship with those men of old would require much speculation as we are not told, except for ideas like those above, of this relationship with any clarity. Suffice it to say that this was a different time, a different era that is the better part of two ages ago by the count of the astrological ages we discussed briefly in above and a time that brought very different energies and forces to bear on our planet. To this add the understanding that nothing is black and white and that like the day goes into the night slowly so does the effect of the ages of which we speak. We should remember also that these were primitive times and that humanity likely needed a much different approach than that which the Christ brought for us. We must also see here that in these times there were men who were able to make their way out of keeping the ways of the world and into keeping the ways of God and these men were changed much in the same way that we speak about here; there were some from these times that were born again and these are possibly those who came and participated in the Plan with the Master as His disciples and apostles.

So we have our saying “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” and this is exactly what He was and is to those who keep His words; this part is ever the same  although we may not choose to use such words as those and these:

• “The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation” (Exodus 15:2).
• “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower” (Psalm 18:2).
• “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear ? the LORDis the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid” (Psalm 27:1)

These sayings and others like them are a testimony, by those who kept their part of the covenant, “to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day” and we should understand that this whole array of sentiment regarding the Lord is one that is deeply personal and is the result of the Light of the Soul pouring down through one’s personality consciousness creating that feeling of wellbeing which is likely much the same as that feeling that we get when we are in the Light, although we would likely find different ways to express it. Here lies the idea for us of the Love of God, the Grace of God and the Mercy of God as they effect our lives; these same for them were the Strength of God, the Song of God and the Shield (buckler) of God.

Although the tenor of the Old Testament books is that the salvation of the Lord was directed at the whole of the group of the Jews the individual benefits must also be accounted for as  we are told there are Kings and rulers and Prophets and priests who met the High Ideals as set forth by the Law and these reaped their reward which is not only found in the area of worldly riches and fame. Except for the Kings we have no way to measure what the individual had in possessions as compared to the whole of the group but we should be able to see that, like today, there is no real shortage of worldly goods for those who do not keep His words. Perhaps in this is the crux of the Master’s saying as we find it in the Parable of the Unjust Steward (In the Words of Jesus parts 95-96) saying: “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations” (Luke 16:8-9). The True reward is in being born again and attaining to the Kingdom of God.

We will continue with these thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day