IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 266

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LIII

We have been spending much time talking about discipleship and we have been using the idea of True discipleship to show a difference between the regular meaning of the word and the High achievement and responsibility that the Master placed upon it. We should understand that throughout our posts our thoughts have ever been on becoming a disciple of the Master and on being an aspirant or an aspiring disciple of the Master. All other discipleship is secondary to this as are the majority of the worldly meanings of the word. For a man to say that he is a disciple of the Master and not be in conformance to His ideas on discipleship and the allied terms of being worthy  and seeing the Kingdom of God relegates the man to a position of a student which is the more worldly understanding. One is not a disciple and is getting better at it, one is an aspirant leading to discipleship; discipleship is the High Calling for us ALL. This may seem like an unimportant distinction and point but when we look seriously at the Master’s words we should be able to see clearly what it is that He meant and what is required. We repeat some of the Master’s words here for clarity:

• “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple“ (Luke 14:26).
• “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).

We should note there that these are basically the same saying and, based on this, the idea of hate is deemed to mean ‘to love less‘ which makes the Master’s saying from Luke’s Gospel somewhat easier to understand. In both sayings the understanding of the Master’s words is clear, that to be His disciple, to be worthy of Him, one must be willing to forsake all family ties. This does not say that one must leave them but rather that a man must put the Master first and our understanding this is for us to put our focus on the Christ Within and not on any worldly family ties. The overriding Truth is that one will keep His words regardless of any family matters, that one is willing to follow Him without any family ties holding him back and without remorse. We should note that between the two sayings all of the family members are included and in the saying from Luke, ones “own life also“. These are not idle words nor are they just examples but rather these are a part of the straightforward requirements of discipleship. The Master put this in other words for us as well so that we can get a better understanding of the meaning of Earthly relationships as compared with the reality of spiritual ones; He says:

• “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said , Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:46-50).
• “Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press. And it was told him by certain which said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:19-21).

This is the Mind of Christ; that those who are disciples, those that do the “will of my Father which is in heaven“, those that “ hear the word of God, and do it“, these are His family, His mother and His brethren. We can take from these sayings alone that this is what we need to do as His disciples or we can rely upon the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).   Can we understand this depth of discipleship and can we understand that any reasoning as to why this is not practical is contrary to discipleship? When we understand the cycle of Life and death as it relates to reincarnation, the whole of this idea is easier to understand as these relationships are then see as  only of the Earth; apart from this existence and its glamour and its illusion, these family relationships are not any more important that any relationships that we have with ALL others as Souls in form and, if we can Truly Love our brothers as ourselves and comprehend the True meaning of this, we will Truly understand it ALL.

The next part of the Master’s sayings on discipleship and being worthy are in regard to the cross; He says:

• “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).
• “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).

We can look at this idea of the Cross in a number of ways. First we can look at the cross as the accomplishment of the previous topic, the forsaking of one’s family relationships and all other ideas of this nature. Second we can look at the cross as the Great Sacrifice of all that keeps the man focused on the world, on the carnal life. Paul tells us that “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24)  in which we should see the idea of the flesh nature of the man on his cross. Third we should see the overall idea of giving up ALL for the spiritual Life, every thought, every emotion and every action that is contrary to the words and the teachings of the Master. As we read from Vincent in a previous post, each man has his own cross to bear, each one has those things that they hold sacred which are not of God, those things in secret that he does not want to give up. To think to hide any of this however is folly as we are only hiding it from ourselves, from our own Christ Within. who already knows intimately of those things against which his carnal nature must fight; the Soul knows intimately his personality’s own cross.

These next two are not the same; the saying from Luke’s Gospel is from a different chapter and the one from Matthew is included briefly in the first saying of from Luke. We will treat them together nonetheless as they are more related that they seem to be on the surface.

• “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
• “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it“. (Matthew 10:39) .

To forsake ALL is clearly just that, to not care nor want, to not place any value on ANYTHING that one may have in this world. This may seem a heavy statement but it is really the synthesis of the others above and of the Master’s sayings from the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot look at this as only physical things but we must also see the mental and emotional aspects. We must see those things that give us pride and those things that give us pleasure; we must see our hatreds and our Loves and our prejudices. The overriding idea here is ALL. The next statement is like this one but from a different perspective; finding one’s Life here in form is to focus upon it and those things that we are admonished to give up in the previous saying. The Master tells us simply and plainly that if we stop that focus upon the world of things and selfish ideas, that is if we forsake ALL, give up ALL in this Life, then we will find our True Life in Christ, the Life of the Christ Within in form on this Earth. The Master tells us this thing in a few different ways:

• “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited , if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“ (Matthew 16:25-26).
• “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
• “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25).

Can we see how each of these builds upon the one above and then upon each other? In the first we have the idea of finding and losing which we can see as the discovery of those things of the world that give pleasure; the message here is that in those things of pleasure we lose sight of the True life and so we lose it. However, if we give this up, if we willingly lose this Life in the world, we will find that True Life and this is Life in His Kingdom. In the next saying we find a similar idea except the words are save and lose;  we can view these the same as the last one but we should see the inclusion in this saying of the Life of the Soul. Without definition the Master tells us that we can “gain the whole world“, that is we can have all of our worldly desires and that in exchange for this we lose, in this lifetime, the Light of the Soul, the Life of the Christ Within in form on this Earth, the Truth of the Kingdom of God. He poses the question plainly for each who understands it to answer: “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“ . We should not think of this as the loss of the Soul for we are in reality that Soul but we should understand this as losing that opportunity to “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

The criteria broadens in the next saying from Luke’s Gospel to where we should not even seek to save this Earthly Life but rather seek only the True Life. Can we get the hint that this brings this idea down to the level of thoughts, that thinking on this Life is enough to cost one that True Life of the Soul? It broadens yet further to include the idea of Love or attraction to this Life in the world. We should see that there is no evil in any of this but only a matter of focus; the Master teaches in these sayings that if we Love from a worldly perspective, if we seek and think much about, if we try to save and salvage this worldly existence and put our focus upon this world of pleasure and of things, of selfish thoughts and emotions, we will lose the opportunity to Live the Life of the True Man, the Soul and the Christ Within and to be His disciple in His Kingdom.

Can we see here the High Calling of discipleship?

We will continue with these thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day