Monthly Archives: March 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part L

We return today to our discussion on the Holy Spirit, the Third Aspect of the Trinity that IS God.  Our travels yesterday started with the word testimony and proceeded into a long dissertation on John the Baptist, the man and the advanced Soul who came to aid the Christ in bringing the fullness of the Love of God to the world of men. We reflected on how it is that the Baptist is not seen in this way generally and we dealt with his sayings as they appear in the Gospel of John which for us show the depth of the Baptist’s understanding.  He gave to us a teaching that is reminiscent of the teachings of the Master regarding the relationship between the Christ and the Christ Within. From his saying we addressed our understanding of this relationship and how, as men in form, we are to overcome the carnal life and function on the Earth as did the Christ, in the perfection that He tells us that we must achieve.

The relationship between the Father and the Son is made rather clear by the Master who tells us many things about this perfection that we need to extend to the idea of the relationship between Our Father God and the man in form who is imbued with the power of the Christ Within which makes him a True disciple. Let us begin by remembering the teaching of the Master on being His disciple and the counterpart of this which is worthy of Him, that is, what makes a man in form worthy of the Light of his own Soul, his own Christ Within:

• “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)
• “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple“. (Luke 14:27)
• “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple“. (Luke 14:33)

In these few sayings from Luke’s Gospel we have the whole story of discipleship, True discipleship, which is framed for us under this saying by the Master: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40) which, as we noted in yesterday’s post, should be understood with this other saying that: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Now there are many who claim that they are disciples of the Lord and it is not our place to dispute any man’s claim as we do not know any’s heart and we are not the judge of such things; what is being said here is for our consumption so that we understand the High Calling of discipleship and the cost thereof. We should note also that the verses in Luke that run from 27 to 33 are parables regarding this cost and counting it as such. The Master says: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace” (Luke 14:28-32). Can we understand the point here regarding our counting of the cost as that cost is outlined in the bullet points above. Are we willing? are we able? and can we see that most all of the Master’s words are intended to get each of us to this goal of discipleship?

These points are put in a slightly different posture in Matthew’s Gospel as he uses the idea of being worthy in place of being a disciple. In being worthy, or as we say, accounted worthy, the goal is to follow the Master and keep his words or as it is put by Apostle John and the Baptist and the Master, the goal is to believe on Him. Accounted worthy should denote that same High Calling as we have above and should reflect the idea that the personality consciousness of the man is worthy of the Light of the Soul, the Christ Within, being made worthy by:

• “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)
• “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me“. (Matthew 10:38)
• “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it“. (Matthew 10:39) .

There is little difference in these ideas from Luke to Matthew albeit they are framed a bit differently and likely for good reason. Here in Matthew we have a sameness in the first point and the reason for our understanding of the idea of hate in Luke as to mean to Love less. In the second point there is a bit of clarification, for those who can see it, in the idea of “followeth after” versus Luke’s “come after“; to follow Him, as we have used the term, is to keep His words and to believe on Him as we say above in conjunction with being worthy. We should see also that the words translated as “come after” do carry much of the understanding that of the relationship between the Christ Within and the actions of the man in form; the lexicon tells us that part of the understanding of the Greek word for come is be established, become known, to come (fall) into or unto to go, to follow one². 

The idea of the cross is one that is largely guessed at in Christ’s reference to it; it is assumed that Jesus is foretelling the manner of His death. Vincent helps us a bit here with his understanding although we cannot be sure that this is his intent. Vincent says:

• On Luke: His cross. More correctly, his own. An important charge. All must bear the cross, but not all the same cross: each one his own⁴.
• On Matthew: His cross (to<n stauro<n aujtou~). This was no Jewish proverb, crucifixion not being a Jewish punishment; so that Jesus uses the phrase anticipatively, in view of the death which he himself was to die. This was one of those sayings described in John 12:16, which the disciples understood not at the first, but the meaning of which was revealed in the light of later events. The figure itself was borrowed from the practice which compelled criminals to bear their own cross to the place of execution. His cross: his own. All are not alike. There are different crosses for different disciples. The English proverb runs: “Every cross hath its inscription” — the name of him for whom it is shaped⁴.

Can we see understand our point here, that it is not the physical cross that one would carry to crucifixion but it is those things that we must do to be worthy of Him and to exemplify the fact of the other two sayings in Luke and in Matthew which are to give up all things and all attachments to this world even to the giving up of one’s own Life. We should see the multifaceted role of the word Life here as it could be the giving up of the actual physical Life as did the Master or it can mean the worldly Life; as Vincent suggests: There are different crosses for different disciples. The cross can be symbolic of the burdens in one’s Life that keep the man from fulfilling ALL, that is forsaking ALL, that is necessary to gain the Kingdom. The Master shows us this by His own Cross, which is the giving up of His Life for the Kingdom, and we should be able to get a glimpse of the same in the Lives of many of the Martyrs especially those who had forgone ALL before their martyrdom. Is martyrdom necessary? this is unlikely, but at the same time we should remember the words of the Master saying: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13) and we should see in this the idea of friend as ALL who a man is to Love which, in the teaching of the Master, is ALL of mankind.

There is another saying in the synoptic gospels that refers to the idea of each taking up his cross; let us look at this in context as there is a very important lesson involved here and a firm relationship to the sayings above:

• From Matthew:  “But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 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 16:23-26).
• From Mark: “But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed……” (Mark 8:33-38)
• From Luke: “And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:21-27)

On the surface these three are much the same, and the intent likely is, but in each there are some subtle differences that can be meaningful to our obtaining the fullness of His message. In Matthew and in Luke this idea of the cross follows the Master’s rebuke of the Apostle Peter for not being completely in line with the understanding that the Master had put forth; Peter was seeing things through the eyes of man, carnal eyes so to speak. Also, we should note that Matthew tells us that the Master is speaking to His disciples only and Mark that He is speaking to others as well; not for the rebuke of the apostle, but for the saying on the cross. Can we see here the completeness of the commitment that is required in True discipleship; just moments earlier the Master is praising Peter and, according to some, giving him charge over the church and now there is rebuke and the commentary about the cross. Luke tends to put this into a different perspective as he does not deal at all with the rebuke of Peter but does add for us a key word for our understanding of the intent of the Master and that word is daily in which we should see the idea of consistently and constantly. Here in these sayings is the idea that a man must “deny himself, and take up his cross daily” and in this we should see the same responsibility on the part of the man; to give up ALL, to forsake ALL, to have no focus on the things of the world but to only focus on the Christ and the Kingdom. In other words, to follow Him and to keep His words. The ideas here of giving up one’s life to save it and a proper understanding of ashamed we will address in more detail in another post as there is much of value in these for each of us. Today though we will include the last part of the sayings according to Luke which is: “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God“.

This saying is included in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as well and we will deal with these another time. For today we will rely on the simplicity of the saying as Luke has it;  in this is the reality of our own understanding of the Kingdom. This should be that to see the Kingdom is to realize the Christ Within through the conscious personality, to be a True disciple and to Live a Life where the fullness of the Power of God flows through one’s consciousness making one Soul conscious or, to frame it better, to put oneself into Christ Consciousness while in form on this Earth. All these mean the same thing and for any that may think that we did not keep our intent to get back to the Holy Spirit today, this is the Activity of the Christ Within in one’s personality, this is the Holy Spirit. There is no ease in attaining to this and the Master tells us so and for those of us who sense this and see the glimmer of that Light, those who see the reality of the Love and the reality of the Truth as it affects a man in form, for us there is the Master’s admonition that we:

“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)

We will continue with our thoughts on the Activity that IS the Holy Spirit in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day