Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CXXI
My Soul has Purpose, Power and Will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster Love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
In the last post we went a bit deeper into the understanding of serve as it is used by the Master as a thing that we must do in our relationship with the world and as a part of the Love that must cover ALL that we do as men in form. As we noted, the definitions of this are not given clearly in the Christian commentaries and dictionaries that we generally use; these are of the normal understanding of serve and they do not adequately cover the spiritual use of this idea especially as it is framed by the Master. We also equated this idea of serving as it is presented for us in the affirmation above, that it is required by the Holy Will, as an interchangeable idea with our understanding of the very nature of the Will as it affects a man as a Soul and especially as a Soul working through his form. We should take away from this that it IS His Will that we serve and that it is in the serving that we express the works given freely in Love to ALL. Most all of what the Master did in His time with us in form can be seen in this way and we need only to tie together the sayings and the doings as they are recorded in the gospels. He tells us that “the works which the Father hath given me to finish , the same works that I do” (John 5:36) and no matter how one wants to portray the Life of Jesus, it is near impossible to deny that it is in service to humanity and this from His birth as the Son of God to His Willing death on the Cross.
In yesterday’s post we looked at John Gill’s ideas on those verses that for us should be the epitome of the way of service for the disciple and the aspirant; here, Gill restricts the sense of the Master’s idea of how to serve by calling it only due to the saints only, the children of God, and household of faith8 and we must recognize that this is not the case and that this limitation of this virtue of serving is contrary to the Truth that the Master sought to instill in us ALL. As we have discussed in previous posts the idea of Love and brotherhood are ofttimes treated the same way thus limiting the effectiveness of the Master’s teachings which should always be viewed in the widest possible way so as to include ALL in our Love and our sense of brotherhood and our works as acts of service for ALL of God’s children. Let us look here as some of the Master’s words on serving as this is a very important component of one’s True journey toward God and especially those who would think that they are His disciples.
- “Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles” (Matthew 12:18). These are Matthew’s words reflecting on a saying by the Prophet Esaias which, for Christians, are understood to be the words of God through the prophet. Calling the Son of God a servant can put no higher calling on this idea of service. This is a role, servant, that the Master acknowledges for Himself as we shall see in the next point and again farther on.
- “….but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:27); “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). These are the first of the balance of our sayings by the Master on this idea of servant and service. In both of these sayings we should get the idea that we become great in service and not in leadership and we should understand here that the role of the leader is seen in his degree of service. The Master, because of the importance of this point, repeats it twice; once in regard to the competition between the Apostles James and John as they seek to be better than the rest and again in a general teaching following upon His telling them that they should not be called masters. We should remember here that he words translated as servant and as minister have interchangeable meanings as both words translated as minister here are translated as to serve and servant elsewhere. Can we see here the idea that a Christian spiritual leader, a minister, or any leader for that matter, must be as well a servant?
- “And he sat down , and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:35); “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mark 10:44). These are similar to those directly above and again we have the Master saying these things twice; the first in response to the quibbling among His disciples as to who would be the greatest and the second in response to the same relative anger at James and John by the rest of the disciples because of their desire for preferential treatment. Much of this is related also to the sense of being humble and this is True but the emphasis here is on serving for while we should not believe ourselves better than any or chief or first, if we are in that position we should ever see that it is Truly a position of service.
- “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:46). This saying is a part of the Parable of the Faithful Servant (In the Words of Jesus part 103) and in this we should see the reality of being ready. While the parable is about servants and the lesson is to be ready, we should see in this also the reality of the Master’s thoughts on the role of the servant or rather the “faithful and wise servant” (Matthew 24:45). The uncaring servant, the servant of the world, will not be ready and will not be spending his time in doing the will of his master but the “faithful and wise servant” will be ready and will be steady in his role despite the absence of his master.
- “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke 12:47). This is the converse of the above and from the same Parable of the Faithful Servant as recorded by the Apostle Luke. Here we find the confirmation that the servant “knew his lord’s will” but in his lord’s absence did not comply with it and upon the surprise return of the master is caught unprepared. In this parable the Master is drawing an analogy between these men who are workers in this household and the disciple and the aspirant who is a worker in the world; the emphasis is on the service that one should do as a “faithful and wise servant” and this regardless of when the Master is to return. Our conclusion here is that if it is the Will of God that a man serve, then he should serve at ALL times without any thought for the return of the Master; he should not be ‘caught’ doing things that are outside of His will. As we discussed in this parable itself in part 103, the coming of the Master can occur in several ways including His return, the end of the Age and one’s own death in form and each of these should find us ready and in service to ALL.
- “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). We cover this saying frequently and we interpret it as saying clearly that we can not serve both “God and mammon“. Jesus tells us what will happen when we try but the more important part here is that we can not do both. Here the ideas of service are real insofar as this is not a parable and it is a direct saying that tells us that we are serving even when we may not think that we are. Here we should bring in the combination of thoughts that we previously used that tie the idea of to serve with the Will of God as it is given us in our affirmation above. Serving here is a matter of focus and this is a great help in our understanding of the Master’s teaching; we have used this saying in the last two posts to show our understanding of intentional focused attention as it relates to our ideas of service. The Master here calls ALL men servants insofar as they are either serving God or the world of things; the entirety of this saying is one of the more profound teachings of the Master.
- “Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:9-10). Here we see that in the spectrum of service there is never enough; it is our duty to serve as we see in the saying of that Holy Will requires that all men serve and the gist and the tone of the Master’s words here should suffice to tell us that there is never enough done and this just as we should understand that we can never Love enough either until we can see ourselves as perfect.
- “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you , Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:34). This saying is another confirmation of the idea that ALL men are seen by the Master as servants. There is the “faithful and wise servant” of whom we speak above who we can see as the man that is serving God and there is the “servant of sin“, the servant of the world of things. According to our understanding of the Master’s teaching there are only these two choices.
- “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am , there shall also my servant be : if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12:26). Here again is confirmation that if we follow Him we serve Him and in this, if we follow Him and serve Him, we will always be with Him. Can we see in this the idea that if a man is a disciple or an aspirant that He is following and serving the Master and this at ALL times. This is the very nature of discipleship, that a disciple is ever with the Master and ever in service to Him which we know as service to our fellowman.
- “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). This is thought by many to say that the disciples are no longer servants but friends but this is not what this says; this tells us that they will not be called servants any longer but friends. In this we should see that they are still servants as this is a integral part of discipleship but are called, considered, as friends. We can contrast this to the worldly state of being employed by an employer who becomes a friend; the employer – employee relationship remains the same but they are also friends. This we should add to the idea of discipleship; that when we take on that True role we take it on as a friend and not just a servant. We do not just our duty but we do ever so much more.
- “For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat , or he that serveth ? is not he that sitteth at meat ? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27). Here again, as we saw above in the idea of minister, the Master acknowledges His own role as a servant and this He was and serve is what He did; His whole Life on this Earth was done as a SERVICE to the world.
Our objective today was to show the reality of the Master’s teaching on the way of the servant, that we are ALL servants and that it is our duty and our privilege to serve unceasingly. As we have seen also there is a direct relationship between our service and the Will of God and we will explore the Will part of this in the next post.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Keeping the Lord’s Prayer as our Quote of the Day we should continue a bit with the idea of the Will of God. We can have glimpses of His will form our last several posts to the point where we can relate it directly to service and to this we should add the ideas of Love and righteousness. We should see that in His Will is Service through Love and in Righteousness and that the reality of discipleship is found in making this our Will also. Service is not easily defined except to say that it is evidenced in one’s works which are evidenced in ALL that one does.
The next part of this Great Prayer is “Give us this day our daily bread” and in this we commonly see the idea of our daily needs as men in flesh. However, if we look at this prayer as a spiritual effort we should be able to see more than just our daily needs for sustenance in these words. The Master tell His tempter “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4) which is otherwise said as “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (Luke 4:4), and it is more along these lines of the “word of God” that we should be attendant insofar as this saying from the Lord’s prayer is intended. This is the natural following to the previous thoughts that the Will of God be done in Earth as it is in the spiritual realms and this is accomplished through man’s Life in His word.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
- Our Father, which art in heaven,
- hallowed be thy name;
- thy kingdom come;
- thy will be done,
- in earth as it is in heaven.
- Give us this day our daily bread.
- And forgive us our trespasses,
- as we forgive them that trespass against us.
- And lead us not into temptation;
- but deliver us from evil.
- [For thine is the kingdom,
- the power, and the glory,
- for ever and ever.]
- Amen.*
We will leave this prayer for a few days and try to get a better understanding of it and then move on to The Great Invocation which is, as we are told, given to us by the Christ as well. More than 2000 years separate the receipt of these invocations by the world of men and their language and tenor reflect the changes in the nature of man and his societies over this course of time. The Lord’s Prayer and a brief interpretation are included in the Prayers and Meditations section of the front page of this Blog.
- * From the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; this version is from the Book of Common Prayer of 1662
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
