Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CXXVIII
Yesterday’s post was a continuation of our understanding that if a man can accomplish, from any direction, the art of being “doers of the word, and not hearers only” and this firmly “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23), he accomplishes ALL. This is a basic and fundamental Truth and the Apostle James sets this straight for us in his epistle; after telling us of the deception, the self-deception, saying: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22), he goes on to tell us that: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). Can we see the point here and the High Calling of Truly being a disciple, of Truly being in His Kingdom and thereby of keeping ALL of the words of the Father and the Son and doing Their Will as we understand it through Their words. In this we should be able see the idea of a man being religious and Loving ALL and keeping the commandments and doing ALL as we KNOW it and then, at a point of confusion, telling an insignificant lie to cover up for some thing that was forgotten or for some thing done in error. The message here is that this is the way that of one who is living and striving, that he should be aware of the shortcomings of his effort and not believe that He has done the words of the Master “in spirit and in truth“; that he does not deceive himself by thinking that he has done ALL. There is a saying in the Book of Revelation, a writing which is seldom referenced in our essays because of the obscurity of the language and the guesswork required to interpret it, that says: “….the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:4-5). In this is the reality of accomplishment of the art of being “doers of the word, and not hearers only” and of doing so “in spirit and in truth“; at this time when ALL is done and ALL of the His righteousness is the expression of a man, then shall the Christ Within sit upon the throne of his own consciousness as ONE, no longer in any duality, and KNOWING that “the former things are passed away” and that, as a Soul in form he has made “all things new“. This is when a man can “Enter ye in at the strait gate” (Matthew 7:13) toward which he had been striving, leaving behind ALL of the cares of the world….and this is the Truth of forsaking ALL.
However, so long as the reality of the Kingdom is not taught, so long as the reality of discipleship is not understood, few will be able to find entry into either and this is, from the perspective of the Great Commission, the responsibility of each of us that sees beyond the doctrines and into the realm of Spirit and Truth. We came upon an example of this is the last post as it regards the common interpretation of one of the most leading sayings of the Master, that one where He tells us where it is that we should look for the Kingdom:
- The Master tells us, according to the King James Version (KJV), that “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). This version is in agreement with the words and their usage; The Greek word entos, as we saw in the last post, means simply within and while there are some variables that can likely be applied, none of them are, according to the rather strict definitions of Strong’s and those of the lexicon, seen as among or in the midst of.
- The understandings that we get from Vincent and Vine’s are almost admittedly doctrine and this we get from their presentation as we saw yesterday; Vine’s presents it with a note6 and Vincent gives it to us in an unusual way by beginning with his interpretation of the ‘better’ translation based upon the audience and the writings of others4. We should note here that there is a different Greek word that is accurately translated as they would translate this word entos and by the same writer, Luke. This word is mesos which means, according to the lexicon, middle; the midst; in the midst of, amongst2 which is the translation that many would give to our subject verse above. Strong’s tells us that mesos means middle, center, among; between; in front of, before3.
- Can we see that in the translations and interpretations of this most profound scripture that there is a basic misunderstanding of the nature of man, the Constitution of Man if you will, and it is within this confusion that the very words of the Master are changed and this by men who likely believe that they are close to Him and His Kingdom. In changing within to among or to in the midst of the entire tenor and meaning of this statement is changed and the only logical reason is to be found in the reasoning and lack of understanding of those who put forth these changes. These are not universal changes however as several versions maintain the proper translation and those who read from them likely retain the idea of within.
In the last post we discussed the word of God and the Will of God and how these are, to the fully awakened Soul, the same; however, to the man in form who is not awakened to the Presence of the Christ Within, who is not a disciple, the reasoning and the interpretations of the personality can and do conflict with the Wisdom from above and a man can be thus deceived as the Apostle James tells us. We should understand that this afflicts ALL men until that point of discipleship for, as we have said, being a disciple is the SAME AS attaining the Kingdom and keeping the word and the Will of God and of the Master; and our point here is that until discipleship we may think that we KNOW and we understand His words as the key to His will but we do not. So we are left to examine, as James instructs, what it is that we deem to be Wisdom from above and this is primarily for us to use against our selves but as we have discussed, it is also useful however in discerning what we hear and see that we may be told is from above. We generally do not know what are the motivations of a man’s belief and because a man is an ‘expert’ in some worldly thing like translations for the Greek, does this mean that we offer to him blind faith in what he says? The answer is of course NO and it is here that we must rely on our own individual discernment which we should see in the understanding that the closer that one may be to the Lord, to His Soul and to God, the more accurate that discernment will be. In this we can see the world; from the blind followers of the blind, to the followers of a leader, to the followers of a professed spiritual presence to a follower of one’s own Spirit of Truth. As we have discussed here in our posts, the Apostle John gives us guidance in this; he says “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27).
One of the more important understandings that we must have is the reality that we are not this form that we are born into and which we use until it is given up by whatever reason of its death. As a church, Christians KNOW that this is True at death the the Soul or Spirit survives, yet at the same time they cannot, or will not, believe that this is also in Life as it is in death. It is in this same understanding that the reality of the Master’s saying can be found; we are not this body, we are the reality of the Soul and the Christ Within which is ever pure and unblemished and ever resides in that state that the Master calls the Kingdom of God. Perhaps it will help here if we add to our list of synonyms the Soul and the Christ Within with the rational that it is when the Soul can express itself through form, when the Christ Within is alive and active in the personality, a man is then, from the perspective of the Life in form, a disciple and ALL else from our list that goes with this. Taking this further then we can say that the Soul, the Christ Within, is ever within the Kingdom and that to express this Love and Power through form is to bring the Kingdom to bear on the form as well and hence we can see also that the Kingdom of God is within; and this from the perspective of the man in form.
So much of Life is a matter of perspective and this is True as well of the teachings of the Master. Depending upon who the Master is addressing, the tone and the nature of His sayings change. In our subject verse He is speaking to the Pharisees and therefore is speaking to the perspective of the man in form and when He is speaking to His disciples He can be seen speaking in terms that cannot be understood from a form perspective. For example in saying like “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:21) we must see that he cannot be speaking of the form but only about the spiritual part of Life which we can reference as the reality of man as we have presented in our chart. Can we understand these concepts? that the Father is the Spirit and that our Spirit is the God that dwells within each of us….that IS us. That the Son IS in the Father as the Master says which is seen as the Son IS the Soul and IS ONE with the Spirit and IS the expression of the Spirit in manifestation….the Soul IS us. That the expression of the Spirit and the Soul in form is the disciple from the perspective of the form and the Holy Spirit from the perspective of the Soul and that as disciples one realizes his essential ONENESS with ALL and then can be seen as ONE with the Spirit Father and the Christ or Son.
So then what is the reality of the Kingdom of God? It is in many ways the reality of our existence. It is a state of being and not a place and it is found within and at the same time beyond the scope of Life in form, beyond these worlds of form and of the afterlife. It is a state of being which we discover when we are FREE form the allure and the pull of the world. There are many opinions and many doctrines concerning the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God with some interpreters telling us of what the differences between these terms are and we should remember that this is naught but doctrine. Again we should remember that in the lack of agreement of the various doctrines is the evidence of their general error especially since ALL purport to have the Truth. We too say that we have the Truth or rather we have a Truth but this does not make it so. As aspirants we should rely upon our own anointing as John tells us as this is the only True discernment and we have also the instructions of James to help us as well.
We spoke earlier about the Great Commission and it is here that we will end for today. In the right understanding of this we should see the reality of His words and that is that we make disciples of ALL. Not believers, casual or otherwise, but True followers who believe on Him and keep his words. The way to do this is to teach the reality of God and of His Kingdom and to adapt the doctrines of the churches to the reality of the teachings of the Master. This is necessary if the churches are to be of any effect in this important movement at all.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway , even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19-20). This is more accurately translated as “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age” (New American Standard)
We will continue with these thoughts 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.
May the Power of the One True God flow through His group of all true servers;
May the Love of the Christ characterize the lives of all who seek to aid in His work;
May I fulfill my part in the one work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech
(Evening Reflection)
This is a prayer for the Power of God to be made available to all who seek to serve Him; in this Power is the Wisdom, the Understanding and the personal strength that we need to properly serve the Lord. It is a prayer also that asks that all who serve the Lord be imbued with His Love, Christ’ Love, which defines the truth of our service to Him. And it is a prayer that, on a personal level, reminds us of our responsibilities in service which are summarized in the three words: self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech.
Today’s Quote of the Day is a repeat of a previous quote and is also featured in our Prayers and Meditations section with some additional comments regarding it. It appears today again because is sets in order our understanding that it is the Power of God that flows through those that serve Him and in this Power is the Love that can heal. When the Love of the Christ can become the character of one’s Life then this Power can be made available in a predictable way and the precepts of the last line will become our mode of conduct.
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 6 Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
