Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CXL

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry , Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:14-23).

Yesterday’s discussion strayed from our sayings by the Apostle Paul to the Romans but was at the same time a continuation of the ideas we garnered from them in the previous post. Namely, that there is the reality of the teachings of the Master and then there is the doctrines of the churches which are but a pale resemblance much of the time and this because the doctrines that were developed centuries ago were interpretations based upon the emotional reactions, superstitions and prior doctrines which those who espoused them suffered from. We talked in a previous post about the Church Fathers in the early centuries of the After Christ Period and we talked yesterday about those men of the church who were involved in the Reformation and we should be able to see in all this that the doctrines that these men developed and taught became more important than the words of the Master and more immediate than the words of the Paul regarding UNITY and the idea that ALL followers are of Christ and not of the several teachers of His doctrine as we discussed them yesterday. In his very pointed saying, a saying that should give pause to all denomination and sects, Paul cautions and corrects his readers: “Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?“. We can substitute any denomination name for the names above, for Paul and Apollos and Peter, and take away the same caution and correction and see in the words of the apostle that it is in following the Master and keeping His words, without the easier interpretations that attract us to the names and the denominations, which is the True goal of it all and which leads a man to God. We noted yesterday that Vincent paints this for us as: Some of the best expositors render as an assertion. Christ has been divided by your controversies. He is broken up into different party Christs. This gives a perfectly good and forcible sense, and is favored by the absence of the interrogative particle mh, which introduces the next clause.†  Divided: so portioned up that one party may claim Him more than another⁴. This is of course not the way it was meant to be.

We moved from this idea to the message of the Christ which is in Love and in meekness and noted how that these ideas are lost in these controversies and in the wrangling of the different party Christs that have been created. We noted also that the very idea of controversy exhibited as contentions are contrary to the words of Jesus who the contentions are all about, about what it is that He means and represents; and this in place of simply following Him and keeping His words. Before we continue on with our sayings above from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, let us just spend a few more words on the idea of being meek. It may seem to some that we have created our own defining terms for this idea of meekness and so we have and this because the definitions of the scholars and their doctrines do not come up to the level in which they are used in the gospels and because the meanings of words in the dictionary are reflective only of their usage at a given time. We do get a bit of help in developing our understanding of Positive Harmlessness along with our other term humble restraint from various notations by others such as Vincent’s saying that: The equanimity, mildness, kindness, represented by the classical word, are founded in self-control or in natural disposition. The Christian meekness is based on humility, which is not a natural quality but an outgrowth of a renewed nature. To the pagan the word often implied condescension, to the Christian it implies submission⁴. In this the ideas of humility and of self control come to the forefront; Vincent has much more to say on this word which serves to bring our the common understanding of kindness and gentleness of spirit and can give the reader a vision of the confusion in understanding the Right use of this word by the Master. Regardless of how we view this word, the reality is that it is allied with that Love that the Master teaches and, in our context from yesterday, both of these ideals are ignored in the struggles to have one’s own doctrine become the accepted one which is a perspective that has plagued the church even to today.

In our review of the sayings above by Paul we were comparing his words with the writings of Vincent as a comparison of our reality as it compares with the doctrines and as Vincent sees them.

• Vincent skips over much of the sayings in the next verse following joint-heirs which we discussed previously and which leads up to Paul’s saying that: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God” and he goes directly to the idea of “earnest expectation”. Vincent tells us here that: Earnest expectation (apokaradokia). Only here and Philippians i. 20. From ajpo away kara the head, dokein to watch. A watching with the head erect or outstretched. Hence a waiting in suspense.’Apo from, implies abstraction, the attention turned from other objects. The classical student will recall the watchman in the opening of Aeschylus'”Agamemnon,” awaiting the beacon which is to announce the capture of Troy⁴. The approach here is that the creature or the creation is waiting in suspense and this would lend us the idea that there is something expected and this is not in the ordinary sense of expecting the return of the Master. So what is is that they are expecting? From our perspective we understand that the creature is the consciousness and the life of the Soul living through the form and the personality on Earth.  In this we should see that the Soul, in the recesses of consciousness for the average man in form and in greater degree as the man progresses spiritually, there is that expectation that the personality will accede to the will of the Soul and this IS the manifestation of a Son of God in form. This is the glory which shall be revealed in us and this is especially True when one is talking to the spiritually awakened as Paul’s audience is presumed to be; for the spiritually awakened the expectation is not in the recesses but it is in reality.
• Creature (ktisewv). The word may signify either the creative act (as i. 20), or the thing created (Mark x. 6; xiii. 19; xvi. 15; Col. i. 23; Heb. iv. 13). See on 1 Pet. ii. 13. Here in the latter sense. The interpretations vary: 1. The whole unredeemed creation, rational and irrational. 2. All creation, except humanity. The point of difference is the inclusion or exclusion of humanity. The second explanation is preferable, the non-rational creation viewed collectively, animate and inanimate. Equivalent to all nature⁴. The word creature is used several times by the apostle and in markedly different contexts and, we might add, with a very different meaning in our understanding. Vincent and others seem to view this as the creation and that it does not include man; they fit in the doctrinal word redeemed as a qualifier based upon their thinking on God. We would see it equally well as the creature man or as the creation itself depending upon its usage. Here we should see that the creation, especially as it is framed by Vincent, is not capable of expectation as this is a privilege of the Human Kingdom and then what would this equivalent to all nature type of creature KNOW or care about a Son of God. If we view the creature as the Soul’s own consciousness in form, we can then see the logic of Paul’s saying that there is, as we outline above, that “earnest expectation” by the Soul as He waits for the manifestation in himself of a Son of God or across humanity for the same thing. Paul’s other uses of creature reveal this perspective if we look at them away from doctrine. Again we should be reminded of the inadequacy of language and its translations; the Master tells us in Mark’s Gospel that we should “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) and here Vincent tells us that: To every creature (pash th ktisei). Rightly, as Rev., to the whole creation⁴. Should we understand in this his explanations as above from Romans? that the Master is speaking of  The whole unredeemed creation, rational and irrational or, as he prefers, to all nature or, should we see this as it is painted in Matthew’s Gospel, that we, as disciples, should make disciples of ALL? We can explore some of Paul’s other usages as we proceed through these sayings.
• Waiteth (apekdecetai). Only in Paul and Heb. ix. 28. The whole passage, with the expressions waiting, sighing, hoping, bondage, is poetical and prophetic. Compare Psalm xix. 2; Isa. xi. 6; xiv. 8; lv. 12; lxv. 17; Ezek. xxxi. 15; 37.; Hab. ii. 11. This position is difficult to understand when the idea of “earnest expectation” leans towards the idea of waiting for what it is that is expected; and, of course, the creation as Vincent paints it can not wait any more that it can expect. Can we see the thread of doctrine through all of these points above and can we see the inadequacies of these interpretations from our perspective?
• Vanity (mataiothti). Only here, Eph. iv. 17; 2 Pet. ii. 18. Compare the kindred verb became vain (Rom. i. 21 note), and the adjective vain (1 Cor. iii. 20; 1 Pet. i. 18). Vain is also used to render kenov (1 Cor. xv. 14, 58; Eph. v. 6; Jas. ii. 20). Kenov signifies empty; mataiov idle, resultless. Kenov, used of persons, implies not merely the absence of good, but the presence of evil. So Jas. ii. 20. The Greek proverb runs. “The empty think empty things.” Mataiov expresses aimlessness. All which has not God for the true end of its being is mataiov. Pindar describes the vain man as one who hunts bootless things with fruitless hopes. Plato (“Laws,” 735) of labor to no purpose. Ezek. xiii. 6, “prophesying vain things (mataia),” things which God will not bring to pass. Compare Tit. iii. 9. Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends.

  By reason of Him who hath subjected (dia ton upotaxanta). God, not Adam nor Satan. Paul does not use the grammatical form which would express the direct agency of God, by Him who hath subjected, but that which makes God’s will the occasion rather than the worker – on account of Him. Adam’s sin and not God’s will was the direct and special cause of the subjection to vanity. The supreme will of God is thus removed “to a wider distance from corruption and vanity” (Alford). 

  We have discussed these two points in a previous post on these verses from Romans but the context here on both sides is important for our understanding of where the doctrines are and what we believe is the greater Truth. First we should say that there is no thing that is separate from God although one may be pursuing false ends; this doctrine has its roots deep in the Old Testament and is based upon the allegory surrounding the story of Adam and Eve. Second, we should see this idea that “…..the creature was made subject to vanity” as a testimony to the nature of, and the plight, of the man in form; the Soul, the True man, is living a conscious Life through the form and the personality that he has ‘built’. The combination of the quality of his form and its personality aspects of emotion and mind, his nature if you will, and all that he had learned in Life up to whatever point of perspective, his nurture, becomes the man in form through which the Soul lives. This is the total creature but the reality of the creature remains the Soul whose Life and consciousness are within the form and it is this whole combination that is in the world and subject to the ways of the world, its illusion and its glamour, which Paul calls being “made subject to vanity“. This is the nature of Life in form and this ‘vanity‘ is what we as Souls must overcome. Among the first steps in accomplishing this is this realization of who and what we are and this is a thing that current doctrine sorely fails to aid a man in doing. In the next saying above “not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“, Vincent works only with a small part. We should add here that the idea of “not willingly” is encapsulated in our thoughts on vanity from the Souls perspective, in giving himself to “the redemption of our body“, the Soul might expect that the outcome is what we see and KNOW but we should understand that he would ever hope for freedom from the wiles of the flesh as this is among his goals to overcome. In the rest of this Vincent applies doctrine that again says that God is an unwilling participant in the working out of His own Plan as it reflects in time in the world. This is not a valid approach from our perspective as we see that the Plan of God is at work throughout His creation and this very fact is what has placed man as the Soul into the world which is per force subjected to vanity. It is this same Plan of God that, working through the Spirit and Soul of the man in form, will get him out of the illusion and glamour…..and this is his hope.

Can we see here that our perspective works quite well with the words of Paul to the Romans and how that the doctrines on the other hand become muddy and unexplainable in the Light of our own reasoning. While it can be said that there is nothing in Paul’s words that confirms our premise, we could answer that the combination of his sayings and the sayings of the Master do confirm this ALL to any who approach with an open mind. We could also say that there is little in these sayings or the words of the Master that can confirm the extant doctrines that have been developed and which many times rely upon other doctrines for confirmation and not on the words of the Master. We repeat again here that the purpose in this is not to take away from doctrine but to paint it in the proper Light for those of us who are beyond its reaches so that we can understand the validity of what we believe and, when confronted with the age old doctrines of the church,  that we are not forced to shrink back.

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.

We leave this Quote of the Day again for today with the hope that we can discuss these important points in the next post. We should remember here the premise that we presented near the beginning of our posting of this Quote of the Day: It is interesting to note that the ideas of the Quote of the Day embody much of the Master’s teachings and can set the stage for the beginning of each man’s revelation and realization of the Light of the Soul; that is, that by the intentional practice of these ‘rules’ of conduct one can put himself in the position of a follower of the Master and an keeper of His word and this regardless if he has ever heard of the Christ or wants to be affiliated with any ideas Christian. By keeping these sound principals of Life in mind and practicing them a man can lift himself up above and beyond the world of men and into the world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it exists for those in whom the Christ Within, the God Within, is awakened. Ponder on this.

In accord with the ideas that we close with above we bring again to your attention the ideas by which a man should Live. This Quote of the Day is the realty of how we should focus our lives and in so doing, all the other things alluded to above will take care of themselves and this is a great part of the selfless attitude of the disciple and his ability to forsake ALL.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

• ⁴    Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888