IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 406

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLXXXVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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We ended our long look at the first twenty three verses of Chapter Eight from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and we found much in Paul’s words that can help us in our own journey toward the Kingdom of God which we understand to be within the mortal body of the man and which IS the resident home of the Christ Within, the Soul. We KNOW that the Kingdom is not a place that one must go to as it is always with us; it is a state of being and it is the state of being for the Soul that IS the True man. It is from this state that a Soul chooses to incarnate into a Life in form and this is, as we have said, a Great Mystery and one of which the apostle says: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25). We should note here that this proclamation of the mystery is found at the end of this same Epistle to the Romans in which we find revelation of the nature of the Life of man in form and, while there is much uncertainty as to what mystery it is that Paul refers to, we would posit that it refers to  this same which we have uncovered. We posted Vincent’s remarks a few essays back regarding the nature of this epistle and how it is his opinion that it not be allowed to be fragmented into isolated sayings; that it lends itself more to the understanding of it as a whole. Doctrine would have us to believe that the mystery is what has been discovered and made into doctrine by the early church but we have seen more based on our understanding of the reality of the man in form, that he IS NOT this body of flesh with a Soul but rather that he IS a Soul expressing his Life through a body of flesh.

It is when we look away from the ages old ideas of the nature of Life and the nature of man that we can Truly see both for what they Truly are and ALL that we maintain to be so is borne out in the proper reading of the Master’s words and in the sense of Truth that flows through from one’s Soul when we look past the illusion and the glamour on which we have been fed for more than 2000 years. When a man can accept the realities of Life or can, at a minimum, recognize them as possibilities, he can then begin to break down these walls of illusion and see through the fog and the mist that has clouded his vision. Man’s inability to accept the Truths that have been presented to him by the Master is found in his unwillingness to forgo that which he holds dear in Life; this inability is the result of glamour and it is the very thing that the Master teaches us about in His many words regarding the treasure of the heart. It is also a direct reference of His other teachings on hearing and seeing as He tells us that a man would rather stay in the comfort of the things of the world than to actually listen and hear and to actually look and perceive. Let us look here at the Master’s words on seeing and hearing:

• “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:13-16).
• “Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them” (John 12:39-40).

Both of these segments concern the same saying from the Prophet Esaias and although they are worded a bit differently we should see that the are the same reality. In Matthew the Master says that “this people’s heart is waxed gross” while in John the responsibility is on God as Jesus says “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart“. These are more for us the same when we realize that it is through the God Within that man is individually treated and it is in the Plan of God that humanity is treated corporately. What is it that we are saying here? That there is a twofold approach that must be seen in most ALL of these relationships; the verses according to Matthew reflect mans own responsibility and this is the same responsibility that we speak of above where we reflect upon the effects of glamour and of illusion that create in a man that unwillingness and his inability to see or hear beyond them and in effect become captive to them in Life. This affects most ALL men until that time when they can sense the duality and begin to choose on the side of the Good, the Beautiful and the True instead of on the things and the ways of the world. This is a broad brush approach to how these things work out in the Life of an individual man and we have covered this much in previous posts albeit most always from a slightly different approach. Much depends always on the ability of the Soul to express through form in any given Lifetime, and the weight of karmic responsibility that each Soul brings with him into incarnation.

The Apostle John’s rendition of this comes from the more corporate perspective and it puts the onus onto God for the blindness and for the hardened hearts. We should be able to see in this approach that saying that we have been using so much from the Epistle to the Romans which we just completed our discussion on. There, Paul tells us that “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” (Romans 8:20-21). Do we see this relationship? That in the ideas of vanity, which we see as illusion and glamour, that there is that blindness to the Truth and the hardening of the heart so that the man is found in the “bondage of corruption“. We have discussed before this idea of vanity as interpreted by Vincent (In the Words of Jesus part 357) and we should note his final comment here regarding this word translated as vanity; Vincent says: Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends⁴. Can we see in this our ideas of illusion and glamour and can we see here the Master’s thoughts regarding that God “hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart“?

Seeing then how neatly this ALL fits together when we look at it from the proper perspective, we should also be able to see and to understand the majority of the Master’s teachings on the Kingdom and on discipleship and realize that a man must be willing and be able to look past the doctrines and past the ages old understanding of the ways of Life and to reach out to the Inner Man for the guidance and the Wisdom that is necessary for progress. We must realize also that this Wisdom from the Inner Man, this Wisdom from above as the Apostle James says it, is NEVER about what one can have for himself in this Life in form. Remembering what we have said before about envying and strife (In the Words of Jesus part 323) we should be able to understand James words as intended; he says: “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:13-17). For clarity and ease of understanding we paraphrase what we earlier said:

• Envying is better translated as emulation which word should be seen as applying to the idea of self-devotion. Vincent tells us that Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion⁴. Emulation is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as n. The act of attempting to equal or excel in qualities or actions; rivalry; desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it; generally in a good sense, or an attempt to equal or excel others in that which is praise-worthy, without the desire of depressing others. Rom.11. In a bad sense, a striving to equal or do more than others to obtain carnal favors or honors¹.
• Strife in James’ context has to do with contention. Vincent here tells us that the rendering of the Greek word translated as strife is wrong and he says: Thus it comes to be applied to those who serve in official positions for their own selfish interest, and who, to that end, promote party spirit and faction⁴.

Both of these words are better understood as we note here above and in our referenced part 323; the understanding that we should take from this is that any thing personal, for the carnal self, either individually or corporately, IS NOT to be seen as Wisdom from above but rather that it is of the world and this is an important measure of the nature of the thoughts that we process. If we are unwilling or unable to accept a statement because it does not work well with our personal feelings, our self motivated and carnal personal aims of pride or rivalry or one’s desire of superiority then these thoughts ARE NOT from above. Similarly we must see the idea of party spirit and faction as these can effectively be seen as one’s feelings regarding what he has been taught of the doctrines to which he subscribes; if one’s reason for not accepting a statement or a premise is because it is contrary to what he had been taught and such assessment is taken without regard to the reality of what the premise may be, then this also IS NOT Wisdom from above. This is the tell in such things, if one’s feelings or thoughts are motivated by any self-serving attitude, regardless of what it may be. In the end this is a very personal matter to be handled by each according to his own Light but James’ sayings do put this ALL into the proper perspective. While is is easy to fall to the illusion and the glamour of Life when trying to determine the True source of Wisdom,  a True and honest look at James’ words on the reality of Wisdom from above, that it is never self centered and that it IS “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy“, should work toward one’s understanding selflessness of ALL things Good.

We intended to discuss the closing verses from yesterday’s post today but we did not get to this and will try this again in the next post. We leave them again in both translations at the end of our essay:

• “Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting  of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh” (Colossian 2:20-23); King James Version.
• “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh” (Colossian 2:20-23); Revised Version.

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