Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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The Master tells us clearly about the reality of discipleship yet for the most part these ideas are not spoken about by those who seem to believe that they are His disciples and who teach others about discipleship in the church today and likely not in the past either. We have posited the reasoning for this in the past as it is reflected in the position of the man in form who has convinced himself of his own spirituality and has reinterpreted the words of the Master to reflect his own beliefs. This is the reality of glamour in the Life of man and the result of the illusion and the vanity of that comes from Life in this material world.
As we have ofttimes said, the Master teaches many things by parable especially when the topics are in regard to the mysteries of Life and of the Kingdom of God but at the same time He is very specific in certain teachings and this teaching on discipleship is a paramount example. There is in reality no way to misinterpret His words as we repeat them here again and certainly no lack of clarity in His tone and in His intent. In the Master’s words as reported by the Apostle Luke there can be no doubt of what His is saying and the summation of it all is included in the last verse below which requires forsaking ALL and this is what we were trying to get to in the last post. Let us review again His words:
“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. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).
In the allied saying from Matthew’s Gospel we read:
“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. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:37-39).
The Apostle John tells us this of the Masters words on discipleship:
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
“Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
We should see in the above a number of things but first and foremost is the act of forsaking. The verses from Matthew’s Gospel are considered by many to be explanatory of Luke’s insofar as the ideas of hate is concerned and we agree with this in principal. However, would add that the idea of hate, in the context that it is used here, is similar to our view on the words evil and sin. We have discussed the ideas of sin and of evil and we should be able to understand them, from their varied contexts in the New Testament, as the acts of the man who is focused upon the world of things and not on the things of God. We have often said that most all of the Master’s words, as well as the amplifying words of His disciples, are directed toward making disciples of ALL men and this can be readily seen by any who read their words with a open mind and an open heart. This idea of hate is similar to these words sin and evil as they are also understood in the context of the English translation an not in the Light of the intent of the Master. We can see this especially in the fact that the Master cannot be telling us to hate one’s mother and father if His overriding message is one of Love. Webster’s dictionaries give us some insight from their older versions as regards hate:
- From the 1828 version we read of hate that it means: 1. To dislike greatly; to have a great aversion to. It expresses less than abhor, detest, and abominate, unless pronounced with a peculiar emphasis. (How long will fools hate knowledge? Prov.1. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you. Luke 6. The Roman tyrant was contented to be hated, if he was but feared). 2. In Scripture, it signifies to love less. (If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, &c. Luke 14. He that spareth the rod, hateth his son. Prov. 13.) HATE, n. Great dislike or aversion; hatred1. Can we see here how even the ‘not scriptural’ part of this relies on the scripture and that the scriptural understanding is to love less as opposed to our normal thoughts on this word.
- The 1913 version tell us that 1.To have a great aversion to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest;as, to hate one’s enemies; to hate hypocrisy. (Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. 1 John iii. 15.) 2. To be very unwilling; followed by an infinitive, or a substantive clause with that;as, to hate to get into debt; to hate that anything should be wasted. (I hate that he should linger here. Tennyson.) 3. (Script.) To love less, relatively. Luke xiv. 26. Syn. — To Hate, Abhor, Detest, Abominate, Loathe. Hate is the generic word, and implies that one is inflamed with extreme dislike. We abhor what is deeply repugnant to our sensibilities or feelings. We detest what contradicts so utterly our principles and moral sentiments that we feel bound to lift up our voice against it. What we abominate does equal violence to our moral and religious sentiments. What we loathe is offensive to our own nature, and excites unmingled disgust. Our Savior is said to have hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; his language shows that he loathed the lukewarmness of the Laodiceans; he detested the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees; he abhorred the suggestions of the tempter in the wilderness1. Can we detect the ambiguity of this word even in scripture?
When we use the words from Matthew to help to explain the phraseology found in Luke we can have a better idea of the Master’s intent. We are not to hate parents and close relatives as we understand the word but we are to Love them less than our Love for the Master and the Christ Within which is the essence of the Life of the disciple. Can we see that from the perspective of the Soul there is much more sense in this idea as seen above in the definitions of the allied words of abhor, detest, abominate and loathe: We abhor what is deeply repugnant to our sensibilities or feelings. We detest what contradicts so utterly our principles and moral sentiments that we feel bound to lift up our voice against it. What we abominate does equal violence to our moral and religious sentiments. What we loathe is offensive to our own nature, and excites unmingled disgust1. In saying this we should understand that there is no such sentiment in or of the Soul himself unless interpreted in terms of Life in this world as the Soul is ever Pure and is ever unblemished and in such a state cannot Truly feel these sentiments.
So then with the words sin and evil and hate aside, we should be able to see the intent of the Master’s message is forsaking ALL; “father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also” plus “all that he hath” and then to add to that a man must “ bear his cross” and follow Him which we can understand as doing those things that the Master has done insofar as Love and Service in humble humility. Can there really be any doubt as to what He is saying and how He is saying it? and can we see the relationship to this ALL in the simplicity of the Apostle John’s words that tell us that we must continue in His words which is of course keeping His words and this is keeping His instructions as put forth in the gospels which includes the idea above of forsaking and, most importantly, includes the Masters teachings on the Greatest Commandments which is LOVE. In this keeping is also the reality of his other criteria that each of us must “bear much fruit” and the principal part of this fruit is LOVE.
We came to this topic in the last post from the perspective of what we are doing and what we believe we must do in this world. This is our dilemma and perhaps the starting point of forsaking must be found in what becomes our focus in this Life in form and perhaps this is the reality that we must seek if we believe that we are not destined to stand naked and destitute. If our focus is ever upon the things of God, on the Love and the service that we render through Love, we will, at the very least, move closer to union with the Christ and the Christ Within. It is likely that this endeavor will include an attitude of “take no thought” and not in the way taught by some in the doctrines of the churches which they relegate to the idea of worry, but in the reality of our understanding of forsaking ALL. In these ideas is folded the True understanding of the Master’s saying that “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21).
We have discussed in these last two posts the difficulty of achieving discipleship and the understanding that we have developed regarding Life in form and our subjection to the illusion and the glamour of that Life. We have discussed the very straightforward criteria for discipleship and our thoughts on what is means to forsake ALL. Each of us must interpret and understand these ideas on our own, in the interaction of the Soul, the Christ Within, and the consciousness that the Soul lends to the form and personality. One marker that we can feel confident is a part of the measure of one’s success lies in the expression of Love and Service that each of us can muster as well as our expressed sense of Truth and Justice in our dealings with our fellow man.
There is much more that we can say on this subject but it does ALL lead us to the same place and the same conclusions as we state above and we will continue to work these ideas into our future essays.
We will continue with the balance of our sayings on faith and believing as listed below in the next post.
- “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6).
- “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did ye not then believe him?…..For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Matthew 21:25, 32).
- “Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not…….” (Matthew 24:23-26).
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 our quote of the day for another day as in it we find some of the realities of what is man as Spirit, Soul and the Life within the form. In this affirmation we find our understanding of our relationship to God and our relationship to man. Our relationship to God is as Part and Parcel of Him; our relationship to man is in service.
I am a point of light within a greater Light. I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine. I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God. And thus I stand I am a way by which men may achieve. I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand. I am a beam of light, shining upon their way. And thus I stand. And standing thus, revolve And tread this way the ways of men, And know the ways of God. And thus I stand.Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
Looking at Life as we depict it above in relation to this affirmation we can see the idea presented that we are a part of God and that this is true on multiple levels, the levels that we call the Trinity. Relating these first three lines to the chart above can offer some clarity as to the nature of God and of man. For more on the ideas in this Affirmation of the Disciple please refer to the Quote of the Day from In the Words of Jesus parts 179-181.
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
