Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XIII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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In our last post we began a discussion on the relationship between the Master’s requirements for discipleship, which we can readily understand because of their clarity, and the teaching that He gave to us on the treasures of the heart. We have noted over the course of our essays on this topic that the requirements that He gives us are difficult if not impossible to achieve in today’s world and we have noted as well that Jesus has told us as much in His sayings regarding this difficulty of finding and accepting the way. He tells us these things below among others that should give us the perspective we need to understand that this whole idea of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and of discipleship is a matter which requires much effort and much focus and cannot be achieved in any passive way.
- “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
- “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24).
Can we see in these words the reality of the difficulty from the Master’s own words? In looking at these sayings one must realize that they do not stand alone but that they fit into the whole of the teachings and commandments that He give us and this is ALL summed up for us in His telling us rather clearly that “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Luke 7:21). Now we have long ago established the connection between Truly achieving discipleship and Truly achieving the Kingdom of God and we understand these to be the same thing and this is True regardless of the opinions of those who rest upon the doctrines of the churches for their salvation, a word that has little meaning in our understanding of man’s relationship to God. Without going too far afield, let us try to take up this word salvation here.
The word translated as salvation is used only five times in the Gospels and while we find it used much more frequently in the rest of the New Testament, we want our focus to be on the Masters’s words and not on the words of others. The vast majority of the usage of this word is by the Apostles Paul and Luke and in fact, four of the five gospel uses of it are in the Gospel of Luke and only one of these is from the Master’s lips. Let us use the appearances in Luke’s Gospel as our guide to the definition of this Greek word soteria. The defining quality of the use of this word in Luke’s Gospel appears in the opening chapters and are the words of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist of whom we read:
- “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins” (Luke 1:67-77).
Of course we should see this as it is, the prophesy of the Messiah, the Redeemer and the Deliverer of the Jewish Nation fulfilled by the birth of the Master and it is in this context that the idea of salvation, of being saved, applies. It has little to do with the the reality of the Life of the Christ but rather of the intent of His Life as expressed by the prophets and which would likely have been True had the Jews accepted the Master as such. The Master’s use of this word are two:
- The first of these is the story of the Master and the chief of the publicans, Zacchaeus. Here we find that this man is attracted the Master and is made ready to repent by the words that he has heard of Jesus and then by the very presence of the Master. The publican is one who is not a religious man but a Jew who chooses to work for the Romans and who, by his function of tax collector, is despised by the ‘religious’ Jews and reflected upon as a sinner by the Jews at large who we must assume are following the doctrines of their day and not the laws as laid down by Moses. The end part of the story goes thus: “And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood , and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:7-9). Now all that is said in doctrine regarding this is based upon the doctrine only an its relationship to the Old Testament understanding of salvation as we see above in the words of the Baptist’s father. The relevance is unclear here based upon the teaching of the Master and a clue is likely found in the Master reference to Abraham and in saying to the man Zacchaeus and to the Jews who were gathered that by his act of generosity and through his restoration to all that he may have harmed, Zacchaeus has shown True repentance and a willingness to follow in the words of the Master, at least as far as these monetary changes are concerned. The message here is to the Jews who are waiting salvation; Zacchaeus has found it by his actions.
- The second use of the word soteria which is translated as salvation is in the Gospel of John and is spoken to the Samaritan woman at the well. The Master is speaking to her about the difference between the Samaritans and the Jews which is a difference that goes back to the time of the captivity several hundred years before as well as the differences between the Jews that remained of the House of David and the Jews of the other tribes. This gets rather complex and there is no real need to understand it at this time beyond what we have said. The result of this is that in the time of Jesus there is animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans and our part of this exchange goes thus: “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he” (John 4:19-26). The reality of this is rather clear and there is no deeper meaning to the word salvation here than it is a Jewish thing, a promise to the Jews of a Deliverer and a Messias as the text reads above. The Master is saying that there is no part in this for the Samaritan but He goes on to say that the time has come when none of this matters, a time when ALL can worship God “in spirit and in truth“.
It is by these ideas on salvation that we should be able to divorce this idea from the reality of discipleship and the attainment of the Kingdom and come to an understanding that this notion of salvation as it is presented in doctrine has nothing to do with the clear teachings on these realities. We can accept that there is a reality to the True understanding of salvation but that understanding must coincide with the Master’s words on discipleship and on the Kingdom for this is the Truth of salvation.
Repeating again the criteria for discipleship we should see that there is no simple way of accomplishing this save by the True effort of the consciousness that realizes the Christ Within and focuses upon that rather than the continuing focus upon the things of the world:
“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).
In the several days that these sayings have been posted, we have tried to approach them from varying perspectives but the clarity here is so real that no matter what honest angle one might take in looking at these words, the conclusions are the same and here lies our dilemma and the point that we have been trying to get to but have not. While we have been steadily building up to a frank discussion of these realities as they exist for us in the world today we have taken several diversions and today’s has been to better understand the words of the Master, His reality, versus the doctrines that have replaced His clarity to such a degree that our position is likely considered contrary to His teachings by the many who want to believe that they are saved, that they have their salvation. For us this idea of salvation is seen as their deception, a deception caused by their reliance on the illusions and the glamour of the ways of the world. The self questioning as we relate here is the True reality for each of us as regards the Mastrer’s words on discipleship and His Kingdom:
- Am I bearing much fruit? As a thing that we can only define by the words of Paul who tells us that of the fruit of the Spirit and we must KNOW that this type of fruit is the intent of the Master as well. Paul tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23), and again that “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).
- Am I continuing in His word? As a word that encompasses ALL of His instruction on Life and on discipleship and of which we can see the ultimate depth in His words that “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10) and again “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:24). Can we understand that in His words are ALL of the words and the Truth to the saying that “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).
- Next we can ask if we have forsaken ALL which is the summation of the prior verses regarding family and things and to bear one’s own cross in humility. This is of course the greater part of our dilemma as we can delude ourselves on the above but we are at His mercy on this.
We will continue with our thoughts on this and discuss the resolution to our dilemma of living in the world of men and forsaking ALL at the same time; our theme will be how the treasure of heart can become our way of achievement. We leave here again those saying that we have not discussed on faith and believing and the Quote of the Day as well.
- “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.
