Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART IX
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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In the last post we discussed a variety of things that may seem to be apart from the general theme of faith and believing but, as we have tried to show, these things are ALL connected. From our discussion we came upon what we believe is the essence of True faith and believing which is KNOWING and we have postulated in past essays that this is a state of being that one must grow into as did the Apostles Peter and Paul. We have used Peter as our example several times because it is he that is highlighted in the gospels above the others and it is his Life in form that we get a glimpse of. We know that he struggled at times and we know that he was a disciple throughout his time with the Master; we also KNOW that he did come into the required state of KNOWING. In this state the apostle was able to heal by His mere proximity and was operating in the fullness of the Christ Within, the God Within or, in more practical terms, his Soul. He became, by his ability, the leader of the flock and this is as the Master instructed him in His commands to “Feed my sheep”. We should remember here two things:
- First that there was a three part conversation between Peter and the Master where the more important part is not in the feeding but in the fact that Peter Loved the Master more than he Loved his brethren or more than his brethren Loved the Master as some doctrines hold. For our purposes here this does not matter and we do discuss this in more detain in In the Words of Jesus part 395. What matters here is that the Master’s inquiry is about Peter’s Love for Christ as being above ALL; the dialogue goes thus: “So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17). We should see here that the question is much more the message than is the commandment and the reality of the commandment is intertwined with the Master’s prior teaching regarding Love.
- And this is the second point; that if one says that He Loves the Master, he is saying much more than he realizes and, when we place the understanding of the Christ Within, the Soul, into this equation we can begin to grasp the progression of Peter’s Life as a disciple of the Master. In ALL points the Master is speaking to the consciousness that is Peter and which is of his Soul. We have seen from the struggles that Peter encountered that he was at times focused upon the things of the world in the Master’s eyes and, while we may see Peter as having done little or nothing wrong, this is by our standards. The idea to be taken here is that as one progresses and comes to understand, the focus of the Life is EXPECTED to be on the things of God. In one exchange we have the Master speaking to Peter in the same tone and words in which he spoke to satan in yesterday’s post, in the same tone that he spoke to Himself as a man in form tempted by the ways of the world which is for us satan.
- Of Jesus temptations in the wilderness we read “And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:5-8).
- As Peter was ‘rebuking‘ the Master as regards His suffering and death we read: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 1+6:21-23).
We see here Peter’s error and in this we should know that this ‘rebuking‘ follows soon after, according to the chronology, the Master’s praise of the apostle saying “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). Remembering that Peter is a disciple should enable us to better understand the duality in which we live as aspirants; we should understand that until that time of perfection of which the Master speaks, that time of KNOWING, we live per force in two worlds and it is only by our continued focus upon the things of God that we are better able to overcome the illusion and the glamour which at times beset us. Getting to our point which is the Love that the Master inquired about, we should see that the Master understands these issues of discipleship and the difficulty of giving up even worldly attitudes of protection for the Life of the Christ and so He asks His question in a way that will evoke the memory of Peter and of us to His words that say: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. 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 14:23-24). This saying is a repetition of a prior like saying which again should attest to the importance of this Love; the Master says: “If ye love me, keep my commandments…….He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:15, 21)
In the reality of the Master’s inquiry above we should see how these sayings above and the whole of the Master’s relationship with Peter are embedded. There is a clarity to the Master’s words which is ever so difficult to confuse with anything else except when one is enthralled by the world and the illusion and the glamour of it ALL or, as Paul tells us the vanity.
In the last post we premised that it was at the time of the Master’s baptism by John that He came into the reality of Paul’s saying that “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and we can say that by degree Peter had this same experience and one could argue that Peter would be among those very few who could move the mountain. The Master tells us that this ability is to those who “have faith as a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20) in which we see the degree of faith and He tells us elsewhere “If ye have faith, and doubt not” (Matthew 21:21) and in this we see the link between faith and believing which is further stated in a clearer way as one who “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass” (Mark 11:23). This is likely what Peter had achieved and we should remember that like ALL else, this state of being happens by degree.
Now what we have been discussing is the faith that can move the mountain and the faith in which one “shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23) and we should be able to imagine the danger in this ability if it were to be available to a man who is not a True disciple and we should take comfort in the understanding that as a man progresses on the Path to God and toward the expression of His fullness through the Life in the world, that these abilities increase in direct proportion to that expression. It is only in living a Christlike Life that a man can have Christlike Powers and the same would be True of a Peter-like Life or a Paul-like Life producing Peter-like or Paul-like Powers. We should also remember that while we consider such things as supernatural, they are in reality the normal and the natural Powers of the Soul who has dominion over the things of the Earth.
We listed yesterday some additional sayings from the Master regarding believing and faith so that we can get a better understanding of His use of these words and their relationship to each other, especially as they are effected by one’s ability to “doubt not“. Let us begin our look at these:
- “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled , and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel……And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way ; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour” (Matthew 8:10, 13). In our first saying here we find the Master speaking to a centurion, a Roman officer in charge of a large group and who has an afflicted servant. Now according to tradition we are to believe that this centurion is a heathen and by the common understanding of the word this would be bad; however, by the Greek understanding of it we should see that this could just be a man of a different culture and who is not religious in the way of the Jew. The common understanding aside we should see in this centurion a man of faith; not Jewish faith or Christian faith but faith nonetheless. He is a man that believes in the Power of God and who believes at the same time the the Master is the Christ, He is the One who has this very Power. We must understand that there is no dividing of spiritual beliefs and that neither our God nor our Christ place any emphasis upon the source of faith insofar as religion. Faith is universal and it flows from the God Within, as an inkling perhaps, that is pursued by the man and here we see that this is pursued by the centurion. We have said in previous posts that the apostles and the disciples of the Master came into incarnation with Him as advanced Souls who could quickly overcome and work with Him in service and this same idea can be extended to the centurion who serves to offer us a lesson in faith and in believing. Our attention here should be on the Master’s words saying “and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee” for it is in these words that we see the Power of having faith and doubting not which is belief. The Master does not cure the centurion’s servant, the centurion does and he does so according to those things that we have been studying in the last several essays. Can the centurion move the mountain? it is unlikely but we do not KNOW; we do KNOW however that He could cure his servant in a selfless act of Love while likely risking his reputation and his position.
Can we see that the centurion KNOWS that his servant will be healed by the Master and likely never thought that it would be he himself that would perform this miracle? Can we have this same ability to KNOW? It starts in little things and it overcomes our fears and our hesitations; KNOWING is the ultimate of faith as we understand it; it is the essence of believing. KNOWING comes to us by degree and it is in the fullness of this KNOWING that we find Peter and Paul and the ability to move the mountain.
We will continue with these sayings on faith and believing in the next post.
- “And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened” (Matthew 9:27-29).
- “And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:10-22).
- “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.
