Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART VIII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
We proceeded through some additional ideas on faith and believing in yesterdays post and we intertwined our premise with the sayings of the Master and His apostles regarding a man’s ability to do as the Master had done and to do yet even greater things. We noted that the Apostle Paul tells us that “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and that the Apostle John tells us that we ARE as He IS saying of the Christ “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Of the greater things that the Master tells us of, we included His words on moving the mountain and we should now have a clearer understanding that as Jesus was able to to these things, so too will we be when we can come to that same point of UNITY with the Spirit Within which provides the fullness of the expression of God through form. While we speak of the Christ Within because He is the ONE that has shown us the way, the Master speaks of the Father Within Himself and we should understand in this that it is by His very nature that He is able to express the Power and Love of God. Our understanding here should be that this is also within our very nature and that it is through the Christ Within that we realize the God Within and yet they are ONE and the SAME.
The reality of the Master’s works is the same reality that we as individuals and as a whole must face. The Master Truly KNOWS what and who He is and in that KNOWING He KNOWS that He has dominion over ALL the things of the world. He did as we must do, He conquered ALL from His first encounters with the temptations of the things of the world and was able to say in the end that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There are many doctrinal theories regarding the divinity and the humanity of Jesus the Christ but the reality of His story is told in the beginning parts of the Gospel. By some ritual of faith or by some initiation, or, by a great realization as we would call it today, the Master came to KNOW His own divinity at the baptism given Him by John. Perhaps this divinity is what He had sensed in the years before or perhaps He always KNEW; this we cannot KNOW but we can KNOW that at the time of His baptism in the river Jordan with John the Baptist, He became a NEW MAN who was then set to do what He had come amongst us for.
Let us look here at what it is that we are saying in regard to this baptism which is a word that is much misunderstood in the doctrines and the practices of the churches. We have written much on this subject and we should KNOW from this that baptism IS NOT merely the ritual that one goes through in the various doctrines of the churches, whether this be as an infant or as an adult. The whole of the idea has many different applications but most ALL of them are, in realty, the immersion of the consciousness into the Life of the Christ Within or the God Within so that this becomes the focus of one’s Life. There can be no profit to the man spiritually without the realization of the God Within and if it take this ritual to bring that about, so be it. However the ritual is likely always just the outer sign of a deeper spiritual realization and, in the Life of Christ, it is likely just a sign, a parable if you will, that shows to us through the immersion in water the reality of the immersion of the consciousness into the Life of the Spirit.
We have posted in the past the words of the lexicon regarding baptism and it will serve us well to read them again as they give us a better understanding of the way that these words are used, at least from the perspective of the baptism of John. A note in the Greek Lexicon on the Greek word baptizo tells us: Not to be confused with 911, bapto. The clearest example that shows the meaning of baptizo is a text from the Greek poet and physician Nicander, who lived about 200 B.C. It is a recipe for making pickles and is helpful because it uses both words. Nicander says that in order to make a pickle, the vegetable should first be ‘dipped’(bapto) into boiling water and then ‘baptised’ (baptizo) in the vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution. But the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change. When used in the New Testament, this word more often refers to our union and identification with Christ than to our water baptism. e.g.Mark 16:16. ‘He that believes and is baptised shall be saved’. Christ is saying that mere intellectual assent is not enough. There must be a union with him, a real change, like the vegetable to the pickle! Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 19892.
This point that is made here should be clear and in this we should see our understanding above of immersion into the Life of the Christ Within, the Soul. Before we leave this word baptism, we should look briefly at the ways that it is used by the Master and His apostles.
- First we read of the Baptist’s mission that: “And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Luke 3:3) which when properly discerned tells us the same thing as we see above. The word baptism is here given a purpose and an extended name and in this word repentance we KNOW that there is that change that will cause the immersion of the man into the Life of the Soul. This change from focus on the things of the world to the focus on the things of God is the Truth of repentance and is the very same thing as the immersion of which we speak above. The sense of sorrow that one may have for wrongs done is but a pale exhibition if there is not a forsaking of the cause.
- There is also the additional idea of the baptism of the Master, that which He would do and that which is done also by the activity of the Christ Within. The Baptist tells us that “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33). Here we should understand that the Christ and the Christ Within, or should we say through the Christ Within, brings forth the Holy Spirit (Ghost) which we KNOW and understand as the activity of the Christ Within, the Soul, in the Life of the man in form. Can we understand that this is the True baptism, the immersion of the consciousness in the Life of the Spirit? as it is brought about by the focus of the man upon the Truth of the Soul allowing the Light of the Soul to flow through and express through the form and the personality.
- Our last point here on baptism is that it is not a ritual but a state of being; the Master says to James and John: “Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized” (Mark 10:38-39). Can we see that this has naught to do with any ritual at all but is rather the Master asking if they, James and John, are able to bring forth in their lives the fullness of the expression of the God Within as He does? And, can we see that He answers His own question based upon their reply saying that “with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized” thereby affirming the same ideas that we put forth in the last post and again above; for the True disciple each can say: “as he is, so are we in this world“
We went a bit further on this than intended and to complete our point we come back to the idea that it was in His baptism that the Master became a NEW MAN who was then set to do what He had come amongst us to do. This is to say that the immersion of the consciousness of the Master into the fullness of the Life of the Spirit had either just taken place or else this was an outward sign that it had; in either case the Master is now fully the Christ to the world. In this apparently newly realized state of the Christ, He journeys “in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him” (Mark 1:13). This is the beginning of the ministry of the Master, of His service to humanity. On this word satan there is much misunderstanding; from this context and others it is regarded as a person and is thought of and taught in this light in many church doctrines. All things that can be said of this satan as a person can as well be said of the illusion and the glamour of the world, what the Apostle Paul tells us is vanity as he tells us that we, as the consciousness that is of the Soul are: “made subject to vanity, not willingly” (Romans 8:20). With this idea we dealt much in recent posts and here again we see the usefulness of this revelation given by Paul to those who can see it.
We outlined, a few posts back, how that the ideas that are believed and taught by doctrine are in many cases based upon unproven assumptions, religious teachings and even superstitions and this idea of satan is the classic example. Satan is the name given to the ways of the world, to the illusion and the glamour and the things that these evoke in the consciousness of the man in form. Let us look now at the Master “in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan“. We read of the Master’s encounter with satan in Matthew’s and Luke’s Gospels both of which tell us that this encounter does not happen until the forty days is ended; we read “And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered” (Luke 4:2).
- “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3). We should note that in the citation above satan is called “the tempter” while in Luke’s Gospel it is called “the devil” and while this is not important, it does show us both the reality of the idea in this context as well as the source of the meanings ascribed by doctrine. Remembering that the Master is at once both human and Divine and remembering what we are told of Him that He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), we should be able to understand the ‘thoughts’ that can come to a man in such a state as the Master was, at the end of a forty day fast. And so He is tempted and He resists the temptation to satisfy the need of His own body; He resists the temptation to use the Power of God to the benefit of the self. He KNEW that He could do this thing, order that “stones be made bread“, but He resisted and followed what would become His own teaching of “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on” (Matthew 6:25).
- “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). Here we have the idea of moving the mountain and the Power that can make this possible. The Master, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9), has this ability and this Power to rule the world and we should see that the focus of one’s attention upon this Power in the world of things is akin to worshiping those things. Many people expend what power they do have in this worship and it is fortunate that it does take Christlike Power to be able to make happen whatsoever one would want. This is True because in Christlike Power there is Christlike virtue and this is what prevents the Master from giving in 2000 years ago and it is what will keep us from giving in as well.
- “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matthew 4:6-7). Here again we have the temptation to be a man in form; this is the thought that is on the Master’s mind in this context. As the Son of God He is alone in the world of men is the idea that He is fighting against and this is likely the plight of so many who are heeding the call of the Soul which takes one away from the familiar and the comfortable. Can we see the parabolic value in this and in the other sayings as well? Thinking that He can survive in the world of men based upon His Wisdom and understanding of the Ways of God is His temptation and He resists this in the understanding that the True Man, the Soul, the God Within, cannot be tempted by the things that this world has to offer.
These are the same temptations that effect each of us although the terms are quite different. We are tempted to stay in the ways of the world by the worldly effects of the illusion and the glamour in which we live and, should we advance to that point of discipleship, we should see by the Master’s example that the struggle continues for a time until we can say with Him that “I have overcome the world“.
We did not intend to go this far into these ideas today and we had picked out several sayings by the Master on believing that we wanted to pursue but did not get to. We list them here for our review and will begin with these in the next post.
- “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).
- “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.
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).
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.
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.
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
