Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XXIX
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•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
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We have finally finished with our list of the Master’s sayings on the ideas of faith and believing and we have in a sense redefined these words with the caveat that they are essentially the same and that they can be and are used in opposite roles to what we are saying here as the definition. While this may seem strange, we believe it is a worthwhile position whereas it takes these words out of the normal and rather undefined realm that they exist in today. The normal ideas, even from the lexicon and from Strong’s, do not do justice to the teaching of the Master on these ideas as they rather leave them as personality issues alone instead of seeing the reality that True faith and True believing, the kind that can build up to the point of moving the mountain, must come from the Inner Man, the Soul, which we have come to call the Christ Within. We should see that beginning with a man’s recognition that he has or rather IS a Soul, which unreligiously he may call conscience, he is prompted by such to the Good, the Beautiful and the True and away from the grosser attitudes and behaviors. This is much like the cartoon of the angel and the devil on the shoulders of the man where each is prodding the man to do either as the flesh wants or as the higher virtues would dictate. In this cute scenario however there is much Truth; the form Life and the personality have desires and wants that are grounded in the sense of self and of selfishness and a man will ‘crave‘ whatsoever comes along that can provide pleasure, security or some sense of satisfaction. These cravings can be long term and attached to the picture of marriage and family and financial success or they can be of a shorter term seeking to dictate the actions of the hour. Either way, these are the strong force of self that is grounded in the illusion and the glamour of the world which tells a man that these things, these cravings, are of great importance.
This is of course a simplistic view of this which is altered by many factors in the Life of a man including the encroachment of the conscience or the creeping recognition of one’s own Soul, creating for the man a state of relative confusion. This confusion is that sense of duality that we have spoken of before and it is here, in this duality, that the real struggle begins for ALL. Up until this time of recognition that one IS the Soul or has a Soul or conscience, the man is content to muddle through the Life in form as a man in form generally unawares of anything else and this is true of both the religious and the irreligious man. To have religion that does not prompt a man to do better or to a lessening of the effects of self, is of no profit to the True man, the Soul, and this is as the Master points out in regard to the ‘religious’ Jews in His day saying “in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9) In this we should see the reality of the Apostle James words on religion saying: “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall beblessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:25-27). We do of course understand the Master’s words regarding doctrine that is not based wholly on the reality of the law or, from our vantage point, the teachings of the Master. James’ words are a bit more obscure and we should see the lead verse as the reality and objective of religion while the middle is the reality of a man’s thoughts and actions as epitomized by the tongue and in the end the duty of the religious man; not in the specifics listed here but in ALL things righteous.
Vincent gives us a good understanding of the apostles statement of visiting “the fatherless and widows in their affliction“, telling us that: To visit (ejpiske>ptesqai). See on Matthew 25:36. James strikes a downright blow here at ministry by proxy, or by mere gifts of money. Pure and undefiled religion demands personal contact with the world’s sorrow: to visit the afflicted, and to visit them in their affliction. “The rich man, prodigal of money, which is to him of little value, but altogether incapable of devoting any personal attention to the object of his alms, often injures society by his donations; but this is rarely the case with that far nobler charity which makes men familiar with the haunts of wretchedness, and follows the object of its care through all the phases of his life” (Lecky, “History of European Morals,” ii., 98)4. We should see in this the contrast of the Truly religious and the one who is half-heartedly so or the contrast between one who is in the throngs of duality and the one who’s religion is a pretense. We should remember here also that there is an infinite range of possibilities here in degree of being one or the other and, of course, combinations of both. It is our premise however that when the reality of recognition strikes and is heeded that there is little opportunity to turn away and while one may falter and move from one position to the other, there is progress made.
Bringing this back again to the ideas of faith and believing as they stream forth from the Inner Man, the Soul, we understand that the prompting of the Soul or of conscience is the effort to bring about the required order in the Life of the personality and to direct the consciousness, which is OF the Soul, toward that which is right and good and what we call the Good, the Beautiful and the True. In the period of duality which can last a Lifetime or even several Lifetimes, a man will make steady progress in faith and believing from the perspective that we define for these words which is KNOWING and the reliance upon that KNOWING as these powerful forces stream through a man’s consciousness. In conjunction with this is an ever growing focus upon the Soul and the Christ Within and an ever growing deemphasizing of the self and vanity. The end point of this is in our ability to say with the Master “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). As this objective and goal is approached there is a steadily increasing sense of righteousness and of KNOWING which is reflected in the everyday Life of a man and expressed in that Love that the Master tells us of and it is in this Love that we per force become “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). It is in this Love and in this being “doers of the word, and not hearers only” that results in the Life of service that the Master tells us much about and which is largely undefined except to say that which the Master tells us of duty and this is that there is NEVER enough. He tells us on duty that: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). On service He says much more but with no greater meaning than this on duty; He tells us:
- “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 20:27). Here the Master sets the bar for ALL who are His disciples and aspirants; He tells us that we should not look to the self even if one is the leader.
- He repeats this for us saying in the same Gospel “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). In the prior saying there was the understanding of a personal choice to be “chief among you” which can be seen as counter to our understanding and as uplifting one’s self but this should be seen also in Paul’s terms; he says “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3). If we view this with the God Within as the giver and with KNOWING as faith, this can fit neatly with the Master’s words. The prior saying says something of choice and in this saying we have the matter of fact understanding of one greater than the rest and the reality that this greater one will be the ready servant of all.
- The first point is framed a bit differently in Mark’s Gospel where we read: “And he sat down , and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all” (Mark 9:35). Here again is the idea of desire and of choice and perhaps the message is that if one has these desires as a disciple that he should disregard and fight them off and “be last of all, and servant of all“. From the perspective of selflessness, this interpretation makes much reasoned sense.
- Of great importance in our understanding of the Master’s ideas of serving is this from Luke’s Gospel; the Master tells us: “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13). This verse we have covered several times before and in it we should see the reality of our serving someone or something as Life itself. From this perspective we serve the self, the carnal and worldly self or we serve the things of God. In serving the self we have the self centered and self absorbed attitude of the man who has no recognition of the Soul or who has not admitted such. In serving God we serve the things of God which includes per force one’s brothers and neighbors in the world of men.
- The sayings in the first two points are mixed together in these verses by the Master in Luke. He says: “….he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief , as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:26-27). In this combination approach that is in regard to the same basic issues as above, the quest for greatness among His disciples, there is no longer a choice or a desire in the Masters words as both are reduced to the matter that one is the chief among them and one is the greatest. The Master’s instructions are however the same, the chief shall be the servant and the greater “as the younger” or, as the picture paints for us, the beginner which should be seen as humble and not assuming. More important here is the Master’s frank speaking about the worlds idea of greater and the Kingdom’s idea of the same. In the world the greater would be he that is served as in Jesus’ example but in the Kingdom and in the words of the Master this one, the Christ, who should be greatest and who should be served IS, from His own perspective, “among you as he that serveth“. This is yet another reality of the idea of meek and in this is the idea that should be the cause celebre that each of us should follow.
- We should remember here that as disciples we are not technically servants but at the same time we perform the role of the servant over being a leader or being the greater and the key here is not in titles and words but in the force of doing for others as we see in the Master’s words and actions above saying that He is “as he that serveth“. This is clarified in the words of the Master to His disciples in John’s Gospel saying: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:15). This can be discerned in a number of ways but the reality is that while His disciples do act as servants in their duties to the Master, the Master is actually in the role of the servant as He says above; this promotion to the idea of friend takes naught away from the idea of service nor being a servant but rather casts forth the disciple as the friend of Christ much like throughout his Life of service, Abraham is called the friend of God. And what is the relationship of a friend? The Master tells us this in His instructions on Love and friendship: “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you” (John 15:12-15).
We have gone from faith and believing to these ideas on service and these things are ever connected because as one develops the KNOWING and the reliance on that KNOWING that IS faith and believing the natural expression of this will be Love and the natural expression of that Love will bring a man to serve. We must remember that these things are from above, from the God Within, from the Soul and that these supersede the desires of the personality in form in the world. This is the movement of a man from the state of being “subject to vanity, not willingly” by the Plan that IS God, to being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). This is our destiny and this is our goal and the Path is paved in Love and in service. We can delay it by attending to the things of the world, the small things of the personal self, or we can hasten it by attending to the things of God, the “treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (Matthew 6:20). The choice is ever ours and we close today with this Ancient Aphorism that we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day now for some time and which has a purpose and a meaning here with this ending topic of service. As we have said, the idea of service is not a defined ideal and for every man it is a very personal thing as is his own relationship with God and with the Christ through the realization of his own Soul. In this world of illusion and of glamour it is easy for a man to get lost and to deny himself when he is found; that it is the power of this vanity in which we are subjected and in this we are ever unsure of our True place in relationship to our God and our own Souls. What we have accomplished in previous incarnations remains hidden until we can reveal the secrets to our conscious selves in the world through union with our own Souls.
This brings us to our saying below which is spoken from the perspective of the Soul, the Soul who has achieved the Kingdom and discipleship but perhaps not yet the “fullness of the Godhead” as did the Master; while we do not KNOW, it is likely that this fullness which awaits us ALL would send us on to bigger and better service in the Heart of God. The saying below depicts One who has accomplished the Kingdom and is free from the NEED to incarnate again in form but who chooses to do so, to incarnate again to help his brother on the darkened path.
Remembering that Christ is the ONE SON of GOD that came in a way where He was born the Son of God on Earth and that for the rest of us, including those who CHOOSE to leave the Kingdom to transmit the outward streaming light in service for those upon the darkened way of Life in form, are born as mortal men subjected to the vanity of the world and until we can sense and respond to the call of our own Souls and focus thereon, we will NOT KNOW the True reality of our own state of being.
“He who faces the light of His Soul and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the Kingdom of God. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, yet loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.”
“He faces towards the dark and then the seven points of light within himself transmit the outward streaming light, and lo! the face of those upon the darkened way receives that light. For them, the way is not so dark. Behind the warriors—twixt the light and dark—blazes the light of the Kingdom itself.“**
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
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.
Do not live in the world, In distraction and false dreams. Outside the dharma. Arise and watch. Follow the way joyfully through this world and beyond. Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully Through this world and on beyond! For consider the world – A bubble, a mirage. See the world as it is, And death shall overlook you. Come, consider the world, A painted chariot for kings, A trap for fools. But he who sees goes free. As the moon slips from behind a cloud And shines, So the master comes out from behind his ignorance And shines. The world is in darkness. How few have eyes to see! How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven!
This Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, and exemplifies from His perspective the same basic message that we have been seeing from the Christ. Follow the way of the Soul, focus upon the Real and not on the illusion and thereby attain the Kingdom. If we read and reread this we should be able to see the thread of reality in forsaking ALL for the Kingdom.
- 2 from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
- ** Discipleship in the New Age – Volume II by Alice A Bailey; © 1955 by Lucis Trust
