IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 516

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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We have long railed against the practice of some of the more modern church doctrines regarding their teachings that one must be a good Christian, attend services and tithe and that in doing these things there is reward here in the things of this world. We see this not only in the teachings but also in the example of many of these modern preachers who live lives of excess with the biggest houses, keenest cars and even jet planes to whisk them around. They lay their and our rights to these excesses on the Promise’s to Abraham and other allied promises such as those listed in the promises and curses part of the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy. While we understand that this is ALL tied to human nature as it is affected by the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world, what the Apostle Paul tells us is vanity, we should not let go of the fact that these things are rather directly contradicted by the Master in His teachings. We should here take this same philosophy to the excesses of parts of the church down the centuries and yet today to build with grandeur under the guise of nothing is too good for God and this even though there are scriptures in the New Testament as well as the Old  that cast this idea as not God-like at all. We read in the Book of  Acts of the history lesson given to the Jews by Stephen where he clearly tells them and us that this idea of grandeur IS NOT in the Plan of God; citing history  and the Prophet Isaiah Stephen tells us: “But Solomon built him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things?” (Acts 7:48-50). We read also in Acts from the words of Paul that “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Acts 17:24-25). Can we rightly see the role of illusion here and of glamour as we build bigger and better? And can we see the reality that the bigger and better ARE NOT for God because He does not require nor want it, they are rather to fulfill the glamour and the vanity of man.

Not all church doctrine allows for this and there is likely a fine line between prudent building for the ages and building in excess but there is a line that is crossed with the gold chalice and with the finest marble foundations of yesterday and the finely appointed construction design of today. While these excesses are apparent and pronounced in the construction of the Temple in Jerusalem, they are spoken against as we see above in both the Old and the New Testaments and we should realize as well that in Old Testament days there was but one temple while to day they likely number in the millions. If we can see the reality of the Lord’s teachings on these excesses, what of the more personal excesses with which we started today. We KNOW the Master’s teaching on riches and we KNOW that they are largely ignored as men and their doctrines have devised clever ways to dilute the Master’s words to suit the needs of the carnal man and in doing this many use the teachings of the Old Testament as their cover, negotiating the words of the Master against them. There is a place however in the New Testament that paints this clearly and this is in the Parable of the Rich Fool which is the thought that brought this subject to mind today…that, and an idea developed in looking at the living style of those who do have money. The parable goes thus and begins with the Master’s warning that “And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15) and goes on to say:

“The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21).

The common understanding is that this man is not a religious man but that is not given to us in the story; it is likely put there by religious men who are at the same time rich which thing has never been uncommon and hence the story here and the other sayings by the Master on riches. Can we recall the rich young ruler who we KNOW from the text is religious as he tells the Master: “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” and to which the Master replies that he should give away ALL his riches saying: “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?” (Matthew 19:20-21). Can we see the point? this rich young man is religious, and we use this word as a definition of being spiriual in his time and his tradition, and so may be the rich fool from the parable above and, it is likely that he is as there is no redeeming message in the story if he is not; the whole of the parable is to be an example to His own disciples and to the gathered people on covetousness and the accumulating of wealth. That the man kept all for himself or that he gave much away we do not KNOW; we only KNOW that he had much left. The lesson here is that it does not matter what he gave away; it only matters what is left and what the rich fool wishes to protect, to invest, to save for tomorrow an it is to this that God tells him “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?“.

There is abundant clarity in the Master’s words and He does not here say that a man should be left with nothing and, we should note that the next verses after this parable are concerned with the noble idea of “take no thought” which in this version from Luke’s Gospel is spoken directly to His disciples; we read that: “And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment” (Luke 12:22-23). This is a lesson then in attitude as with the attitude of “take no thought” one does not concern himself with protecting or investing. As these verses go on the Master’s thoughts are seemingly harsher toward riches and the men who have and who covet them; yet the entirety of this message is lost in the wranglings of man as his doctrines seek to mollify the Truths and the realities of Jesus teachings. This is of course a hard lesson to learn and one that effects us ALL by degree as we are rich or not in attitude of mind first and against the possessions of one’s own peers and most ALL have forgotten the Truth that the Master gives us in speaking about these ideas of riches and of excess and of having what one needs; “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Luke 12:31). We must KNOW that He is not speaking here about riches and excesses but only about needs.

The Master’s points regarding man’s viewing the world as the reality of his Life are difficult for the Christian to understand; not because they are difficult but because His teachings are contrary to the doctrines that purport to reflect His teachings. Here we have the True reality of the Master’s caution to us to “Take heed what ye hear” (Mark 4:24) and while the words that follow are seemingly unclear, let us look at them in the Light of our discussion. There are two versions:

• From Mark’s Gospel: “with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given” (Mark 4:24).
• From Luke’s Gospel: ” for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have” (Luke 8:18).

We must remember here that the word translated as hear is better understood as we have previously said which is believing; not the believing from a spiritual level only but rather believing as a man in form. The spiritual believing is more in the form of KNOWING and here the ideas of faith and believing cross but what of the believing that the well meaning man encounters regarding most everything in which he is involved. We should note here that in both versions the Master offers this saying immediately after His explanation of the Parable of the Sower and one would here assume that He IS speaking to His disciples directly. We should see also that if His caution is to disciples to “Take heed what ye hear“, what more can it mean to the average well meaning man?  He does say these things and we should try to take the meaning of His words saying that one who has will get more and one who does not have will lose even what he has in the spirit of the saying itself which is to say that we should even be careful what we believe regarding this saying. It has naught to do with things physical and can be seen, as we have previously discussed, from the perspective that what we believe becomes a part of our personality; if it is good or bad, right or wrong, the same dynamic applies and we become more and more attuned to what we believe; this is akin to having and receiving more. This is the simple understanding from Mark’s Gospel and the beginning of Luke’s as it may concern the average man in form but these saying are said to disciples and  Luke adds the Master’s words regarding the man who has not and here we can see the opposite of our dynamic above. In a prior post we stated it this way which applies for us as aspirants:

“Take heed what ye hear” is inclusive of what we believe that we understand and what we perceive. The rest can be seen to say that if we hear right and measure right its source and meaning and accept only those that meet the criteria as True then we, by this Wisdom gained, position our selves for yet more. Taken further we should see that if we do not have the right hearing; if we listen to everything and believe thoughts and ideas that do not meet our measure of Truth, the we wind up losing whatever it is that we may have and this is to be then in a yet more confused state of being.

We did not get to our next thought from the Book of Genesis and we will pick up there again in the next post; we leave our verses from the last:

“And God said , Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;  And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying , Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 1:26-2:25).

• The other part of this is in the next chapter where God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul“. Here we have either a repetition and explanation of the creation of man in the image of God and both male and female or we have a secondary creation that brings the spiritual man into Life in the earth. Our understanding is the latter and this would become man’s existence in the Garden of Eden.
• Next we have the creation of the woman who was, according to the text, already created with the man during the creation in the image of God. Again this is either repetition and explanation or it yet another step in the bringing forth of the spiritual man into the Earth. There is another rather obscure saying in Genesis which may go well here: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose” (Genesis 6:1-2).
• Last we have the trees; “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil“.

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 repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita and which goes well with our topic over the last several days. Today we see the God Within us as the Christ Within and this is good in the Christian world and this is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God. We should see that it matters not what we call this Inner Man as it is the same in ALL, it is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.