Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXXXVII

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

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:22-24).

We should try to understand that illusion and glamour ARE, from the perspective of our reality as a divine man, a Soul, the reality of sin and of evil or, as we KNOW them the ways of the world. To be free from the influences of these prevalent and strong forces in the Life of man is only as achievable as any of the other spiritual things that a man may strive toward; it is only in recognizing them as the True hold on the man and seeing them as the cause of sin and evil in the world and this both the perceived sin and evil and the real. The reality of sin and of evil are as we have been long presenting the attitude of the man who focuses his Life on the things of the world and are not only those gross things that a man may do against others. The gross is of course included in the whole and if we could see this on a scale we would understand that one can innocently be attending to the things of the world on the one side and another could be killing and stealing to his own benefit on the other side. ALL are however in sin or evil from the perspective of the the Life of the Soul and an open minded reading of the words of the Master and His apostles will show this to be True. This looking at evil as the thing that the other guy does and this seeing sin only in one’s disobeying of the harshest commandments is in itself illusion and glamour and we can see this in these few references from scripture; first from the Master:

• “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17). This is said to the rich young man who admits to Jesus that he keeps and has always kept the commandments and by this we should understand the full spectrum of Moses law and in this there is apparently no real sin in this young man. We should try to see that the young man is free from sin against the commandments of Moses but not against the RE-teaching of these by the Master. The young man then asks the Master “what lack I yet?” to which the reply is “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast , and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:20-21). In reading this we should try to understand the nature of the Kingdom of God and that one’s attainment of this lies in the reality of the Master’s word above: perfect. Two other scriptures point us here:
  • first on the reality of attaining the Kingdom we find “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” (Matthew 7:21) which tells us of the True criteria of our being accounted worthy and this should be understood to include ALL of the Master’s words and teachings.
  • second in the perception of the idea of perfect where we must put His words in the context that they are given in addition to understanding His words. The Master tells us: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and in this we should see the preceding dissertation on Love and on how one should act and react with his brothers regardless of who they may be or what they may have done.
• “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you , Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:31-39). In this episode we find the Master speaking to the Pharisees and the assembled Jews in the Temple and these words come at the end of His teaching regarding His relationship to the Father. It is written in the prior verse that based upon His teaching “many believed on him” and there are several ways that this is viewed; for us it is viewed as we believe it is intended, that based upon His words they have come to see Him as the Christ. This said, the only right position IS that they would keep His words for this is the only right thing to do in the presence of the Son of God. In this we get a bit more understanding of our perception of the words believe on and believe in which we get from Vincent and which tell us that: To believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one’s self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Saviour, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. Seeing then in our text that He is speaking to those who “believed on him” and that here He tells them that if they continue in this that they ARE Truly disciples, we should try to see at the same time these as ordinary men who hear His words and KNOW that He is the Christ and that He is drawing the parallel here between sin and Truth, that in Truth one will be free from sin. And note that He is speaking to these ordinary men who “believed on him” as well as the others that may not; He is not addressing only those who may have committed the grossest of sins but to ALL who do not the “works of Abraham“. We should remember the parabolic way of the Master’s teaching and that many of His Truths are hidden from plain view and that at the same time many are straightforward and clear. Perhaps it is in the Master’s understanding of the way that the man enmeshed in the illusion and the glamour will interpret His words that we can understand that the straightforward and clear are often misunderstood and those couched in parable are taken at face value.

From His apostles we find additional scripture that should help us to understand this reality of sin and evil and how it is the very illusion and glamour that cause them that also cause man to not see that he himself is the sinner.

• “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23). This is clear and straightforward and is spoken of frequently in sermons and doctrine and generally understood that for a man perhaps there is some thing that one has done that is grievous and against the commandments. From the apostle’s words the common belief is that ALL men have done some wrong and they fail to see themselves in this except for some recollection of a wrong done or even many. Going through the commandments however we should be able to understand that our own sin if based on no other sin but one’s own attitude toward others; his failure as regards that Love that we MUST give to ALL.
• “Wherefore , as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Generally thought of as a confirmation of the doctrinal concept of original sin, this is for us a confirmation of our premise on the words of Paul saying “”For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly” (Romans 8:20). Can we see the deeper reality here, that it is by Adam’s taking on form and being so subjected by the Plan of God, that ALL men are so subjected to these ways of the world….sin, as ALL men in form come from Adam or whatsoever he represents.
• “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not” (1 John 5:16-18). Overall this is a difficult saying to discern and perhaps the clue is in the previous verse that tells us that “if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” (1 John 5:14) and in this we should take note of “ask any thing according to his will” which is of course the Will of God and the same that the Master speaks of above. In the illusory understanding that sins are the egregious acts only, we also have the misunderstood idea of righteousness which should be seen in the same way as we would see “according to his will” so that any thing that is not in conformance with the Will of God is unrighteousness and “All unrighteousness is sin“. We also have here some given idea as to the concept of degrees of sin as we have premised above and the added ideas of “a sin unto death“; for which there is no interpretation we can take this from this saying based upon what we have been discussing. We can say however that sin is man’s focus upon the world of things and there can be and are degrees of this focus that are so deep that it is unlikely that one can recover in a given lifetime; of course we must understand death as our devolvement into the things and the ways of the world, devolvement into the illusion and the glamour. Of added interest here is the idea of being “born of God” which we can see as the same as Jesus’ teaching on being born again; here the apostle is telling us that if we are disciples of the Master we are no longer in sin, no longer living according to the world but rather “according to his will“; it is here that a man is free from sin, free from the illusion and the glamour and able to say with the Master: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
• “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:4-8). Unless one misconstrues the idea of flesh and of carnal, this saying is specific to our point of sin and evil, that they are done by ALL and are not just those egregious acts as one likes to think. In the basic construct of these verses we should see the opposition of flesh and spirit and we should see further that if a man does “mind the things of the flesh” that he can not be “after the Spirit“; can we see Paul’s implications here? Again, in the idea of carnal which is rendered from the SAME Greek word as is flesh, there is no difference, we should have the same idea and this is much that same as the Master teaches when He tells us “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13).
• “…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4). Compare this with the same sentiment in the point above by Paul; God and mammon are the choices and in the context of these sayings we should see mammon as flesh and as sin and God as Spirit and righteousness.
• “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill , thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11). In these last words from the Apostle James we have the essence of the reality of sin as James relates this directly to what the Master refers to as a part of the Greatest Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. Contrary to this is the idea of “respect to persons” which is the holding of one person above another based upon a carnal observation or opinion; the point here is that if we do not Love as the Master teaches us in His Greatest Commandment, then we sin. Who then does not sin? and can we see the reality here of Paul’s words saying that “ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God“? The rest of James’ words make it clear to us that no matter what sin we may commit or no matter what righteousness we fail to do, we are considered in this ALL the same and, while he may use adultery and killing as example, we can just as easily insert covetousness and honoring one’s mother and father or, as James tells us, our failure to Love our neighbor.

We went further down this road than we intended but the point is an important one; illusion and glamour, the vanity according to Paul, are the cause of and are the sin and the evil in this world of men. These are the cause and the result of looking away from the things of God and toward the things of the flesh, of the world and, at the same them they are the factors that prevent our seeing this very reality.

We will continue with our thoughts on illusion and glamour in the next post and then get back to our original subject of  the Tree of Life where these ideas will serve us well. We then still have our saying below to close out our look at the Genesis of man,

• “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died” (Genesis 5:1-5) .

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:

This Quote of the Day is the antithesis of glamour and illusion. In this mantram are the thoughts about ourselves and our brothers in the world that can diffuse these forces that hold a man in the world of things and prevent his spiritual progress.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888