Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLX
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
“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:1-15).
While it may be repetitious, we post again the sayings of the Master both to Nicodemus and to His disciples and the world regarding a man’s attainment of the Kingdom of God. In these words to Nicodemus we find the Master speaking to a man who from his own perspective believes that he KNOWS the Mind and the Ways of God, of this religious ruler of the Jews the Master asks the rhetorical question “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?“. Nicodemus should stand for us as an example of such a man in every age, a man who believes that he KNOWS the Right Way because this is what his doctrines have taught him; he believes that he KNOWS the nature of the Kingdom and that he is on the Right Path to it or that he is already accounted worthy of it. To such a man the Master says “ Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” and then repeats His Truth in different words saying “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God“. Nicodemus has no clue to the meaning of the reality that the Master speaks and this same cluelessness is carried down through the ages to today where many millions may believe that they are on the Right Path to the Kingdom or that they are already accounted worthy of it but who at the same time are NOT doing what is required. Now we do not mean to infer any sense of stupidity in using this word clueless but rather we seek to express a reality that is apparent in the world today where plain Truths are not seen because they are covered by doctrinal assertions that may be contrary to or diluting of Master’s intent and this phenomenon is supported by the vanity, the illusion and the glamour in which the world exists.
This of course we take from the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us of our fate in the world saying “For the creature was made subject to vanity” which is the reality of what we call illusion and glamour; he goes on to tell us that this is not the fault of the True man, the Soul, who is so subjected saying that this happened and continues to happen”not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“. We have called this the Plan of God which idea we derive from the apostles continuing saying which, in this part, tells us that this is not by the hand of man that we are in this world and in this condition. We get the understanding that this is not a bad thing from the continuation that tells us when we overlap the words that “by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). Seeing in this wording the reality of hope as it should be understood in this context meaning expectation, for the reality of OUR God’s motivation would not be hope. Similarly we should see that because could as well be rendered that which it is the majority of the time. In Paul’s words we should see the continuing saga that we as aspirants are living daily. In seeing the reality of the apostles words we can also see the reality of the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, in which the world is enmeshed; we see also the plight of men such as Nicodemus who in the illusion and the glamour believe that they are Right and that the Master is wrong or else, like Nicodemus as the individual, those who, when faced with justifiable evidence of a different Right, just do not KNOW. Then, in Jesus day, it is the pronouncements of the Master and His disciples that is challenged and through history, as the basis of doctrine becomes centered around the Master’s teachings, it is the pronouncement of anything contrary to that doctrine that causes the same type of challenges by those who believe that they have the authority of the Master and of God.
Enmeshed in this illusion and glamour, or in this vanity as Paul frames it for us, we do not see the stark realities of the Master’s teachings and we do not understand the requirements of salvation any more than did Nicodemus; it is only in our recognition of the vanity, our discernment of the illusion and the glamour, that we can begin to see the Master’s Truths, some of which are portrayed for is in plain words and others that are couched in the parabolic speaking of the Master and His apostles. So we leave and we read again the Master’s words below, words that depict for us the reality of being accounted worthy and of attaining to the Kingdom of God; a Kingdom that we read about in these words and of which He tells us that “behold, the kingdom of God is within you“.
- “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God“.
- “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God“
- “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said , Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20) AND “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
- “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27) AND “Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28).
- “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
- “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
- “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).
And our point above is of great importance; that “the kingdom of God is within you“. This can give to us the reality of the True meaning of the importance of our participation. Believing that the Kingdom is one’s reward for a Life of ‘good’ or a Life of ‘faith’ is indeed a part of the vanity, of the illusion and the glamour that beset us and this leads many to believe that they have the time to change before the end of their days. The Master warns against this mentality in several of His parables and sayings which, in the illusion and glamour of Life in form, men appoint to their presumed eschatological meaning only; never realizing that their own demise could be but moments away. This mentality when coupled with the doctrinal beliefs of heaven and hell as a reward or a punishment leaves many with no faith at all and others with no motivation toward doing good today despite the Master’s warnings. It also, when coupled with doctrine, enables many to believe that they are ready, that they are righteous, and this is a belief that persists even when the man KNOWS that he is not righteous as regards the totality of the Master’s messages that we have here above and which, in our understanding of the equality of them ALL, includes that one is doing “the will of my Father which is in heaven“, being born again, and attaining to those High Ideals of discipleship that we discussed in the last post among which we must include the Master’s reality of being perfect.
But we as aspirants are becoming free of the illusion and free of the glamour and this because we recognize the Master’s reality which is taught us in His teaching on the treasure of one’s heart. It is this simple; from the perspective of His speaking: “For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34) but, as we well KNOW, it is so hard to Truly realize in daily living. It is what is today important to each man in his own Life that becomes his treasure and wheresoever that treasure lies, in the world of things, in the emotion of a relationship, in personal ambition of any kind. or in the things of God……there will be one’s heart, one’s consciousness in the world of form. Our daily question to ourselves as we walk through each day should perhaps be ‘where is my heart today’, what is of importance to me? God or mammon!
Continuing on with our last saying on the attainment of the Kingdom we have yet another criteria that IS equal to those others above and in this Light the Master is telling us that to “become as little children” is the same as being born again and the same as doing the Will of the Father. From this perspective there must be a very powerful reality to this becoming “as little children“; the verses that we will use are:
- “And said , Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted , and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
- “But Jesus said , Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).
There is a reality in these words from the Master and other similar sayings as well that is missed in the wranglings of doctrine and in the attempt to make this an easier proposition for the average man in the world. The reality here is little children which should be understood to be just that, little children, and not the older versions of a child that this is thought by some to mean. Strong’s tells us that the Greek word paidion means: Neuter diminutive of pais; a childling (of either sex), i.e. (properly), an infant, or (by extension) a half-grown boy or girl; figuratively, an immature Christian — (little, young) child, damsel. In this definition the ideas given ‘by extension’ are based upon the supposed usage of the word in scripture and, while we will not deal with this now, these ‘usages’ may not be as they appear when one does have a proper understanding of the Master’s intent here in these verses. The question should be what is it that “little children” are that has an affinity with these other sayings on one’s attainment of the Kingdom?
In previous posts we laid this to innocence and trusting but to be sure it must be more than this to put it on equal footing with being born again and doing the Will of God. Of course this idea of what “little children” are varies greatly and swiftly depending upon the age of the child. In this reality we should see the parabolic bent that the Master puts into this seemingly simple statement and we should never KNOW the Truth of the children that are referred to except by the notation that they would come when they were called to stand with Jesus. Taking this and adding to it our previous understanding of innocence and trusting we can conclude that this must be a very young child and while we do not KNOW when self awareness and then selfishness begin to show in the average child, we could surmise that the age is before the onset of the these. Our premise here is that the “little children” that the Master is referring to are those in whom the staunch sense of self is not yet apparent; children young enough to be free from the single most prevalent human trait….selfishness. Now there are endless degrees of selfishness and we do not mean to infer that ALL are at that point where there is an apparent psychological problem, we mean only that the sense of self is the primary focus of the child or the man and we KNOW that if the primary focus is upon the self and the things that are affiliated with the self then the focus CAN NOT be on the things of God.
Here in this understanding we can find the ability to equate being as “little children” with the other Ways to the Kingdom and KNOWING that the Master’s teaching is largely by parable, we should not be surprised nor against this interpretation. John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible 8 gives us some insight into these words by the Master; he says: and become as little children: the Arabic renders it, “as this child”; that is, unless ye learn to entertain an humble, and modest opinion of yourselves, are not envious at one another, and drop all contentions about primacy and pre-eminence, and all your ambitious views of one being greater than another, in a vainly expected temporal kingdom; things which are not to be found in little children, though not free from sin in other respects 8. Here Mr. Gill does not get into the idea of age but does state some of the things that are the tendencies of “little children” and that are at the same time contrary to the attitude of a one who would be accounted worthy. And this is the point, that the Master’s words frame in each man’s mind the reality of what it is that “little children” would or would not do, how they would act in relation to the Kingdom of God.
The Master helps us to understand by His words in the second reference above telling us that the Kingdom of Heaven IS as the reality of “little children” and when we can imagine these things in relation to each other we will finally understand what He means. Using our understanding of the Kingdom within the man, we see the Kingdom as the Soul, the Christ Within, and as an individual Soul that has no thoughts of self but rather a sense of ONENESS with ALL Souls. The words we use above and the words that John Gill gives us are for use here in this world, they are only effective in this world. The Soul that is Truly expressing through form would have NO selfish attitudes of any degree or kind an in this respect the Soul, in the Kingdom, is selfless and blameless and is manifest for the expression of the Good, the Beautiful and the True on this Earth. From the Pure perspective of the Soul there IS NO degree of self and the True expression of the Soul through form brings this Purity with it.
We should try to see and understand here that the Master’s idea of being as “little children” is one that is fluid and not tied to the child nor the age but to the principals that are evident in the Life of a “little child” which principals are in Total Agreement with the Master’s precepts regarding one’s attainment of the Kingdom of God. In this respect we should also be able to see the position of equality that this saying can take along side of the others that we have been discussing. Can we see the equalness in the Master’s words? that in being born again one can see the Kingdom and His continuation of that thought to being born of the Spirit one can enter; can we add to this the reality of doing the Will of the Father and of righteousness being also the KEY to the Kingdom and still see the equality and the sameness? and can we yet add the Master’s intent of perfection and the True understanding of the ‘poor’ and then take ALL of these and see them in the same Light as our last saying that we must “become as little children“? ALL of this is the Way if we can but put the Master’s concepts into right perspective.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
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Aspect of God |
Potency |
Expressed as Fire |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Electric Fire |
Spirit or Life |
Life |
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Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Solar Fire |
Soul or Christ Within |
Truth |
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Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Fire by Friction |
Life Within the Form |
Way |
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 is the Prayer of Saint Francis which we repeat again from a previous post as our Quote of the Day. If we were all to accept these ideas as guiding Lights in our lives, we would be expressing the Love and the Faith that the Master teaches. The last time that we presented this we called it the Prayer of Saint Anthony in error; It is attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912*. Regardless of the True authorship, the sentiments revealed in this prayer are genuine and are in keeping the intent of the teachings of the Master and His apostles. We should note here that the dying is not necessarily the death of the body but the death of the carnal man in the world when one is born again. In this context we read this about Saint Francis: Francis was the son of a wealthy foreign cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life**. Here is the antithesis of the rich young man of the gospels.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
This is a prayer that is Truly in line with the teachings of the Master and the ideals encapsulated in this should be those that govern our lives and our prayer should be that ALL can see Life in this same way. We should try to see the reality of these words in the verses above regarding feeding and visiting the least of His and our brethren; in these words is a deeper meaning, as clearer expression of Love and, we should look at the Master’s words above as an expression of Love and not merely in the terms that He presents as this is the intent of the entirety of His teachings.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- * Wikipedia contributors. “Prayer of Saint Francis.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
- **Wikipedia contributors. “Francis of Assisi.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
