Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CXLIII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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“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).
In the last post we equated the Tree of Life with our scale of focus and with the high end of this scale which we can consider the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom which is attainable only by focus on that goal and by keeping the words of the Master in ALL things. Along this scale we find the poles of mammon and of God and between them the complete range of the focus of the man in the world. This focus ranges from total and complete focus upon the things of the world and all of the gross thoughts and behaviors that this totally self absorbed attitude can include, then onto those areas of similar focus that are not so totally self absorbed nor gross but focused nonetheless on one’s Life in the world. Moving further along we find a focus that is no longer single minded toward the things of the world but is reaching out toward the other pole in some small way and, as we move further along, this reaching out increases to a point of real interest. Yet further along we would find the focus of Life swinging more to the God side of the scale although still focused upon the lower self and the things of the world and we can then see this a continuing striving toward the higher end with much alternation of focus from one pole to the other. Still alternating the focus, the man makes steady strides toward the God side and can be seen moving steadily further along with fewer alternating periods. Somewhere further along on this Path, this scale, we will find the reality of discipleship and, at the end, at the God end of the scale, the perfection of the man in form.
It is this far end of the scale, the God side of our scale upon which our focus moves from mammon to God, that can be seen and realized as the Tree of Life and it is this that our saying above refers to. This saying gives us the reality of Life as man, as the Soul in form in the world, saying that he CAN NOT “put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat“; he must work his way out of the grip of mammon and back to his place with God. We should note that there is no other reference to this Tree of Life except in the context which we have in the Book of Genesis and a few rather fanciful references in Proverbs. We have of course discounted the references in the Book of Revelation as these are themselves couched in mystery which when rightly discerned refer back to this Tree in Genesis and the allegory that such reference contains. In Genesis we find that:
- “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9) which tells us where the tree IS and the Garden must be understood for what it represents as well. The Hebrew word ‘Eden literally translated means pleasure according to the lexicon which the tell us is from another similar Hebrew word with similar meanings luxury, dainty, delight, finery; delight 2. Strong’s however tells us that this word Eden mean paradise, delight 3 which gives a slightly different connotation. While this garden is thought of as a real place by tradition and doctrine we should see it for what it represents and while there are apparent notes in Genesis as to a physical location we should understand a deeper meaning for these ideas of rivers and regions as there is no way to physically place it using these markers. The mixture of the ideas of pleasure and paradise should give us some idea of the nature of the existence of the first man, Adam, the first Soul to take to himself a form of the human of the animal kingdom. In pleasure we can see the experience of the now self conscious Soul in form tasting for the first time the pleasures of the senses as a man in form and, as the same time we can see in paradise the idea of peaceful bliss in this experience. The Soul is experiencing the Life of a man in the world in a time when the personality created by the combination of Soul and human form has not yet developed that strong sense of self that yet pervades our lives today. Again, we cannot say that Adam is the single one created man or if he is representative of a group of many but this does not matter in our discourse today.
- The only other reference to the Tree of Life is in our subject verses at the top where we read those words that we interpret as the end point on the journey of man, God Consciousness. Here we saw the idea that for Life in the Earth to be as destined by the Plan of God, a Life where man is subjected to the vanity as a part of the Plan of God that we read of in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, man’s access to the Tree of Life must be eliminated and hence our next words above that tell us “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“. This then becomes man’s destiny of Life in the world, that mans access to the Tree of Life, to that God Consciousness that he formerly had before his taking on the forms of the human animal in the world, is limited to those who can get past the “Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way“. While the idea of Cherubims is intriguing and the “flaming sword” fascinating, these are better understood for what they represent as barriers to the attainment of God Consciousness by the man in form. These barriers are however surmountable as we read in the words of the Master and His apostles who tell us how to attain the Kingdom of God and we KNOW these to be summarized in our single word of focus. When the focus of a man becomes totally fixed on the things of God and when ALL claim to the personal self in the world is gone, when ALL is forsaken, this “flaming sword” and these Cherubims will fade away and disappear leaving us clear access to the Tree of Life, the Kingdom of God.
The other references are in the Book of Proverbs:
- Speaking of Wisdom we read: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens” (Proverbs 3:17-19).
- Speaking of the righteous we read: “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner” (Proverbs 11:30-31).
- Speaking of hopes and desires we read: “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase. Hope deferred maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh , it is a tree of life. Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed : but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded” (Proverbs 13:11-13).
- Speaking on the actions of man we read: “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit” (Proverbs 15:4).
In these references to the Tree of Life we are given no clue as to what it is except that it is good; the Tree is Wisdom and the fruit of the righteous which says that Wisdom brings that Tree into the Life of a man and his expression of that Wisdom makes the Tree apparent in one’s Life. In the saying regarding hope and desire we must remember that the hopes and the desires of one focused upon God are for the things of God and the fulfillment of this is the Tree. This last saying tells us the same as the second; that a man’s expression is the Tree of Life and again we should understand that this is all speaking of men who are so focused and even in Solomon’s day we should see that he speaks not about the things of the world.
Except for the few sayings in the Book of Revelation this is the extent of the biblical references to the Tree of Life and in ALL of these there is no better idea of what it is than the idea that we have put forth here, that it IS the God end of our scale and it IS realization of God Consciousness that, by the Plan of God, is put off from the man in form until he can turn his whole being back to focus upon God. There is not much else said about this Tree of Life that can help us to understand its reality and the fanciful observations of doctrine on this Tree are just that. In a previous post, In the Words of Jesus part 496 we had this to say about the Tree of Life and the other tree in the garden as well; the perspective is a bit different but the ideas are essentially the same. Speaking about the words of the Apostle John that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) we say:
- If Love is the cause of ALL then it is the root of ALL as well and here we should try to see the reality of the “tree of life” as the True Man and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9) as the man in form. We have heretofore positioned this as the True Man, the Soul giving Life and lending consciousness to the form Life in the world. The Life is within the form and the form uses it to continue in this world; when the Life leaves the form the Life in this world is over. In this we should be able to see that this form Life IS the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil“. Taking this thought further we have the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within, as the “tree of life” which is ‘off limits’ to the man in form which we read as “cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). Of course taking these words literally we can only rely upon superstition and fanciful stories to understand these realities of Life which are offered to us couched in mystery. What is actually guarding the ”tree of life” is a hard thing to say but we can offer here the idea that it is illusion and glamour that keep the man in form from seeing the Truth, the Soul that IS the man and, if we can look at this story from Genesis and relate it to the words of the Apostle Paul that we have been using frequently, we can likely get a better picture of the reality of Life.
- Genesis tells us that “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 know from our further reading that God does not forsake Adam and Eve but nurtures them in the Earth and continues with them as their generations showing them the way back to God, back to the Garden.
- Paul tells us in Romans that: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but 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;19-21).
In the combination of these ideas that we have put forth, there is much understanding of the role of the Tree of Life and of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as well. The one is the effect of being in the world; it is the devolving of the divine man into the ways of man in form where he comes to KNOW the world as the evil and, when he has reached the point where he can begin his return, he comes to sense the good from which he came. The other, the Tree of Life, is clouded by the illusion and the glamour of man’s Life in the world; at first he cannot even see this Tree and, as he approaches that point where he can begin his return, he can then sense its reality and its presence. This Tree of Life IS the Christ Within, it IS the Soul, the divine man; this Tree of Life IS his realization of these Truths of Life and in its fullest, the Tree of Life IS full God Consciousness which we see in Jesus the Christ from Paul’s words “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and we KNOW that this is our destiny and our privilege from John’s words “because as he is , so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
This ends our thoughts on the Tree of Life and we will complete our discussion of the creation of man as told in the Book of Genesis with our thoughts on the last saying below in the next post.
- “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) .
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Aspect of God |
Potency |
Expressed as Fire |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Christ |
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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:
Having touched upon the thoughts of Paul regarding Love and his relationship of this to what we can see today as illusion and then to his reality of Truth insofar as perception, we post his words again as the Quote of the Day along with our previous comments.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:1-13) (New King James Version)
Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. In our theme today regarding Paul’s writings to the Romans and in the previous discussions on them we seek to impart the better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, as it is from this perspective that we can gain that revelation of Truth and, as Paul says above, be free from the condemnation and the vanity of Life in form, free from the illusion and the glamour. We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post:
Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. This defining of Love is covered in some depth in a previous post; In the Words of Jesus part 47.
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
