IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 578

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CLXVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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 strange to some that we are reviewing the specific doctrine of another in a critique and comparison mode, we do do with purpose so as to show that this New Thought Philosophy, while being the closest to Truth that we can find in all of our Christian reading, is still a long way from the reality that we see. We are of course looking at this through the eyes of Emmet Fox and although there are several other contributors to this Christian movement, it is Mr. Fox’s works that we KNOW and there is much of value in his writing for many who are seeking a better way than the aged and mundane pronouncements of so many other denominations and sects. Reading below in the Quotation of the Day section you can see that this New Thought movement, while staunchly preaching the New Testament realities of the Christ, is considered a sect instead of a denomination by some and considered a cult by others and we should understand their use of the word cult in the worst possible light. Of course our own writings are likely considered cultish and heresy by these same who in their illusion and their glamour fashion themselves as the Right Way to God and we should remember that these several who deride New Thought and likely ourselves are themselves divided with each part claiming that they are the Right Way. As we have said there is a value for some in most every True religious group and this value is what should attract each to a movement, a sect or a denomination; that is that they should be attracted to a religious way that can help them to greater realization in this Life. Unfortunately this is not True of all participants as some are not so much attracted as they are made to belong to a particular sect, movement or denomination by family circumstance or perhaps for others there is their own constant search for the greater Truth. The True adherents in these religious affiliations do believe the doctrine and the teaching and tend to act and think along the lines of their particular church of choice and it is this affiliation that defines their several theories and understandings of the nature of Life and the Way to God. And, we KNOW from our discussions and our research that each of them believes, each True adherent and those that they can convince, that they have found the Way to heaven and the way to avoid hell by their particular religious practice and beliefs.

There are also many that can not affiliate themselves with any of these sects, movements or denomination and, while they may be Christian by their upbringing, the are attracted to other religions and many must bear the negative attitudes of family and friends who, enthralled in their own illusion and glamour, disagree and sometimes strongly. This can be seen as happening as well to a one who takes up one of the alternative Christian ideas and who moves to a newer understanding of God like the New Thought movement or to an older one like Christian Science which are both frowned upon by many of those who consider themselves the mainstream of Christianity. And we should understand that it is a self proclaimed authority that pronounces these ideas as wrong to their own faithful as do many of those who have made it to the public domain as authoritative figures and who gain notoriety in the press and other news media as well as the constant appearance by some on their own television and radio media. The volume of differing messages is at times staggering and it is likely that those denominations or sects that are so exposed in media are the ones that are today growing in popularity. Our greater point in going through all this today is to show again that there are many who claim to have the Truth yet they can not all agree on what it is and that there are many who have come to be recognized as authorities on religion and even on God who are self appointed and some of these will even qualify as charlatans. For us this is all but background noise but to the seeker there is at times much to be considered and it is here that the Master’s message is of great value, His True message and not the one that filters down to men from these who claim authority. The Master tells us two things of importance for the seeker who chooses to remain among the more normal denominations or who chooses to gravitate toward one of the newer and out of the mainstream parts of the Christian religion or any religion or philosophy.

• “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given” (Mark 4:24). As we have previously discussed, this idea of hearing must be seen in the deeper  context of what one may believe. The Apostle Mark uses the Greek word akouo in this saying and we read this in the lexicon as the English meanings of this word: to be endowed with the faculty of hearing, not deaf; to hear; to attend to, consider what is or has been said; to understand, perceive the sense of what is said; to hear something; to perceive by the ear what is announced in one’s presence; to get by hearing learn; a thing comes to one’s ears, to find out, learn; to give ear to a teaching or a teacher; to comprehend, to understand ². In these meanings we should only look at those that pertain to understanding and comprehension and perceiving the sense of what is said which we can place into a reality of believing. To understand the saying as specific to what one would hear as sound in the ear is nonsensical; the reality must be what one attends to and tends to believe. The balance of the saying is parabolic as well and when the whole is taken in the context of believing, believing the Truth and holding it dear as is seen in the Parable of the Sower that precedes our saying, one can conclude that the man as the good ground will have an abundance of the fruit while the other types of ground in the parable will lose even the ability to produce fruit. Seeing this in the context of the fruit of the Spirit, this makes the best sense. Our message from the Master here is that men should be careful of what they believe and be sure that what they believe puts them on the good ground so that they are among those “such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit” (Mark 4:20). We should remember here that for us the essence of believing is DOING, and keeping the words of the Master.

• “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:18-20). The message here is simple; if the purveyors of a certain doctrine are living a Life that is consistent with the words of the Master regarding attainment of the Kingdom and discipleship, then their fruit will likely fall into the words used by the Apostle Paul that define for us the fruit of the Spirit. If however their lives are filled with contrary things to what you perceive as the noble ideas of attaining the Kingdom and discipleship, if they are self serving and focused upon the things of the world as are the majority of the human family today, then their fruit will NOT be as Paul tells us saying: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 21:24). We must remember that he tells us also that “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). It is a very personal question for each to determine that those that they listen to and what it is that they preach conform to these ideals that ARE the fruits of discipleship.

These two sayings by the Master are intended to be our help and ready aid in understanding that not all authorities are authorities, and not all teaching and preaching is founded in His words nor should all be believed just because they are spoken by one who claims authority. And there are several levels of activity here; the one is the man who preaches what he himself Truly believes with no desire for self gratification nor reward; another is the man who Truly believes what he is saying and who at the same time is focused upon the world and the things of the world believing that these ARE his reward for his labor. There is then yet another type of man who can be likened to the Master’s words “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15) and this is to say that they are more concerned with themselves and their reward than they are with the spiritual well being of others. The bottom line in this is that there is caution and warning given by the Master and it is not only to be seen as against the Pharisee and the other religious ‘rulers’ of the Jews 2000 years ago but it is meant for all of us and at all times.

And so we come back to Mr. Fox’s writing and to Mr. Fox himself who we KNOW only by what is written by him and about him. In his writing we get the real understanding that he Truly believes and he promulgates much of the tenets of the New Thought doctrine and so we see him as sincere in his efforts. That his works are still in print and available shows only their appeal to people who are searching; it says nothing about the relative Truths that he speaks nor his motivations and for this one must go to historical writings about him. Of course from the perspective of much of the mainstream church, the New Thought movement is put on par with the New Age teachings and whatever this term may mean and the writings and teachings are considered by many to be more of a self help regimen than as a religion and, as we say above, some view this movement as a cult of sorts as it is lumped in with other similar movements. Our point of view here is that Mr. Fox and his particular writings form a reality in the New Thought movement that has a biblical basis and which is of value to the average man in terms of right behavior in Life here on Earth. While we may not agree about the specifics of the teaching, most of it is properly placed and an emphasis is placed upon the fact that the mind controls the Life in form. What is missing is the reality of the Soul, the Inner man, the True man who must influence the mind with the Love and the Power that emanate from that place that we call the Kingdom of God, that Kingdom that is within man and is analogous to the Soul. Without the influence of the Soul, the Christ Within, the mind dwells in the world thinking of the self and the things of the world and this is contrary to our True attainment of the Kingdom as we understand it.

In the five points that we discussed in the last post we can see the sense of Love as it appears in the first and the third of the Fifteen Points and while not stated as we would state it, these do put forth that sense of Love as we understand it….as GoodWill and equal respect for ALL. The other three points seem concerned with the self in the world and while we would not make this a part of our doctrine and teaching, we can see the benefit to those who have not the sense that these things are proper; we ourselves hold that if we are striving and expressing any degree of Soul Light that these ideas will become our reality.

We did not get any further in this list of Fifteen Points but rather have tried to build a rationale for believing and for doing as it is based upon the words of the Master and upon the reality of the world in which we live. There is ultimately but ONE TRUTH and this is what we seek. 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:

Emmet Fox, a New Thought Christian teacher, gives us his Fifteen Points teaching one of which we used to exemplify the Master’s intent in His teaching to us about the Golden Rule. All of these points are however forward looking from the perspective of the man who desires to advance spiritually and they are based upon the reality of the Master’s teachings on Love.

I Am Really In Truth: ‡

1. If – I always look for the best in each person, situation and thing.
2. If – I resolutely turn my back on the past, good or bad and live only in the present & future
3. If – I forgive everybody without exception, no matter what he may have done; and if I then forgive MYSELF whole-heartedly.

4. If – I regard my job as sacred and do my day’s work to the best of my ability (whether I like it or not).

5. If – I take every means to demonstrate a healthy body and harmonious surroundings for myself.

6. If – I endeavor to make my life of as much service to others as possible, without interfering or fussing.

7. If – I take every opportunity wisely to spread the knowledge of Truth to others.
8. If – I rigidly refrain from personal criticism, and neither speak nor listen to gossip.
9. If – I devote at least a quarter of an hour a day to prayer and meditation.
10. If – I read at least seven verses of the Bible everyday.
11. If – I specifically claim spiritual understanding of myself every day.
12. If – I train myself to give the first thought on waking to God.
13. If – I speak the Word for the whole world every day, say at noon.

14. If – I PRACTICE, the Golden Rule of Jesus instead of merely admiring it. He said, “Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” The important point about the Golden Rule is that I am to practice it whether the other fellow does so or not.

15. If – above all, I understand that whatever I see is but a picture which can be changed for the better by Scientific Prayer.

Repeating our text on this and Mr. Fox from a previous essay: Now we should understand that the above ideas are the doctrine that Mr. Fox taught and that like any doctrine it is based in what the man believes which is for most of us a revealer of the illusions that we are under. Much of these Fifteen Points are rather directly for the teachings of the Master. On the whole these are most all good and virtuous ideas but of the most importance insofar as the Master’s teachings are concerned are those points that give us some understanding of how a man should act in regard to others and the most profound is the simple wording of number fourteen. This teaching is given out for the use of the general Christian audience as Mr. Fox addresses people much like every other preacher or pastor albeit with his own doctrine and with a bit more emphasis on the Love that the Master taught. We should add here that many of the other Christian denominations do not agree with the teachings of the New Thought Movement nor Mr. Fox with some even referring to this teaching as cultish. We bring this out here not because we agree with their teachings but to show that there is some movement towards the teaching of Love by some newer parts of the church and the tell-all of this movement is in point fifteen which is outside of the teachings of the Master except one interpret His words in this way. This is doctrine and this is illusion from the perspective that these precepts are not in alignment with the words of the Master insofar as His ideas on discipleship and the hard line that is drawn for the actuality of being accounted worthy of His Kingdom. From our perspective these points are good and are most all worthwhile and they will lead people who can subscribe to them closer to the Master. This idea is true of most all denominations as they do attract people who can think and believe along certain lines and, as we have said before, it is better to believe in the doctrine of a denomination and to follow it as best one can than it is to flounder through Life with little or no direction at all.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ‡  From The Fifteen Points by Emmet Fox; © 1932 HarperCollins Publishers Inc