IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 587

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CLXXVI

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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).

In yesterday’s post we nearly completed our look at the Fifteen Point listed below and we spent much time on what we see as the most important of these, number fourteen. This saying by Emmet Fox captures the essence of the Master’s teaching on the Golden Rule and it places the responsibility for keeping it upon each and every individual leaving NO excuses for non compliance except the degree of self and selfishness that are a part of any one’s Life. Mr. Fox says simply that The important point about the Golden Rule is that I am to practice it whether the other fellow does so or not. In this is its Power and its Strength as THE SINGLE IDEAL that could FIX ALL PROBLEMS, personal and corporate, in the world today. And it is the Golden Rule that gives us the True understanding of he Great Commandment that the Master teaches and which we covered in some detail in the last essay showing the eight times that the words appear in the Bible: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. It is also this Golden Rule that is a precept in ALL True religions where, while worded differently and according to the time and the culture to which it is presented, it has the same Force, the same Power and Strength to correct the ills of the world. We looked at many of these precepts from various religions in a recent post, In the Words of Jesus part 574 and we would do well to review these again to see that this is an ideal that is for every man regardless of his place.

The Golden Rule  is stated twice in the Gospels and with slightly different verbiage:

• “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

• “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

In the exercise of Love for one’s neighbor there is sometimes confusion in who that neighbor is and this despite the graphic example given in the Parable of the Good Samaritan where we see clearly that the Samaritan, a man who we are told had no dealings with the Jews, not only stops to help the wounded man, presumably a Jew,  but offers continuing care as well and this after the wounded man is purposely ignored by a priest and by a Levite, both of whom are considered in the Old Testament as being closest to God. Here we see the reality of the neighbor as the stranger and hence our own saying that relates the three, the brother, the neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both. Now we must understand that this parable is offered by the Master in direct answer to the question:

“And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:29-37).

From this story there should be no question as to who one’s neighbor Truly IS yet confusion abounds and this is apparent even in the teachings of some doctrines that DO NOT see the Power and the Force behind the Master’s words. Neither do many see or teach the strong relationship between the Master’s words that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” and that saying that we call the Golden Rule which goes a long way in explaining again who is one’s neighbour and gives us a greater understanding of the idea of Love for oneself. We should try to see here that it is “whatsoever ye would that men should do to you” that defines one’s Love for oneself and this Golden Rule epitomizes the reality of how to Love thy neighbor….by doing to and for him only what one would want done to and for himself. This is the reality of Love which, as we have ofttimes said, IS NOT that emotional attraction between people and things based upon pleasure and pleasurable feelings. The Love that the Master speaks of IS GOODWILL and IT IS the Golden Rule; the way to conduct ourselves in this Love and according to the Master’s Great Commandment is found in the fourteenth point below which, as we have said, captures the essence of the Master’s intent in giving us this Golden Rule. We can Truly live in Love when we rightly understand that  I am to practice it whether the other fellow does so or not; this IS of course a requirement for the disciple and the aspirant as these words define this High Calling in many ways and it IS the way of Love which IS the way par excellence for the spiritual progression of ALL men……THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.

We list here for the last time in this series of essays the Fifteen Points of Emmet Fox which we have been discussing for several days and which discussion we complete today with our look at the last one, number fifteen:

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.

This last point is the encapsulation of the entire New Thought movement from Mr. Fox perspective. To understand his perspective one must understand the his meaning of the term Scientific Prayer which we present here in his words:

Scientific prayer or spiritual treatment is really the lifting of your consciousness above the level where you have met your problem.  If only you can rise high enough in thought, the problem will the solve itself.   This is really the only problem you have – to raise in consciousness.  The more “difficult,” which means the more deeply rooted in your thoughts, is the problem concerned, the higher you will have to rise.  What is called a small trouble, will yield to a slight raise in consciousness.  What is called a serious difficulty, will require a relatively higher rise.  What is called a terrible danger or hopeless problem, will require a considerable rise in consciousness to overcome it – but that is the only difference.

Do not waste time trying to straighten out your own or other people’s problems by manipulating thought – that gets you nowhere – but raise your consciousness, and the action of God will do the rest.

Jesus healed sick people and reformed many sinners by raising his consciousness above the picture they presented.  He controlled the wind and the waves in the same way.  He raised the dead because he was able to get as high in consciousness as is necessary to do this.

To raise your consciousness you must positively withdraw your attention from the picture for the time being (The Golden Key) and then concentrate gently upon spiritual truth.  You may do this by reading the Bible or any spiritual book that appeals to you, by going over any hymn or poem that helps you in this way, or by the use of one or more affirmations, just as you like.

While there is some Truth in this, from our perspective the reality that the consciousness that is to be raised is the Soul’s individuality in form, his sense of self in the world, is missing and the consciousness here is relegated to the activity of it and not the cause. The practice here seems to be to focus oneself upon the things of God through scripture or other means but to do so for the purpose of resolving some physical worldly problem or issue. In Mr. Fox’s understanding there is a benefit to doing this that works for some people and the dividing line between success and failure is likely seen in the same way as the ‘answers to prayer’ of the rest of Christianity, that it is dependent upon an act of believing. What we are saying here and have said in the past is that when these things do not work for a person, that person is left to feel that he has failed because he does not believe strongly enough or because he is not good enough and others at the same time may look at him in this same way. While the scientific prayer of Mr. Fox may differ in technique from the various other forms of prayer and ‘believing for’ this thing or that the reality is that these are all much the same and all rely on using spiritual Light to resolve carnal issues. This is not the intent of the words of the Master nor of His disciples and there is no real scientific technique involved in any of these ideas of being spiritual from the perspective of man in form but, since a man sees himself only as this carnal creature, this is likely the extent to which he can formulate these doctrinal approaches to God and his own well being in the world.

Another part of Mr. Fox’s doctrine and teaching is in regard to reincarnation. In this as well as in the ideas above on scientific prayer Mr. Fox has the understanding that this Life that we ARE is the life of the personality and that it is this personality that reincarnates and in this we can see how he ties this all together from the perspective of the man in form instead of the Soul living through form; it is this next step in thought that we have taken. When we see the body and the personality, the mind and the emotions, as a part of the world, a part that is given Life and consciousness by the Soul, we can see more clearly the reality of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles that give us direction to choose a Life in this world or a Life in the Kingdom of God.

This ends our look at the words of Emmet Fox in his Fifteen Points and through this the words of the Apostle Paul in his instructions to us as disciples as he tells us upon what we should focus. We should understand that there is nothing in these words from Paul nor in the Wisdom from Above from the Apostle James nor in the apostle’s listing of the fruit of the Spirit nor in the myriad words of the Master that is about the self and the carnal life, but rather that ALL that they say is in regard to the Love and the Power of the Soul, the Christ Within as the focus of the consciousness of the man in form.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Solar Fire	Soul or Christ Within	Truth
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:

Leaving again the Great Invocation, we encourage ALL to read and reread it and our comments as in these words can be found the keys to our spiritual reality.

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132

The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.

Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.

The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ‡  From The Fifteen Points by Emmet Fox; © 1932 HarperCollins Publishers Inc