IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 603

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXCII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren” (James 1:12-16).

We ended the last post with that saying from the Apostle Paul that we use so often as our ready aid to understanding the reality of Life in form and the eventual expression of the Divine Man who will be delivered from this vanity, this illusion and glamour which ARE Life in this world. The apostle says:

“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 8:20-21).

In this saying is found our reality in the world as men in form, not the reason for this existence but the nature of it, as we are as Souls subjected to this vanity by way of our birth into the world and, as the complex creatures that we are, that combination of a human body with the divine Soul, we are naturally subjected to this vanity by the very Plan of God. To say we play a role as Souls in this panorama of Life on this Earth is a fact but what role this actually is also hidden by this vanity, this illusion and glamour, that cause a man to believe that he is the body and the Life in form. That so many come to the conclusion that there is more, that there is a consciousness that reaches beyond the body and the personality, can be seen as a testament to our reality that the Soul, the True man, continually prompts the consciousness of the man in form to the reality of the True Life, ever trying to break through the clouds of the mind and the misty feel of emotion; the illusion and the glamour that the man has been nurtured by and in. That man is subjected to this world phenomenon as the apostle tells us us rather evident in any sincere look at the world around us and in any honest introspective look at ourselves. We are here on this Earth and Paul’s explanation of this is likely as True as we can understand and in saying this we acknowledge that even this as he says it is a difficult idea to get more than just a glimpse of; our understanding of this begins with our realization that we are not these forms and that we are not these personalities but we ARE the Soul, the Life and the consciousness that is destined to be expressed through form. This IS the apostles next idea in the saying above as well; as he tells us that this IS the Plan of God, that as men we are subjected “not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“. We should try to discern the magnitude of this endeavor of Life in form on this Earth and understand that this IS His Plan and we DO have a role however unclear this may be.

Paul goes on to tell us another part of the Plan as we see in his words of deliverance; that we “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“,  in this we should note that as much as the previous saying is our natural state, our plight if you will, this next saying is our destiny, our end and this IS True for ALL men. As we have said in previous essays, we should see the idea of the word hope here as expectation as our God does not need to hope, God KNOWS and, while this word is almost universally translated as hope, we should see in the definitions that expectation IS the general tenor of the Greek word elpis. Some doctrine sees the ‘curse’ in these words by Paul but, as we presented in our series on the creation of man from the Book of Genesis, there is really no ‘curse’ but rather  a natural existence on Earth according to the Plan of God; this presentation begins in In the Words of Jesus part 512 and continues intermittently for many days. When we can look away from the doctrines that are based in the ideas of men from thousands of years ago and try to see the apostles words in the Light of day, they can and do take on a real depth and can offer great insights into our origin, our nature, and our future. We should see here that we are in the world, subjected to vanity by the Plan of God and that this Plan is the working our of the Life of Deity and as a part of this working is the expectation that we shall ALL be delivered.

Hidden in this is another view of the choice that a man has through his Life, or better, his lives, in this world; he can choose to stay on this lower path, subjected to the illusion and the glamour, and trapped, if we can use this as our idea, in the world of things. The other choice is of course deliverance, the expected deliverance that has no timetable, only the quiet assurance that it will happen at some time and not necessarily in this particular Life on Earth. And this is the Master’s teaching, that there IS a choice between God and mammon which words cover the reality of most ALL choices. Hidden also in the apostle’s words is yet another glimpse of our reality if we can see anything in his words: “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Ponder on this and our use of this saying in previous posts.

In Paul’s words then we should be able to see our plight and our destiny and it is these things that the Master teaches us about and it is these things that Jesus paints for us in His parables and His sayings. We can remain subjected to this vanity or we can take leave of this worldly Life and strive toward the Kingdom of God…..we can choose God or mammon. As we look at this we should, as the Master instructs, count the cost and while we may KNOW that there is really NO cost but vanity and illusion and glamour, these are difficult to overcome as they do cause us to believe that they are the real that they hold for us the Truth. It is here that we can make some useful sense of the Master’s words for us today as He speaks about those men in His day and before as this saying is a quoted one from the Prophet Esaisa; the Master says:

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:13-16).

While we have discussed these words as regards the use of parables, we have never looked at it in relation to the nature of Life as we understand as from Paul’s presentation of  it for us above. As we understand this, it is the illusion and the glamour, the vanity as Paul tells us, that causes man to be as the Master describes; that he CAN NOT see the reality and that he CAN NOT hear the Truth. He is prevented from doing so by the illusion and the glamour that tells him that what he does see and what he does hear IS the Real ans IS the True. As the Prophets words go on we see that men are seeing and hearing the True and the Real but that they choose not to accept this reality; their “heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” which is to say that their consciousness, their heart, is given over to the personality and is mired in the illusion and the glamour that keep his eyes closed and his ears dulled to the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it Truly exists in the words of the Master. Can we see that this is NOT only a thing that afflicted those men in Isaiah’s time, nearly 3000 years ago, in the Master’s time, more than 2000 years ago, and yet today? Many, many, millions still do not see the Truth in His words as they continue to live in the illusion and the glamour that tells them that their beliefs are right, that their doctrine is right and that they are on the right path. It is these same that the Master speaks of in this saying and who do not see the reality of His words, not in this saying only but in the entirety of His teaching. Our conversion and our healing is found only in keeping His words which is for us effectively becoming a disciple and being accounted worthy of His Kingdom. And, as aspirants to the High Calling who see some of the Master’s realities and Truths and who can discern His parables, His proverbs and His sayings in a way that IS consistent with His teaching on Love and the True treasures of the heart, we have that blessing of His Presence, the Presence of the Christ Within in our daily thoughts and actions.

Bringing this back to where we are in our discussion of the Master’s spoken criteria for discipleship, a criteria that IS self imposed by the action of the Soul working through a willing personality that has seen and heard the Real and the True as the man begins to overcome the vanity in which he is mired and the illusion and the glamour that cloud his Life in form. We could say here that in a way ALL men can be ready for this realization merely by the use of an open mind allowing the Light of the Soul in but this is an exceedingly difficult task for one who may not have the spiritual collateral to work from and it is a difficult task even for those who do. The role of vanity, of illusion and glamour, is strong in the world and, as we have said, this becomes the conscious reality of most who mistake the unreal for the real because this IS ALL that they KNOW or it IS ALL that they will allow themselves to KNOW. An example can be seen in the Pharisees who although the see only good works and although they hear only Godly words, they do not see or hear the Real and the True in them but they rather see ONLY how these good works and these Godly words are contrary to what the firmly believe to be the Truth. Today is likely no different; if a man acts in Love toward others, expresses Wisdom that meets the Apostle James criteria for Wisdom from above and bears such fruits as Paul tells us are the fruits of the Spirit, he is still called as a heretic if he does not share the doctrinal concepts of any particular group who is hearing, seeing and judging.

In the words on discipleship that we have in the Apostle Luke’s Gospel we have the added idea of forsaking ALL and we have taken this idea and subjected it to other sayings by the Master and His apostles. In the last post we looked at the choice between God and Mammon from the perspective of the Apostle Matthew’s writings and here we will continue this using the words as they are constructed in Luke. Yesterday we looked at the order of the sayings involved and we noted that Jesus’ words on God and mammon follow upon the Parable of the Unjust Servant and we will pick up the Master’s words from here:

“And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God“(Luke 16:8-15).

We should see in the last verse here the same idea that we are presenting above; that those things that one believes but which are the result of the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world. Such is the Master’s understanding of the Pharisee who works and does so as to “justify yourselves before men“, these are the same men who vainly believe that they are doing God’s service and who never see the involvement of the little self in the world in their beliefs. Jesus speaks of these to His apostles in a way that shows just how strong these delusional beliefs can become as He says: “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2). Important here is that the Master recognizes that this is the nature of men and He tells us this so that we can understand this as well.

The context in this version of the God and mammon saying is quite different here than we saw in Matthew’s version but the takeaway is likely the same. In our look at this yesterday we find the context as that the one whose “eye be single” is focused upon the things of God while the other whose “eye be evil“, or of the Earth, is focused upon the things of the world. Here we see the graphically described choice of God and mammon which, when added to the Master’s prior words regarding the treasure of the heart, we can also see His intent and the reality of telling us that “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:22, 23, 24) as a fact. The context of the message above from Luke, while being quite different, serves for us the same purpose as we see that the unjust steward is actively trying to serve his master and his own selfish ends at the same time only to find out that this CAN NOT be done. This is of course a parable that can be seen as the reality of serving God or the self in the world and in this, the active thought is no different than the ideas of treasure on Earth or treasure in heaven; it is a choice of what one will ‘serve’ or focus upon….God or mammon.

The choice of God or mammon is the choice of men and the True choice of God is the choice of the aspirant and the disciple and this to such degree that the other matters not; we “take no thought” for any of theses things of the world and we forsake our attachment and our attraction to them; this is the message of discipleship which we will complete with our final sayings below in the next post.

• “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
• “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	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!