IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 604

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 have been discussing our thoughts on discipleship now for several posts starting with the relationship of this High Calling to the reality of attaining the Kingdom of God and then moving into the Master’s requirements for becoming His disciple. Previously we had discussed similar requirements regarding one’s being accounted worthy of the Kingdom and we have taken the position that these are in reality the same thing. One CAN NOT be a disciple if he IS NOT accounted worthy of the Kingdom and one CAN NOT attain the Kingdom without doing those same things that allow one to become a disciple. The ultimate reality here is in the Master’s words below saying “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” which, when combined with the Master’s words on attaining the Kingdom: “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) should give us this picture of these Life events being the same…..discipleship and being accounted worthy of His Kingdom.

Now this IS NOT the same reality as those who devise and believe the doctrines of any particular religion or denomination maintain  as True; these ideas of the Kingdom and of discipleship are quite different than ours. In our posts we have elucidated the Truth from the sayings of the Master, none of which say that the Kingdom is that place to go after death for the Christian who ‘believes’ nor do they say that the Calling of disciple can be made by the man who ‘believes’ and works in the church to spread the doctrine. The Master’s words ARE clear and they are pointed and there is no leeway given. And, as we have said in the last few posts, these are not so much requirements to be met as given us by the Master as they are requirements that MUST be met in the Life of the aspirant; not for the self to achieve but because the aspirant has seen the Light and desires to serve the Lord. The result of the Kingdom and of discipleship are the natural results of living the Life that the Master paints for us; a Life of hating the attachments and attractions of the world from the perspective of their relative importance to the aspirant, that naught can come before God and one’s relationship with God through his own Soul, a Life where one has no Love for any person or thing or attitude or idea that exceeds his Love for the Christ through his own Christ Within, his own Soul. In this idea of Love we should try to see an aura of importance and of focus, that nothing can be or become more important than one’s spiritual pursuits and naught can take away one’s attention from this Truth that IS one’s own Soul. A Life also where one takes up his cross, that is that the aspirant recognizes ALL things amiss in his own Life and sets his course to overcome them, he recognizes the glamour and the illusion that he has lived in and stands against them. A Life in which these ideas are accomplished through one’s forsaking of ALL things of and for the self in the world; that is that the things of the world become meaningless to the aspirants Life in form, he takes no thought for them and there is no longer attachment nor attraction to these things. To these ideas we add the words of the Master as He tells us how to achieve the Kingdom; first and last, by keeping His words and doing the Will of the Father which we can understand as the same thing and which both become the way of the man through his being perfect, being righteous, accepting the Kingdom as a little child and becoming poor from the perspective of forsaking ALL. At the same time we should understand that it is doing and becoming these things in the world that is the result of keeping His words and doing the Will of the Father. ALL of these things build upon each other and to achieve one of these is to achieve them ALL as there is no perfection except one be righteous and there is no attitude of the little child unless one can forsake ALL and give up ALL claims to any thing for the self. And we can mix and match these endlessly to see that there is no righteousness except one keeps His words and no way to keep His words without at the same time focusing ALL on Him which is the same idea as in forsaking ALL.

In the Master’s saying above and the companion rhetorical question from Luke’s Gospel, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46), we should be able to see that the Master understands that there are and will be those who call on Him as though they have done His Will and are keeping His words but who are in reality only keeping the dictates of doctrine. There is no wrong in this and the Master does not call it wrong; He does tell us however that the way to the Kingdom IS that one “doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” and He does imply to us the reality of keeping His words in the rhetorical question which is framed as why bother and which saying is followed by the Parable of the Wise and Foolish builders:

“Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep , and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose , the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth , and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently , and immediately it fell ; and the ruin of that house was great“(Luke 6:47-49).

And this IS ALL brought home for us, amplified and clarified, by the Apostle James who tells us “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). Again, there is no wrong in being a hearer only except that if one believes that such hearing and slight of doing will entitle one to the Kingdom, the apostle tells us that this man is deceived. However, if one DOES keep His words, ALL of them, the Kingdom and discipleship are his; this is the natural way in which these things work our in Life. We should remember here, especially those of us who consider ourselves as aspirants, as men who see the Truth and understand the totality of the commitment as well as the duality of Life in form, that the apostle also tells us of the reality of keeping ALL of His words and not just a select few and although he may give us harsh examples of murder and adultery, we must look past these and see his intent as well as the intent of the Master in the parable above. James tells us:

“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty“(James 2:8-12).

We should see the ultimate reality of this saying in the idea of Love and ponder upon the True meaning of what the apostle means by “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin“; there is much in these words that can keep a follower apart from his own Truth. In relation to this we find in the Master’s words as well sayings that say simply keep His words and there is one that works well with the ideas of discipleship that we have been discussing. There is a time in Jesus ministry when he is approached by His mother and His brethren and in to Matthew’s Gospel we read: “Then one said unto him, Behold , thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said , Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:47-50). We should note here that the Master’s approach to His mother and His brethren is much the same as He tells us; that we should ‘hate’ or have not personal attraction or attachment in Luke’s Gospel and that we should Love them less than we Love our own realization of divinity if we can so paint this today. He gives them no special place in His Life but says clearly that they who “do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother“….these are also, according to His other sayings, accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. Luke’s Gospel says this same thing with a different tone which is only important for any who cannot yet see the sameness of the Master’s words that tell us that the Kingdom belongs to those who do the Will of the Father and those that tell us, as below, that to keep His words is discipleship. In Luke we read “And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it” (Luke 8:21). Of course the word of God must be understood to include the Master’s words else the reality of “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) becomes meaningless.

We should try to see here that the Master is equalizing His mother and His brethren with ALL other men who are in the same league, that they keep the word of God and the Master. We should try also to understand that this does not separate those who keep His words from those that do not in any normal way; those who keep His words are the expression of Souls in form, disciples and those who have attained His Kingdom….ALL such men are equal. On the other side are those that do not keep His words and there is nothing in these sayings that detracts from their constant invitation to join Him and we KNOW as well that those that do not keep His words are His mission; they are to whom the Master has Truly come. In reality the Master equalized ALL men; He healed ALL and He taught ALL and “many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples” (Matthew 9:10). And this IS the broader lesson, that ALL men are Souls working out their divinity through Life in form; our sayings above regarding His mother and brethren are intended only to see this equality from the perspective of the Kingdom and discipleship and not to make any example as to one’s way of Life in the world. And it is this broader lesson that is brought home for us by James as he warns us not the hold any one person above another in our hearts and minds but to see ALL as children of God and, he adds for us the implication that this sin, or worldly look at things, is the opposite of the Love that the Master teaches and is no different that any other sin; even the gross sins that he mentions. It is this sense of seeing ALL men equal that is a cornerstone of our accomplishing that Love that the Master teaches and which we KNOW as GoodWill. GoodWill is, by the Master’s example and the apostle’s words, to be universally applied and the Master makes this abundantly clear in telling us that we must:

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:44-48).

This is the reality of Love and this IS the reality of GoodWill and this IS the example that the Master has set for us to follow; an example that He maintained throughout His time with us over 2000 years ago, an example that brought Him the derision of the Pharisees and the rulers of the day. Their attitude was of their religion and of their time and the Master’s example defied their view of people and their place and position in Life. He set for us an example that should emulate and He gave us instructions that we should follow in the sayings above; and we should pay special attention to the last verse and try to see how this idea of perfection is intimately tied to Love.

We did not get to our last two verses except by reference today and we will try to deal with these in the next post and finish our brief look at discipleship and being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God.

• “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).

We also did not finish with our look at the chart below and its meaning for us who as aspirants are striving toward the strait gate; we will come back to this discussion shortly.

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!