Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CXCIV
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“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).
While it may seem that we have been all over the place with our topics of the last several days, discussing as it were three or four at the same time, it is likely better to see how ALL of this is so much interconnected that the topic is in reality just ONE which is for us individually to attain that High Calling of discipleship and to be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God both of which we also consider as ONE. ALL of these other words are to elucidate and to explain as best we can as men in form the reality of Life and the way that we can glimpse that reality and thereby be in position to seize it as this reality IS also our objective in any incarnation and the goal of Life itself. Corporately the objectives and the goals are the same as can be summed up in the question; how many of my brothers can I take with me and how many of my brothers can I help to see through the miasmas of the illusion and the glamour in which they also live? Having said this, we will continue here from where we left off in the last post, in yet another look at he words from the Apostle Paul to the Romans which we have expanded to include some of the earlier verses. Our understanding of these verses is not of the ordinary and we do believe that it is an accurate presentation of the intent of the apostle and this goes to our overall topic at the beginning of the last post which is that men believe for the most part that which is convenient and beneficial to their lives on this Earth. This Life is what they KNOW and finding comfort in it is what they do. This IS however the effect of the vanity that Paul tells us about in his saying which we repeat again in the expanded version for clarity:
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 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. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 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 8:16-23).
While we see in this a rather adequate explanation of the plight of man in form and of his hope of deliverance from this plight, others see this in a doctrinal way as it would be related to their doctrines of the fall of man and the curse under which they presume that man lives. Both of these doctrinal ideas stem from the Christian understanding of the Book of Genesis which, when taken literally, can give one the impression of a Harsh God that punished the world for the presumed lapses of the first man. Now we see the same words yet we interpret them very differently and we believe that we are right as do they that disagree with us. And this is the rub, this is where we began yesterday as we tried to show how one’s beliefs can become so strong that they result in the oppression and even killing of others who do not see things in the same way and we should understand the individual and the corporate effects of this. And here is our line in the sand; that one’s beliefs be measured against the ready aid given to us by the Apostle James as he speaks of Wisdom from above and the beautifully framed words of Paul who tells us of the fruit of the Spirit. Both of these are our measure of righteousness for our thoughts and our beliefs and our actions in the world of men We have published both of these lists many times in our 600 plus essays and we will not do so again here today but we will rather publish what IS NOT Wisdom from above and what IS NOT the fruit of the Spirit against which we can measure our own beliefs, thoughts and actions. Of course we do use this word believe here in its more human context which is not very different from our spiritual use as KNOWING except that on the human side we see this as what one may think that they KNOW a thing with such thinking a product of the illusion and the glamour, the vanity in which we live.
- James tells us: “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:13-16). We always do find it necessary to better define this translation of the apostle’s words so that they carry forth his True meaning and intent. The common understanding of “bitter envying and strife” is not sufficient to explain James’ thoughts in giving us these words as they compound the idea of “meekness of wisdom” which is to say that one should not be showy in what he has to say about what he believes; the sense of self should be removed. Vincent tells us that these terms “bitter envying and strife” should be understood in this way: Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion 4. Strife is rendered wrongly according to Vincent who tells us that: Thus it comes to be applied to those who serve in official positions for their own selfish interest, and who, to that end, promote party spirit and faction 4; (For more on these words see In the words of Jesus part 323). The overall understanding here of both of these words is that this “bitter envying and strife” is one’s focus upon oneself and in James’ context we should see that any belief, thought or action that has one’s self as the object of benefit IS NOT that Wisdom from above. He adds also another thing; that if we look at our own and others’ selfish attitudes and actions we will find that “there is confusion and every evil work” and of course we should see in the idea of evil not only those gross attitudes and actions that can harm our relationship with others but also the general theme of things done in the world. The word work is better rendered as the lexicon defines which is: that which has been done, a deed, an accomplished fact; what is done or being accomplished 2.We should see that evil is also not the right rendering according to Vincent who defines in a way similar to what we say above: An inadequate rendering, because it fails to bring out the particular phase of evil which is dominant in the word: worthlessness, good-for-nothingness 4. Looking at this from the spiritual perspective and not the carnal we can see that the selfish beliefs, thoughts and actions can Truly be worthlessness, good-for-nothingness and this IS James’ message as well, that beliefs, thoughts and actions that are for the self can result in spiritual confusion, worthlessness, and good-for-nothingness. In saying this we remind ourselves again that the words of the apostles are written to disciples and to aspirants and their perspective IS spiritual as IS ours in reading them.
- Paul tells us that: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before , as I have also told you in time past , that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). Unlike James, Paul give is a rather complete itemized list and we should see in these words those things that are likely prevalent in his day….a list today would likely contain more modern terms of man’s exercise of worldly desires and lusts. In James’ words above we try to see the selfish nature of emulations and strife as the intent of the apostles message. Here we should try to see the same thing as ALL of these terms are the expression of some worldly belief, thought or action which we will call for short here as one’s attitude. Following this list the apostle goes on to the fruit of the Spirit as the opposite of these ideas of self that we find above and this IS our point; regardless of the words used the list IS a list of the selfish attitudes of men, their desires and lust for the things of the world for the self in the world.
- In adultery we should see not the act itself but the selfish desire for the act and this understanding IS in keeping with the Master’s saying that: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).
- In fornication we have a much misused word from a doctrinal perspective and a word that is never defined for us as it is used. We should remember there that we are speaking of the difference between selfish and worldly attitudes as opposed to those of the Spirit so that the air of real badness and gross evils is not the intent. For our purposes we can look at fornication as the active desires and lusts for sex for the sake of sex which would divorce this idea from the view of sex with a True lover and as an act of carnal love. The difference is not subtle; the fornicator in our view is the whore and the prostitute and these both male and female, both straight and gay. And we use these terms in the broadest way; as sex for the sake of sex alone or as doing so for the reward…to use sex as a tool to get one’s way. This takes this idea out of the conversation where there are committed couples even though they may not remain so and we take it out of the conversation regarding the innocence of youth. Here in these instances of Love we do not have fornication as the Master and the apostles paint it although we do have men focused upon the things of he flesh.
We could go through this entire list of words and interpret them as above but, as you can see, this can get lengthy; we will stop here and perhaps pick a word or two to include in future posts as time permits. We should however see the trend and the reality, that the Master and the apostles are railing against the attention to the self and the things of the self and the world and we should try to realize again that they are talking to the disciple and the aspirant and not to the average man in the world. If one is not living a spiritual Life, if one IS living a worldly Life, then the things of the world will suffice albeit that we should try to teach moderation and GoodWill in all that is believed and thought and acted upon.
The difference in believing from the spiritual the to the worldly is again that from a spiritual perspective, measured against the apostles’ words above, there is a True KNOWING based upon the simple fact that the self has been left out of the equation. It matters not that one like or dislike a Truth, it is yet a Truth, and the very idea of like and dislike puts the sense of self back into the equation. On the other hand, the worldly view of believing is found in one’s thinking that he KNOWS and one will invariably find that this sense of believing is one that suits the believer and has some benefit to him in time and space. In this type of believing there can be much rationalization which can effectively change a belief to a more palatable one. For example, if one believes that such and such behavior will result in one’s ‘going to hell’ then the man will either not do the behavior or else he will modify his view of the behavior so that it no longer fits into the belief mold that he had. Conversely, if a man believes such a thing and does the behavior anyway, it is more than likely that he is really not a believer in the first place. Can we see the role of illusion and glamour here? the role of vanity?
Returning to Paul’s words to the Romans we should try to see the reality of His words from the perspective of the Soul, the spiritual man, and this means that we should not allow the ideas and opinions that benefit the self to enter into our understanding. This is of course a difficult feat but at the same time, this is what does happen when we are Truly focused upon the things of God; we do not see nor look for the benefits of what we believe, think or do for the self in form. As we pointed out in the last post, Paul tells us that WE ARE children of God and, as he is speaking to disciples and aspirants, he is telling us that this IS their realization and not that it is their hope. He paints for us the reality of our relationship to the Christ, that we are ONE with Him as joint-heirs. Now this idea of being an heir is that we are the beneficiaries of the what is offered by God and equally entitled to ALL with the Master, the Christ. Again, we must look at this from the spiritual perspective as in this we see the reality of our ONENESS with God in words written for the understanding of men. Doctrine sees this as being to the benefit of the Christian which is a point that differs among the denominations and sects; we see this as a universal benefit to ALL men but one that is only realized and that is only functional as one approaches the High Calling of discipleship and the attainment of His Kingdom. The right idea here is that we ARE part and parcel of God and this refers to ALL men as ALL men ARE Souls whether they realize it or not and whether or not they are functioning as such in this world. In this idea of part and parcel we should see the idiomatic definition that tells us that this is something that cannot be separated from a condition or activity*; we should see this as not only defining our ONENESS with our God but at the same time we should see that we CAN NOT be separated from Him. We should add here that this IS True except that the separation be one of realization as this is an understanding that a man must come to in the Light of his own Soul.
In the next verse we find Paul speaking about suffering and in this there is a rather automatic doctrinal understanding that such suffering is because one is a Christian but this is not necessarily so when we read the remainder of the apostle’s words as we do which is in regard to the nature of Life for ALL men in form. For us Paul is calling this Life in form subjected to vanity, the illusion and glamour of the world, as the suffering that the man who sees the Truth but who must deal with it in real time in his Life. This is the aspirant and the disciple who, especially in the beginning of his realization of the Truth of Life as the divine man working through form, must suffer through the duality and the doubt that bring him to the promised land. Here we should note again that although we speak of discipleship as the end result that comes with attaining the Kingdom, there are at the same time levels and degrees of this realization. Since we have few words at our disposal that suffice to explain these things, we should try to see discipleship beginning at that point that the Master tells us of in His words that we have been discussing in previous posts and those that we have yet to get to below. We should try to see here that Paul is acknowledging the suffering and at the same time showing forth the promise of “ the glory which shall be revealed in us” which IS the manifestation in us, in form in the world, of the fullness of a Son of God. From here the apostle goes into that most familiar text and we will pick up with this in the next post as we try to complete again our sayings below and those at the top of our essay.
- “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 will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| 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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- * Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003
