Monthly Archives: March 2013

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCX

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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).

REPENTANCE, TRANSFORMATION AND REDEMPTION LEAD US TO TRANSFIGURATION

In previous posts we discussed the realities of the Kingdom according to the terms that are used by the Master regarding one’s being accounted worthy of the Presence of the Kingdom in his Life or, as the much of the world would see this, the Presence of one in the Kingdom. Of Course we are looking at this in relation to our own understanding as well as the Master’s words telling us that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) which IS a Truth that must eventually be understood in the mainstream of Christian thought but one that is today denied by many who choose to see this in other ways which are likely based upon their view of Life itself. Other bible translations have this to say:

• “nor will people be able to say, `Look! Here it is!’ or, `Over there!’ Because, you see, the Kingdom of God is among you” —-Complete Jewish Bible (CJB).

• “Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you” —-Common English Bible (CEB).

• “neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you” —- American Standard Version (ASV).
• “nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst” —-New American Standard (NAS).
• “nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” —-New International Version (NIV)

• “

  People will not say, ‘Here it is.’ Or, ‘There it is.’ God’s kingdom is among you” —-New International Readers Version (NIRV)

• “Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the kingdom of God is within you” —-Douay-Rheims (RHE)
• “neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you” —-English Revised Version (RV)

• “nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” —-Revised Standard Version (RSV).

• “nor will they say, “Look, here it is!’ or “There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you” —-New Revised Standard (NRS).

Our point here is to show that the rendering of this Great Truth that the Kingdom is WITHIN is changed to these ideas of “in your (the) midst” and “among you” mostly in later versions of the bible. For example the CJB is published in 1998 and the CEB in 2010-2011 while the others in our list above mostly represent older and newer versions of the same translations. The ASV was published in in 1901 as the American version of the Revised Version (RV) which was published in 1881-1885 and this was by agreement to accommodate differences between the Americans and the English; both of these are intended as revisions to the King James Version (KJV). These two essentially 19th century editions maintain the KJV rendering of “within you” and this is true of the older Catholic verison as well, the Douay-Rheims (RHE), which comes from the same time frame as our KJV in the 17th century. The most recent bible version from our list to use the rendering of “within you” is the NIV which is published in 1973 while its revision as the NIRV, published in 1995, contains the revised language of “among you“. This later change is seen as well in the NAS (1971), the RSV (1952), and the NRS (1989); these all contain the revised language while the RSV and the NRS, being both later versions of the same RV, even change between them from “in the midst of you” to “among you“. The NAS  is the updated version of the ASV

We should see in this our common understanding which is that the rendering of words is doctrinal and can be seen as largely according to the denominations and sects of the various groups that have chosen to revise and publish bibles and we should see as well that today the bible is big business. Of the 91 complete editions of the bible on our list of English Translations 17 were published before 1865, 17 more between 1866 and 1965 and 57 have been published since 1966 and it is in the majority of these newer versions that we find the increased influence of doctrine in the translations.

And it is not only the newer thinking that leans towards “in the midst of you” and “among you” as the proper rendering of these words by the Master. Vincent, one of our favorite New Testament word scholars says: Within. Better, in the midst of. Meyer acutely remarks that “you refers to the Pharisees, in whose hearts nothing certainly found a place less than did the ethical kingdom of God.” Moreover, Jesus is not speaking of the inwardness of the kingdom, but of its presence. “The whole language of the kingdom of heaven being within men, rather than men being within the kingdom, is modern” (Trench, after Meyer)⁴. This agrees with the margin notes of the Revised Version which, according to Vine’s, says Within: (a) entos: see INSIDE,; in Luk 17:21 the RV marg., “in the midst of,” is to be preferred; the Kingdom of God was not in the hearts of the Pharisees ⁶. 

We should try to see here that the change of the word that likely means within in all conditions is rendered as “in the midst of“ based upon the doctrinal understanding of the whole verse as they see it relating to the Pharisees and this we discussed briefly in a previous post. However, from our perspective we see that although the Master is responding to the Pharisees, this does not mean the the answer that He gives is to pertain only to them and, for us, the more likely reasoning for these changes in the translation of the Greek word entos is that the saying is not otherwise comprehensible through the traditions and the doctrines of men. This is the fundamental problem with this saying and likely with many more which are changed to suit men’s understanding rather than advancing the understanding to accommodate the words. We have devoted much time to this saying over the course of our essays and this is because we see that to properly understand the reality of the Kingdom being WITHIN is a fundamental requirement to rightly discerning so much of the teachings of the Master and His apostles.

Over the last few days we have discussed two parables that are intended to give us some parabolic idea of the Kingdom of Heaven and in each of these we find that it is the Kingdom that is growing. Of course the idea of the Kingdom growing in size is not a reality except in the doctrinal view which seems sees the Kingdom as the church and the parables about the churches growth in the Earth and this despite that most all other sayings by the Master have individual implications. In both of these parables, the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Growing Seed we must remember that first of all they are parables and they are designed to hide from us some great truth and this IS not from what we would consider heathen only, as by design the great truth is hidden from all but True disciples. Having said this we must admit that our interpretations are but our own premise on the matter which we would like to believe is from our own Souls, the source of ALL True Wisdom, and we should remember here the words of the Apostle James regarding what IS and what IS NOT “the wisdom that is from above“. It is based upon this understanding that we even try to interpret scripture and the parables of the Master; that is that our understanding does comply with the words of the apostle, it IS NOT about the self in any way nor does it contribute to any philosophy in which the self can benefit. At the same time we KNOW that “the wisdom that is from above” IS “first pure , then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17) and we would like to think that our interpretations are such for the reader as well as for the writer.

We have linked both of these parables to the fundamental need to rightly understand the Master’s words that tell us clearly that “the kingdom of God is within you” as it is in this Light that we can understand the Master’s telling us that the Kingdom grows within the man as the mustard tree grows in the Earth and this growth is starting from the smallest or least of seeds. The Kingdom grows to great proportions in the heart, the consciousness, of the man much as it does in the Earth. We should not be tied up in discussing the relative accuracy of the parable from the perspective of the smallest seed nor the largest of herb trees as the messaged IS NOT in this worldly part but in what we can discern in real Life about the Kingdom of God. Similarly the growing seed parable; it matters not how the seed is planted nor by whom but just that it is planted and that it grows with or without the attention of the one who cast the seed. A message here is that the man does not KNOW how, he only KNOWS that it does grow and this is True of the seed in the earth as well as the seed of divinity planted in the heart of man. For the plant in the earth the harvest comes when”the fruit is brought forth” and this is a normal action in the world which brings the fruit of the garden to others. And this is another part of the Master’s message, when the fruit of the Spirit is found in the Life of a man, there is the same idea of harvest as that man will take this fruit to the world and we should look at this idea in the Light of the saying on discipleship below that says “that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples“.

This then is our reality here, if we can not understand that the Kingdom is within then we can not understand the Truth of these parables that infer for us the need for this growth of the Kingdom in the Life of every man who desires spiritual advancement. We should realize as well that the vast majority of the teachings of the Master and His apostles are oriented toward the spiritual advancement of each individual as they are our ready guide to understanding how the disciple and the one who has attained the Kingdom of God will act and think; that they will think and act according to the words of the Master. Take for example the Sermon on the Mount and imagine that we kept just these words in our lives; we would soon find out that within this Sermon is included ALL of the Master’s teachings on discipleship and being accounted worthy of the Kingdom albeit in a different form of speaking than we might find it elsewhere in their words.

This brings us then to our discussion of the last two points on the Master’s criteria for discipleship which we began many essays back and which included these which we have already discussed in some detail:

• “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot  be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).
• “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
• “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38).

In these sayings above we find some hard fast ‘rules’ for discipleship. The wording on hate has been mediated against the similar sayings from Matthew’s Gospel and our understanding on this is available in In the Words of Jesus parts 599-602. Our inclusion of these words from Matthew also show us the True relationship between being worthy of Him and discipleship and we carry this idea of “worthy of me” to being accounted worthy of the Kingdom for in our understanding these are ALL essentially the same. Continuing on then we have:

• “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). It is noted that the Apostle John specifically says that the Master is speaking to the Jews but this should mean nothing to us today as most ALL who He spoke to were Jews. What matters IS His words which are clear and succinct and tell us that it IS in keeping His words, that we ARE His disciples. This is of course much like our understanding that keeping His words makes one accounted worthy of the Kingdom and we should understand that this IS NOT an easy feat as is discovered by the rich young man who kept the commandments but did not want to forsake ALL. In this exchange between the Master and the rich young man we find:
  • “…but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:17-21)

We should note here two things; first that the Commandments of God are used and not the revisions to them that the Master offers us and we should see that these revisions are not really revisions at all but are the original intent of these commandments that is diluted by the doctrines and the traditions of the Jews. This is to say that adultery was always meant to begin in the heart and that Love thy neighbor was always meant to include those who may hate us. The second part here is from the expanded words of the Master on things like possessions and wealth, that a man should “take no thought” (Luke 12:22) about them and that he should “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth” (Mathew 6:19). Can we see that while the rich young man may have made the grade against the commandments, even in the revised thinking that the Master offers, he does not make the grade in the expanded teachings of the Master regarding the things of the world.

• “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). Here we have the greater reality of discipleship and that is that as such we have some contribution to the world, to our brothers in the world. As we point out above in relation to the growing of the Kingdom in the heart of a man, we should try to understand that the disciple WILL bear fruit and that this idea of  fruit is ably described for us by the Apostle Paul as the fruit of the Spirit. From the perspective of the disciple it IS his duty to bear such fruit and to offer it freely to his brother, his neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both. Looking again at Paul’s words we find that: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23); this IS the fruit of discipleship and the expression to the world by the disciple. Without such fruit freely offered, one CAN NOT be counted among His disciples and this IS noted by the Master who tell His disciples: “freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). And we should not forget the apostles other words on this that tell us of the very nature of a disciple; Paul says that “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth“.

This finishes our look at the Master’s criteria for discipleship and we should look at this in relation to His criteria for being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. To Truly understand these things we must realize that these ARE our own criteria as well. There is no official pronouncement by any that one IS accounted worthy or that one IS a disciple there is only that working of the Soul, the Christ Within, in ones Life which, as this working in Life grows, allows for us to grow in our spiritual pursuits and, we should see the stages that we have presented and that are again at the top of our essay as our way of understanding the necessary steps to True salvation and True deliverance.

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 see them as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit albeit on a much smaller, microcosmic, scale.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888

• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996