Monthly Archives: March 2013

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCXI

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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).

In our last essay we finally were able to complete our discussion on the criteria that the Master sets for us as disciples, for becoming one of His disciples, and in this we should note that while these ideas are presented to us by the Master, they are really not His requirements but rather should be seen as the way of the Life of the disciple in the world. We should see that without our accomplishing these things we CAN NOT be His disciples as a reality as they are in reality the very definition of the word disciple and thereby they are the very definition of the man who is accounted worthy of His Kingdom as well. Our communication with God and with the Master is accomplished through the God Within and the Christ Within which, while essentially the same, are different aspects of the One God in whom “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) which is a Truth on most every level of our existence. We could look at this today as that the True man, as the Spirit, IS the expression of God the Father as the Spirit, the expression of the Christ as the Soul and, when we have completed our work in the Earth, when we have Redeemed our body nature and Transfigured it by the divine Light of the Soul, we will be the expression of the Holy Spirit in the Earth and, we must ways remember that these three ARE ONE from ALL perspectives that are within our ken today. This is the purpose of publishing our chart daily: that we continually see the relationships of man to God, man to man, and the wielded potencies that these can carry into Life on this Earth.

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

In these relationships which are today clouded by the illusion and the glamour of Life in form we should try to see the reality that exists, that what the Christ wants and instructs is the same as what one’s own Soul wants and instructs and to hear and heed the Soul is to hear and heed the Christ and this is True even if a man has never heard of Him by name. In this we should see that the criteria for discipleship and for being accounted worthy are not so much those of the Christ as they are those of necessity as one CAN NOT  be a thing for which he does not match the definition as it is established in the Mind of God. Then what is the definition of the disciple?

• First and foremost the disciple IS one who through his Life in form keeps the words of the Master and does so willingly and forcefully at ALL times. In this we will find the reality of ALL of the other requirements which are given to us so that we can understand the depth of His words, that they include the commandments as well as the admonitions that we find throughout His teaching and the words of His apostles which are intended to amplify and to clarify what it is that the Master instructs. “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).
• Another part of this definition is that the disciple “bear much fruit” for this is essentially the purpose of being a disciple; which purpose is to be a functioning Son of God in the Earth. ALL that we receive from the Soul, the Christ Within, should be shared with the world and these are, as we KNOW from the words of the Apostle Paul, the fruit of the Spirit which we must make manifest through our lives in the Earth. Paul tells us that  “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) and he tells us elsewhere that “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9), and it is these that ARE the defining expression of the True disciple in the Earth to whom the Master says as He said more than 2000 years ago as He sent the twelve forth: “freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8). “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
• The second point above is not necessarily positioned for us to see from this perspective in the world as being a part of the first point but if we think clearly about the Master and His words we can likely see that His intent is that we would merge His actions into His words and keep not only those things that He said and implied but also those things that He did. Similarly this next point which is that the disciple is one who keeps the Great Commandment which tells us “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). In these commandments that are from the time of Moses we should see the reality of if we “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength” that there is no room in one’s Life to Love any other in any special way and, of course, we must see Love as the Master intends and not as that emotional attraction of persons to persons or persons to things. In this way we take what we KNOW is a part of the very nature of God and we apply it as disciples in the Earth and this nature IS found in the words of the Apostle Peter saying: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34). This is repeated for us by Paul who tells the us that “…there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2;11) and is brought home to us as disciples and aspirants by the Apostle James who tells us “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin” (James 2:9). Can we see the reality in these ideas as they apply to these sayings by the Master:
  • According to Luke: “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” (Luke 14:26).
  • According to Matthew: “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” (Matthew 10:37).
• Remembering that we are speaking here of the definition of the disciple we should see in the point above that the whole of these words by the Master, even the conflicting language of the two versions, is resolved into the reality of “…there is no respect of persons with God” and, according to James, there should be none with His disciples either as “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin” and this sin, this worldly attitude, IS not found in the role of the disciple. This brings us to the idea that the True disciple is one who can “bear his cross, and come after” or “followeth after” the Master. In this we should try to see the reality that to come after and to follow Him are to keep His words and His example and, in this context we can see that each man’s cross, each man’s burden, will be different. It will be as Vincent tells us that it must be: his cross: his own. All are not alike. There are different crosses for different disciples ⁴. While we would agree with Vincent’s remarks we would make a change to his perspective so as to say that there are different crosses for different men who would be disciples for we see in this theme that the cross IS that burden that a man must be able to push aside in order to become His disciple. And while we can still see this in the Master’s terms, it is from the perspective of the True disciple a thing that is behind him; he has accomplished this thereby adding to our defining terms of the disciple that he IS one who did bear his cross and who did follow the Master, the Christ and the Christ Within. Perhaps a simple way of viewing these ideas of the cross is to relate Paul’s clarifying words on crucifixion as it relates to us as aspirants and as disciples; Paul tells us that “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). Here we can see that to each man who would be a disciple there would be a different set of “affections and lusts” with which he must deal so that for each there is his own sense of the cross which we can see here as giving us the idea of placing the flesh nature of the man on, or as, his own cross. John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible ⁸ says Whosoever doth not bear his cross All reproach, afflictions, persecutions, and death itself, cheerfully and patiently; the Ethiopic version renders it, “of his death the cross”; it signifies whatever is trying and disagreeable to flesh and blood ⁸. This is of course the doctrinal approach on which we would say that the cross IS NOT about what is disagreeable to flesh and blood but rather what IS agreeable, it IS what IS a man’s “affections and lusts” that must be borne on the cross and crucified in order for the man to be counted among His disciples and this in addition to those other things cited by Mr. Gill.
  • According to Luke:  “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).
  • According to Matthew: “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).
• Can we see the reality of this idea of the cross? That is whatsoever is our burden, and and this IS NOT one’s burden in carnal Life as that IS NOT the issue, it is whatsoever there IS in one’s Life that can keep a man from his objective and his goal of greater realization of God. In this the disciple can be defined as the one who has crucified upon his own cross ALL that separates him from the reality of his expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul through his Life in form. Our last item here is one that is only in Luke’s Gospel although perhaps a more enlightened reading of Matthew will give the same sense. According to Luke the Master clearly says that one MUST forsake ALL to be His disciple; there is no negotiable position in Jesus’ words and this is perhaps one of the hardest of sayings to accomplish in Life; this IS the one that the rich young man could not do and for him the topic was only wealth and possession. Here we find a greater totality as the way that this works out in the Master’s words includes the idea of forsaking family from the point above and forsaking ALL that can be considered as those things that each man must crucify, his “affections and lusts“, which will necessarily include ALL Earthly ideas and thoughts and motivations; this is the True extent of forsaking ALL. We should note here that the Master gives us two sayings between the forsaking of family and the things that one must crucify on his own cross and both of these are in regard to counting the cost of discipleship, a cost that is not measured in what a man must give but in what he must give up. We have ofttimes said that there is no real cost but from the perspective of the man in form the cost IS real and it is clarified in this saying that we are here discussing: “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). From the perspective of the man in the world this single saying creates a impenetrable wall for many such as the rich young man but we must look at this in a different Light and this is that there is naught that one can bring into the Kingdom from this world and since discipleship and attaining the Kingdom are the same, a man MUST let go of ALL attachments and ALL attractions if he Truly desires to be worthy. And, we must remember that the Kingdom IS NOT a place but rather a state of being in which one CAN NOT be if he does have these attachments and attractions….it is the Soul, the True self that will prevent this and not the words of the Master. Again this brings to mind the Great Commandment for to be ALL IN is to want the Kingdom and discipleship “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“. This then is the definition of the disciple, that he forsake ALL.

Looking for this same sense in Matthew’s Gospel we must look at the saying that follows the Master’s words on bearing one’s cross which we previously thought to be the beginning of another unrelated thought. The Master says that “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39) and we find this more adequately worded as “He who found his life shall lose it, and he who lost his life for my sake shall find it” as it is written in Young’s Literal Translation (YLT) and is in accordance with Vincent’s remarks that tell us:  Findeth (eurwn). The word is really a past participle, found ⁴. Here the Master is telling us that if we find our comforts and pleasures in this world as our Life, we shall lose our True Life as our expression in the world and, if we give up this Life for Him, if we forsake all as we note above, that we shall find that True Life which is our Life in discipleship and in His Kingdom. With this understanding we can see that the expressions of both Luke and Matthew on this matter of forsaking are essentially the same.

We started out today saying that we had concluded our discussion on discipleship and then proceeded to write this entire essay on this same topic and, of course, this was not our intent. There is however so much to be said on this subject and on its relationship with attaining the Kingdom of God which we also covered in much detail in the last post and this especially from the perspective that we have been pushing forward….that we must understand the reality of the Master’s words that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Both of these themes, the cost of discipleship and the presence of the Kingdom within are great stumbling blocks in the doctrines of the churches who still choose to teach that a man can live his Life of comfort and pleasure in the world with his desires and wants for the things of the world while at the same time being accounted worthy of the Kingdom and of discipleship: in our view nothing could be any further from the Truth.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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

• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com