Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLV
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•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•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:13-18)
This is the six hundred and sixty sixty (666) edition of posts in this blog and this number brings to mind the Book of Revelation, a New Testament book that we scarcely discuss. In fact, there are only five references or quotes from Revelation in this entire blog which, when compared to the emphasis that is put upon these words from the Apostle John by the churches, is exceedingly few. This IS because of the very nature of the apostle’s words which lie in the region of ideas that we have been discussing and that IS mystery. We must be ever careful when discussing any writing or thoughts that are based on a vision as the KEY to proper understanding is likely found ONLY in the heart and mind of the one who has the vision and this because no matter what it is that we can see, no matter what our own revelation, it must be interpreted through the carnal mind and emotions and according to the language and the culture of the dreamer. And we should see this idea interpretation as true for ALL men in form as even with the disciple in the world there is the necessity to work through the form Life that one has and, although the form and the personality of the disciple are ‘flooded’ with the Light and the Love and the Power of the divine Soul, there is still the need to put these into words which come from and through the purified personality. This is a clumsy way of saying that the flow of Light, Love and Power from the Soul is such that it IS NOT in words but in that KNOWING which is the hallmark of the True disciple and this KNOWING must be put into words, constricted by language and the ability of expression as based upon the culture and worldly understanding at the time. Further, there is the ongoing need to NOT reveal the mysteries in plain language as we have been discussing over the last several posts but to say them in a way that obnubilates the True meanings except for those who have accomplished this same High Calling of which we read above from the Apostle Paul saying: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“; it IS here in this state that we CAN and DO KNOW ALL things.
Now as we have often said, ALL spiritual advancement IS by degree and there is in the Life of each aspirant to discipleship times and places where revelation comes, where one can glimpse a part of the Mystery of Life and interpret this into the reality of the current culture and language. In our context of the Book of Revelation, this is to say that a man can and will gain some glimpse of the reality of John’s vision but this will be a man who IS an aspirant, a man who IS striving as the Master tells us we should do. As we have been discussing, it is in our single mindedness that we KNOW the Christ and the Christ Within and in this we journey toward that reality of “a perfect man” and that achievement of “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“, and it is in this that we steadily gain, by degree, in our revelation and our ability to understand those things that ARE “the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (Luke 8:10). And in this itself IS a mystery as we read from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, where at the close he tells the addressed disciples and aspirants that “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Romans 16:25). In the natural complexity of one’s journey toward the final goal of the Kingdom of God, final only from the perspective of the man who has not yet achieved this, there is ever much mystery and apparently conflicting ideas and terms but, as one approaches that strait gate ALL things take on a clarity that breaks away the illusions and the glamours that beset even the ardent aspirant. It IS this crucible of duality which IS based in one’s Life in form in this this world that IS the trial and the tribulation of the aspirant and is the overall topic of the Apostle James as he opens His epistle saying:
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8).
While these sayings are of use to ALL men, as are most of the sayings of the Master and the apostles, there is a depth to this that IS intended for the ardent aspirant who is daily striving to keep His words as he journeys to the goal. These temptations need not be toward anything that is ‘bad’ but rather anything that is carnal, that IS of the world and not of the Kingdom and the Soul, and it IS here that we come into touch with the apostle’s reality of Wisdom and his sayings further on regarding that Wisdom from above. It is here that James casts that dividing line between the self in the world and the Soul, the Christ Within, and it from this source that we will receive. And it IS these “divers temptations” that are the evidence of the Life of duality that the aspirant leads as in the most common terms of everyday Life one would be hard pressed to identify these “divers temptations” with out it, without the recognition of the duality of existences that one lives as he strives toward that final grasping of God over mammon. We should here take heart in the knowledge that this duality is the awakening that leads to being awakened and the Transformation that leads us to being Transformed and, that this is the Life that ensues from that point of decision which IS one’s Repentance and one’s acknowledgement that the temptations of the Earth are no longer what he seeks. It is from this point of Repentance and the understanding of what it Truly means that one can begin to sort through the carnal nature of his Life correcting and changing until the quest IS over…until he is Transformed.
It is through this phase of Life in form that the revelation of the mysteries of the Kingdom, in small wonders at first but growing steadily, serve to keep the man on the True Path to the strait gate; these revelations ARE his assurance that it IS NOT he that has gone astray which is a feeling and a thought that can overcome the aspirant as he looks out at the world and sees the ‘fun’ and the ‘things of the world’ that he is missing because of his quest for the Kingdom. And here we get the inner understanding, if we are so ready, that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13) which the Master tells us as a matter of fact. So we should see James’ teaching on temptation as it falls within this great divide between God and mammon and where there IS NO safe place save the other side where one can Truly realize the call of the Christ and the Christ Within saying: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). We should see that it IS we who labor in the world of temptation under the sometimes heavy hand of that duality that leads us as we can see in Paul’s words above to being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” which IS our temptation to get back into the ways of the world. And it is here that we will find that the single mindedness of the aspirant leading to and encompassing the KNOWING of the Christ and the Christ Within which can and will lead us to that perfection and that Christ-like presence of which the Master tells us and John confirms. We read from the Master in the last post His saying that “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40) and we have before posted several times the sayings of the Master that relate to the reality of our doing as He has done, the clearest of which IS “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12) and here we are obliged again to state the reality of believing on Him as Vincent phrases this for us saying that this means to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4 and which we phrase simply as keeping His words. Johns affirmation of this reality and mystery of Life as being Christ-like in the world says simply as well that “as he is , so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Returning then our focus to the Book of Revelation we should be able to understand that we ARE NOT in position to discern the True meanings of John’s glimpse of the Mysteries of the heavens unless we are at that same point of perception as True disciples of the Lord and that when we DO KNOW these things it is unlikely that we would express John’s realities in concrete terms of who, what, where and when as those who believe that they are prophetic have done throughout the centuries and this continues yet today. True prophecy IS NOT a function of or for the self in the world; it IS a function ONLY achieved in the Light of the Soul, and by the True disciple who can say with Paul “And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge” and again this IS the hallmark of the disciple. As for the flood of information, conflicting as it is, concerning the ‘end times’ and the coming of the Lord and the beast and the number, ALL of this is the work of men who DO NOT and CAN NOT see clearly; ALL of this is clouded by the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world; ALL of this IS vanity. And, for those who do take any of these visions of the apostle literally, we can only suggest that he read the gospels again to bring himself back to a spiritual reality, a reality that IS about True Life beginnings and not about death, Life on the Path to God and NOT on death and endings. In this reading one can clearly see that the understanding of those who preach these things regarding their own salvation are deluded if they ARE NOT keeping His words and James tells us this clearly as well saying “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and of whom the apostle says further on that “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). In these sayings IS the greater Truth for those who dare to think themselves as disciples, who dare to think that they are saved above any other man in the Earth.
We are reminded here of a saying from our Tibetan brother, a True disciple of the Christ as can be noted by the tenor of his writings. The Tibetan tells us that tells us that: A paradoxical situation is brought about from the fact that the disciple is told to enquire the Way and yet there is none to tell him. Those who know the Way may not speak, knowing that the Path is constructed by the aspirant as the spinner spins its web out of the centre of his own being. Thus only those souls flower forth into adepts in any specific generation who have “trodden the winepress of the wrath of God alone” or who (in other words) have worked out their karma alone and who have intelligently taken up the task of treading the Path**. We MUST eventually understand that others can only point the way to the Good, the Beautiful and the True and that we, as individuals, must seek it out and strive to stay on the Path to the strait gate that opens into the Kingdom of God; a realization that we can ONLY achieve here in this crucible of duality which IS the Life of the aspirant in the world of men.
While not discussing our verses at the top of this essay directly, we did work some of them into our discussion today and this should help us to see how ALL these words are related, how ALL these words, when seen clearly in the Light of the Soul, say the same things to us who are yet in in this world and the single message IS that we keep His words; it is only in so doing that we can achieve.
We will continue with out 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.
Staying on the theme of Love we repeat again the sayings of the Apostle Paul that put this Love into perspective.
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13 (New King James Version)Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. In our theme today regarding Paul’s writings to the Romans and in the previous discussions on them we seek to impart the better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, as it is from this perspective that we can gain that revelation of Truth and, as Paul says above, be free from the condemnation and the vanity of Life in form, free from the illusion and the glamour. We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post:
Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. This defining of Love is covered in some depth in a previous post; In the Words of Jesus part 47.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- ** A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC OR THE WAY OF THE DISCIPLE BY ALICE A. BAILEY COPYRIGHT © 1951 BY LUCIS TRUST
