Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXCIX
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
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“And 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).
We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
In a general sense love is 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.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).
In the last post we centered upon the ideas of being Christ Like as we tried to better define our idea of the Christ and how the word Greek word Christos actually means Anointed and how His Name as Jesus the Anointed is likely more appropriate than Jesus Christ as the idea of anointed can give us much more than the name as regards our own potential which IS at the same time our objective and our goal. However, we are comfortable calling Him the Christ so long as we can maintain that True understanding that He IS as we ARE, a Soul, the divine True man, working through the forms that we were able to build for the purpose of expressing Life and consciousness in the world with the objective of eventually expressing the fullness of the Love and the Power of the Soul and the “fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). From the perspective of the world and of the man in the world this idea of anointed is likely well placed as referring to those who have gained this ability of expression of the divine quality in the Earth while at the same time realizing this status of being anointed as a particular quality of the Souls of ALL as the Soul IS never corrupted to use the Apostle Paul’s terminology. This of course brings us back to the idea of revelation as the anointing IS revealed to the personality consciousness by his focus on the things of God which focus should be understood to include keeping His words and we should remember that this revelation, like most ALL things spiritual, comes to us by degree which should be seen as the Master portrays the growth of the Kingdom in his parables.
This growth begins with the decision to change the focus of one’s Life from the things of the self and the self in the world to the things of God and this decision IS one’s Repentance and this IS the start of one’s journey; and, this IS the Lord’s admonition, that we “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” and while some doctrines may believe that the Kingdom was not available before this time of Christ, we should note that this IS the same admonition as from John the Baptist. It IS our understanding that the Kingdom was always available to those who Truly strive toward it albeit from a different perspective for a different people. The Master gives us this understanding in these sayings from the gospels which mean quite the same thing but are expressed in different terms by the writers:
- “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it” (Luke 16:16).
- “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:12).
We should see here a part of the New Dispensation brought to us by the Christ, a dispensation in which the prophets and the law are replaced by the Greater Truth that the Kingdom of God can be accomplished here and now. Up to this point the people were bound to the law in a strange mix of individual responsibility and corporate adherence and as we read in the Old Testament the general population seems to go along with the corporate will of this or that king while there are some who we read about that remained devout and True to the law and the prophets. Many as well in their limited understanding waited for the Kingdom to appear as we read in the gospels and as many yet today believe and, perhaps in this we can see a part of the Greater Truth of this New Dispensation as the Master tells us that the Kingdom IS here and now and that it IS WITHIN the man in the world. Again we see the importance of revelation and realization as the place of the Kingdom did not change, the way that a man should perceive the Kingdom changed and this IS the Master’s teaching: that when one will focus upon the Kingdom and express the Truth of the Kingdom in Love and in righteousness, one will receive the necessary revelation, by degree, and with this revelation comes the realization of the Kingdom. This has ever been True. Here in the New Dispensation the man in the world realizes the law in the concept of Love while in the Old he had to accomplish the law in its pieces and parts as it was given by Moses and clarified and amplified by the prophets. From the perspective of the world today we should see that there IS still the law but with the understanding that through Love, God’s understanding of Love, the law IS accomplished. Paul tells us this rather clearly as does the Apostle James as they tell say:
- “For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:9-10).
- “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatains 5:13).
- “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8).
In these ideas we should try to see the evolution of spiritual thought as it effects the man in the world and try to understand that the Kingdom does not change, only one’s approach to the Kingdom changes. In the Old Dispensation the man in the world followed the law to his salvation and he did those things that were spelled out for him insofar as his treatment of his neighbor, his brother and the stranger who qualifies as both and there were both individual and corporate ‘rewards’ for so doing. We should be able to see in reading these Old Testament writings that they are intended for the limited understanding of the man in those days who was shown right and wrong, good and evil, etc. Humanity however continued to evolve and the laws had served their time as the center of spiritual development for the people and, as we read in the Master’s words, these laws had taken on their own life in the doctrines of the various sects and no longer carried the meanings and the intentions with which they were given. This picture IS rather graphically painted for us by the Master in the Gospels as IS His Truth that the law endures as He says: “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:18).
So we see that the laws yet existed in Christ’s day and still yet today but man’s understanding of how to satisfy the law should have changed, and it did change but not to the reality that the Master and His apostles intended. Much like the ideas of Love as painted by the Law of Moses remained unheeded, the ideas of Love as painted by the Master and His apostles have gone unheeded over the last 2000 plus years as well. And we KNOW that the devout and the learned in Christ’s day understood these ideas of Love based upon the testimony that we receive in the gospels where we read:
- The scribe, reacting to the Master’s words describing the Great Commandments as noted at the top of our essay, says to the Jesus “thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:32-34).
- A lawyer, asked by the Master “What is written in the law? how readest thou?” responds saying “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” to which Jesus replies “Thou hast answered right: this do , and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:26-27).
Perhaps we can see here one more idea that comes to us in the New Dispensation and this IS in the way that Life in the world is viewed by the man in the world. In the times before Christ, in the time of Moses, the laws ARE given which and they were intended to be followed by ALL and there were priests ordained to monitor the ways of the people and to provide absolution for them individually and corporately through the idea of atonement as accomplished by the sacrifice of animals to the Lord at the Temple and by the Priest. While we CAN NOT KNOW nor understand these rites and these sacrifices save by their description in scripture, they are likely built upon the peoples ability to view Life and their own relationship to the law. We can try to look at these ideas of animal sacrifice much like how marriage was looked upon, the Master tells the Jews regarding the use of divorce as established by Moses saying: “For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept” (Mark 10:5) and as we read in Matthew’s Gospel: “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). In this idea of hardness we should try to see that they just could not accept marriage without divorce, they could not understand the hidden Truths and because of this Moses wrote these ideas of divorce into the law; we can take this same understanding then and apply it to animal sacrifice. Sacrifice was written into the law for the benefit of the people who could not accommodate the law without it and we should note here that the prophets did try to amend this practice by words like these from the Prophets Isaiah and Hosea:
- “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1:11-16).
- “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me” (Hosea 6:6-7).
We can see by reading in the Old Testament the development of the ideas of sacrifice from the way that they were intended, as a carry over of pre-Moses ritual, to what they eventually become as a replacement for the ways of the law and this is done in apparent sincerity through the lack of understanding of the Truth. Perhaps this reached its culmination in the days of Solomon of whom we read “And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep: so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God” (2 Chronicles 7:5). The carnage here is unfathomable and this is looked on by some in the church today as a commendable act and a Holy service to God. But IS this True or is this just the natural way of Life in the world as men, deluded by the illusion and the glamour, believe that they are doing the Lords work while at the same time forgetting or ignoring the Lords words on Love as given in the law and which can be seen by those who look keenly at the basis of the law as it are given by Moses. Nonetheless the era of sacrifice is shown by Isaiah and then Hosea to be of no True use to the man in the world and this by the accepted word of God as espoused by his prophets and here we should see that these two, and there were likely others as well, made these pronouncements more than 700 years before the Advent of the Christ and that the ritual of sacrifice is still happening in that day. The Master repeats the words of the Prophet Hosea to the Jewish rulers saying to them: “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” and again “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matthew 9:13, 12:7). We should see in these sayings that the Master is repeating the need for Love, here as mercy or compassion, over the ritual of sacrifice and challenges the rulers to try to understand what it was that the Prophet had meant so long ago.
The New Dispensation then brings Love into the scope of True divinity replacing the ages old ideas of using sacrifice to accommodate a man’s failures against the individual precepts of the law. The law DOES NOT vanish, it still exists but it IS to be looked at from the perspective of Love and understood that in accepting and doing the Truth of Love, that a man IS fulfilling the law in its entirety. And, at the same time the Master brings to the attention of man the Truth of the Kingdom of God in the here and now and this is intended to replace those rewards in this world as was the way of the past where the man is taught to DO the law for the immediate reward according to the ‘promises of Abraham‘ and other similar understandings. The rewards in this New Dispensation ARE NOT of this world, they are rewards of the Inner Life, the rewards of the revelation and the realization of Truth; the reward of discipleship and the reward of participation in the Good, the Beautiful and the True in the Kingdom of God which IS as the Master tells us WITHIN. We should try to see that on the Inner side of Life there is no real change, the change is only in the way of approach to God from the perspective of the man in the world who, in the view of those who with the Christ guide the race of men, had evolved beyond the need of the individual laws and into the reality of Love. While this may seem to be a failure as we state it, it IS not; the movement of the attitudes of man is slow and methodical as we can see in an intelligent look at history and at the evolution of the precepts of the Old Testament to the New and even to the Jew of today. The Master’s teachings on Love are ingrained in the thoughts of men around the world as Souls KNOW no allegiance to country nor religion; yet they are not practiced by the majority in the way in which these were intended over 2000 years ago. And for our better understanding of these ideas we should look at the words of the Apostle Peter regarding time as he tells us that: “beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). This is not intended as a literal understanding equating God’s time with ours as some see it but as an example of the meaninglessness of time as we see it and this is made clearer by the words of the Psalm saying: “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).
The old times of Abraham gave way to the Old Testament times of Moses and through this the Lord Jehovah speaks to men through selected channels of which Moses IS the most prominent; these are days where Life IS viewed in the physical sense and it is to obtain the advantages and the rewards in this world that men are instructed to obey the law; this IS the Old Dispensation of Jehovah whose role it was to create this societal look at Life and at God. Here Jehovah, speaking as God, instructs in the law and the relationship between man and God as He teaches man the reality of the ONE GOD, the Creator of ALL. This teaching is likely intended to replace the superstitious and barbaric look at Life that was prevalent in these times and, as we read in scripture, this is not an entirely successful endeavor as the free-will of man, encumbered by the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world, builds upon his own ideas of Truth and NOT those of God. The New Dispensation, a dispensation in which we still live today, comes at the word of God spoken by the Master, the Christ Jesus, and is centered around the concept of Love as we can clearly see in His words, especially those at the top of our essay.
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.
He who faces the light of His Soul and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the Kingdom of God. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, yet loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.
He faces towards the dark and then the seven points of light within himself transmit the outward streaming light, and lo! the face of those upon the darkened way receives that light. For them, the way is not so dark. Behind the warriors—twixt the light and dark—blazes the light of the Kingdom itself.**
We previously posted this saying in In the Words of Jesus part 367 and did so in conjunction with the Master’s teaching on the idea that ”But many that are first shall be last; and the last first” (Mark 10:31) and His teaching about the mustard seed where, in Luke’s Gospel, he says: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:5-10)”. In this context we say about the words above: Remembering that the Master is speaking to His disciples in both instances above and both are, in our view, explanatory of the nature of the disciple; that he will accomplish what he has to do, his duty if you will, but will continue on in the service of the Lord and give his ALL in service to his fellowmen. There an ancient aphorism which states this truth in a different way and on which we have taken the liberty of rendering in a more understandable language;
