Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXCII
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 essay we touched upon the attitude of some Christian denominations regarding the idea of works which is, in our view, not only a misrepresentation of the teachings of the Master and His apostles by the originators of this doctrine but IS at the same time further misrepresented by their successors who seem to say that it IS by faith alone that we are ‘saved’. Now we must admit that we DO NOT, or rather CAN NOT, rightly understand their point while at the same time there is a Truth to what they say except from a very different perspective. Using the formula for ‘salvation’ from some parts of the church, and this IS ever a problem as there is no agreement amongst the denominations and sects, we look again at the words from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans that ARE thought to bring salvation:
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is , to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is , to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:1-17).
This IS the long version for our point as we look a the verses leading up to and following the target of: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation“. Here in these few words some parts of the church have found the way to be born again but we KNOW that this IS NOT so simple as we understand that the idea of being born again is akin to discipleship and to being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. While we have discussed these ideas in the past, let us look again at the way that these ideas ALL relate:
- Jesus, in His discourse with Nicodemus, a religious Jew who KNOWS the scripture and the history, says: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). This is the first recorded use of this term by the Master and here He related this to seeing the Kingdom as this is rendered from the Greek word eido which has a multiplicity of implied meanings. Eido, according to the lexicon can mean: to see to perceive with the eyes; to perceive by any of the senses; to perceive, notice, discern, discover; to see i.e. to turn the eyes, the mind, the attention to anything; to pay attention, observe; to see about something……to know to know of anything 2, and the list here goes on to more than double what we cite here. Our point here is that this word and idea that is thought as seeing is in reality of a much deeper construct that should really take us to the understanding of KNOWING. In this context Vincent tells us: See (ιδειν) The things of God’s kingdom are not apparent to the natural vision. A new power of sight is required, which attaches only to the new man. Compare 1 Corinthians 2:14 4. Now this from Vincent IS purely doctrinal in its presentation and for us this would mean that when one IS accounted worthy by the personal action of keeping His words as prompted by the Soul, the Christ Within, he will see the Kingdom of God as this becomes his state of being. This IS from our perspective discipleship and not the working of seeing for the ordinary man who IS still focused on the self and the self in the world.
- Further on the Master again says to Nicodemus that: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:5-7). Here Jesus equates this idea of being “born of water and of the Spirit” with being born again and with the Kingdom although here He speaks about entering the Kingdom. There IS confusion here as we see in this short excerpt from John Gill who, in his Exposition of the Bible, says: .….seems to have given the first birth and rise to infant baptism in the African churches; who taking the words in this bad sense, concluded their children must be baptized, or they could not be saved; whereas by “water” is meant, in a figurative and metaphorical sense, the grace of God….8. From our perspective we understand that the baptism by water IS not the reference as this has naught to do with birth except in a doctrinal way as Mr. Gill cites nor is the reference as Mr. Gill states by “water” is meant, in a figurative and metaphorical sense, the grace of God, again a doctrinal bent on the words of the Master and are purely random in their effect. Our understanding IS in the reality of birth by which we come into this world from our watery home in the womb of our mother and that this reference is a parabolic way of saying that it IS here in this Earth that one must work out his Way to the Kingdom….he must be first born into the world and then born again of the Spirit which IS accomplished in our terms by our ardent focus upon the things of God over one’s previous focus upon the things of the world.
- Perhaps the clearest and yet the most confounding of the sayings of the Master that pertains to being accounted worthy of the Kingdom is found in this charge to those who call on Him for ‘salvation’ yet NOT DO the necessary works to achieve such High Calling; Jesus says: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven“. The clarity here is that calling on the Lord alone will NOT secure one’s place in heaven and He is rather clear in saying that the Way IS in doing the Will of the Father and while we can wrangle about what this means, and many do, it should be clear in the broadest sense that this means keeping His word and keeping the Commandments. In this idea we should be able to see that the errors made in interpreting the words of Paul regarding works and the law can serve to confuse and tell the man who is searching for the Truth that he need only to believe; a word that in itself leaves one wondering. We should note here that the gospels do, in their entirety, overly explain this dynamic of keeping His word; other sayings include:
- We read this in Matthew’s Gospel about the Kingdom of God: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him , and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-4). We should note in this answer and question the idea if who IS; this IS not who will be, but who IS. Like most doctrinal understandings of this, John Gill tells us this as part of his commentary on these verses: Now, what they wanted to be satisfied in was, who should be advanced to the post highest in that kingdom next to the Messiah; and, as they doubted not but it would fall on one of them, to have the most honourable post, and the place of the greatest trust, they were desirous of knowing who it should be 8. We should note here the sense of the future in Mr. Gills words as he points to some time of death but this IS not the reality spoken by the question nor the answer. Being disciples that ARE accounted worthy and have realized that Kingdom that is within, the question, perhaps asked for our benefit, is meaningless and the answer is universal as ALL who do this thing, “humble himself as this little child” are equal in the Kingdom. While it may seem that this is contradicted by the Master’s words elsewhere regarding John the Baptist, there is NO contradiction when one considers the wording used. In this other saying Jesus tells us that “Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11). As we often discuss, the Master speaks in parable and parabolic terms and here He IS speaking to the multitudes and therefore we can be rather sure that this is parabolic. Here then the Master is comparing the physical presence of the Baptist, born of women, to the spiritual sense of those in the Kingdom as it IS the Soul that IS in the Kingdom not the body and the only relation to the body IS in the realization of the Kingdom in Life on this Earth. We can see in sayings like this some inkling of the Truths as we understand them if we take the time to look and here to remember that the body and the name of the man in the Earth IS for this Life in form and the afterlife only; it IS NOT the name for the True man, the Soul.
- “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Here in this rhetorical question the Master giving us the equation, that if one is to call on Him and make Him the Lord, he should do those things that the Lord says. This is simple and understandable but not followed in those days, which is the reason for this saying, and not followed now as it is not understood as a requirement for ‘salvation’ having been replaced by the ritual and the affirmations as we see above in Pauls words to the Romans. For clarity, the Master does follow up this question saying: “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like” (Luke 6:47) and then goes on to tell the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders which in itself explains the Master’s vital question and the state of the man who keeps His words.
- In our understanding the concepts of being accounted worthy of His Kingdom and discipleship are synonymous and we do take this from the Master’s words throughout the gospels which make evermore sense when they are woven together and viewed in the broadness that the apostles intended in writing them. To rightly understand this one MUST be able to see Life however as it IS and not as doctrine paints this for us; we ARE Souls expressing Life and consciousness through our forms in this world. This consciousness IS however lost in the illusion and the glamour, subjected to vanity as Paul tells us, and it IS from this that we must work to extract our True self and this IS accomplished by Repentance, by that decision to change our focus to the things of God which ARE NOT subjected to this vanity and, in so doing we must remember that the Kingdom and God and Christ ARE within, they ARE the place of the Soul and in a strange and mysterious way, these ARE the Soul. In this view then we can see the Truth in the Master’s words saying that “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). Here we should remember our understanding of the meaning of the idea of “believed on him” which we take from Vincent’s writings which tell us that to believe on or to believe in the Master is: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. And this IS again keeping His words.
- Our last entry here is another that IS difficult to understand without understanding that the Kingdom IS HERE and NOW and not at some unseen future time; seem by some as the time of death and seen by others in the time of rapture or whatsoever convention has been created for the return of the Christ among us. Here the words are: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). In this saying we should see that it is established in Jesus words that the Pharisees ARE NOT righteous except in self-righteousness and this we can clearly see in the way that the Master rails against their thoughts, attitudes and actions. This leaves us with the reality of righteousness on its own which we can interpret from another saying by the Master as He tells us: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). As He tells us, this IS our goal, His righteousness, and we can only assume that this IS the reality of His Kingdom; where ALL things right in the eyes of God.
We never did get to our point today which was to define ‘salvation’ according to those things that we DO as men in the world and not according to the pronouncements of the various doctrines that require baptism or the recitation of certain affirmations. We began by comparing the words of Paul in the verses above from his Epistle to the Romans to the ideas of ‘salvation’ through being born again by using the affirmation included in Paul’s words which IS of course a convention of men and not a scriptural reality. We set about then to review some of the Truly scriptural realities from the Master’s words and began this with the Master’s exchange with Nicodemus and we again summarized our understanding of the synonymous nature of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and discipleship. We will try to get on with our intended ideas in the next post.
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.
There is a certain esoteric Mantram which embodies this attitude—the attitude of the disciple who is striving, in cooperative endeavour with others, to link hierarchical intent with human aspiration and thus bring humanity nearer to its goal. The intent of the Hierarchy is to increase men’s capacity for freedom in order to function effectively with that “life more abundantly” which the Christ will bring and which demands that the spirit of man be free—free to approach divinity and free also to choose the Way of that approach. The Mantram bears the name, “The Affirmation of the Disciple.” It involves certain inner recognitions and acceptances which are readily perceived by those whose intuition is sufficiently awake; but its meaning should not be beyond the ability of any sincere student and thinker to penetrate if it appeals to them as significant and warranting their effort. ‡
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focussed within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
We repeat what we had previously said of this Mantram:
Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world“ (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
