Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLXXXVIII
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).
Beginning with how the Apostle Paul came to understand ALL things by the revelation of Christ and how this built upon his prior knowledge of ALL things Jewish from a religious perspective. We surmise here that it IS because that disciple who incarnated as Saul did so to be, as the other apostles and players in this Great Drama, a ready help to the Master in the accomplishment of His mission in the Earth. Here we have a man who is raised as a Jew, by a Pharisee and as a Pharisee; a Jew who ardently believed that what he did as Saul was the work of God but who, after the death of the Apostle Stephen in which he played a role, sees that vision of the Christ and has that conversation with Him through his own KNOWING Soul. We read of NO instruction nor indoctrination into the ‘Christian’ Way we ONLY read that from this point on Saul, who is now Paul, IS the defender of Christ and not the persecutor and he IS the instructor in the ways and the doings of the Lord even though he has no firsthand knowledge nor reported schooling. In this we should get that idea that we try to push forward; that the Soul KNOWS and it is when the KNOWING of the Soul can be expressed in the Life of the man in the world that we have a disciple in form and, when this disciple in the world is able to see past the illusion and the glamour of Life, we have the single-minded True disciple which IS the goal of every man born in this Earth. Of course this expression of the KNOWING of the Soul through the Life in form is dependent upon Repentance, that decision to change the focus of one’s Life from the world to the Soul and to God and then striving to keep His words, the foremost of which IS Love. We KNOW that this IS no easy task and we premise that the apostle was prepared, predestinated if you will, based upon his discipleship in previous incarnations as any other reason that we can see from our perspective here and now would negate the apostles words that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). Now the apostle speaks of this predestination in his epistles and this is yet another subject that is grossly misunderstood as it is thought that it applies to ALL men, that they are selected before birth to be what they may become in the church and while this may be True of the few for reasons we shall discuss, it IS NOT True of the masses and again because of the idea that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), to lift up one above others, and because of the limited free-will of man in this world. The former precludes any action by God to put one man above another and the latter tells us that up to the point of duality a man is simply whisked along in the tides of fate except, as we discussed in the last post, that his own Soul can intervene.
Now there are men who may be predestinated to certain functions and abilities in the world but this is dictated by the spiritual collateral, we use this term for lack of a better one, that a man may bring into incarnation based upon his success in previous lives but even this man MUST be able to hear the Truths in the prompting of his own Soul in order to hear and heed the revelations of that Truth and it is very possible that such a man can remain lost in the illusion and the glamour of Life. And all of this does work by degree and is dependent not only upon the spiritual collateral but also on his ability and the success in building suitable forms and, as we can see, this becomes a most complex issue and one that can result in many variables. In these degrees of reality one must consider cases of genius and of child prodigy that are incomprehensible to science but which are very understandable to the man who see that the Soul IS the True man incarnating in form in this world. And in this idea that we have about the man who may be predestinated we should understand that this too happens by the actions of his own Soul who is in instant communication with the Kingdom of God and who KNOWS the needs that he can accomplish based upon his own ability to build and use forms. Of course how this all works is a mystery that we can likely only see as we come to that point of True Discipleship but it is certainly not according to the common understanding which the dictionary defines for us as: subject to predestination; decided by God from all eternity 10 or more simply as: to foreordain by divine decree or purpose 7, as these ideas contradict our basic understanding that “there is no respect of persons with God” and man’s limited free-will in this world, both of which are so much more important than the doctrinal view of Life in the world.
The idea here of predestination should be seen in similar Light as we viewed this from Paul’s words to the Greeks at Athens that we have been discussing, “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:26). In this we have reference to the Plan, the Great and Awesome Plan of God as predestinating the time frame and the scope of the Life of mankind here in this Earth and not the individual doings of one or several who may believe that they are selected above others; this IS a convention of men and of doctrine. Our point here is that we can believe that predestination according to doctrine IS True or we can believe that “God is no respecter of persons” but it is very difficult to believe both without some deeper understanding of the reality of Life. This idea of predestination is presented four times by the apostle and is not used in any other book or by any other writer and we should grasp from this that there IS some personal factor involved and this can be seen in Paul’s story as we discussed it in the last post. I am reminded here by Vincent of the more esoteric idea of the eternal now which is deemed to be the way in ALL phases of Life except the physical where event follows event; in the concept of the eternal now ALL things simply ARE and time IS NOT. Now the right understanding of this we DO NOT have and it is likely reserved to those who can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and this IS the True disciple and the KNOWER of ALL things up to his point of realization. There being NO time then makes this idea of predestined more applicable to this Earth existence and therefor even more in contradiction to the ideas of free-will and that “God is no respecter of persons“. Now to be sure, even the doctrinal presentations of predestination are not clear but vague in respect to the inner workings and appear as attempts to use the apostle’s words to the comfort of the believer; we should also note that there is a wide difference in this understanding of predestination across denominations as well.
One of the uses of predestination by Paul is in our most used chapter from his Epistle to the Romans. In Chapter Eight we read: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:28-30). Remembering that language is ever a detriment to right understanding as there are not words sufficient to express spiritual ideas, we should look at these translated words from the perspective of the Soul in form and the disciple and not the carnal man in the world. We first come upon the idea here of being called and we too call discipleship that High Calling. But what IS the calling; who calls? for this we must look to our own understanding that the communication between the God and the man in the world must perforce come through his own Soul, his God Within, which IS as well the source of the Wisdom from above and the fruit of the Spirit and of course then the calling. We should try to see that the calling is actually the answering, the heeding by the man in the world of the prompting offered by the Soul. It IS this fruit and this Wisdom, it IS the Good, the Beautiful and the True, that IS the fundamental nature of this prompting; it IS the awareness of divinity and the understanding of righteousness that IS ever attempting to wrest away the attention, the focus of the man in the world, away from the things of the world and onto the things of God. It IS in the positive acceptance of this prompting that we find the calling and the one who is accepting is considered called. This is our view of being called; it is not the selective appointment by God that the man in the world may believe is on him but it IS rather the positive acceptance by the man in the world of the prompting of the Soul to keep His words; it IS the road of Repentance leading to Transformation; it IS the life of the aspirant and the disciple of the Lord.
We got a little off track here with our understanding of this idea of being called and returning to our original point we should try to see that this calling is the effect of the predestination that the apostle IS presenting as it follows upon these words that we use so often from this same chapter: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). Here we have the foreknowledge in the reality that ALL men ARE “made subject to vanity” in this world and we have the predestination in the reality of the hope, the expectation, that ALL “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. Like the example above from the apostle’s speech at Athens, the idea here of predestination is universal and not specific; the entirety of the creation IS predestined to the time frame and to the nature of men in form, the scope of their existence as we framed this earlier, and in this latter example we can see similar as the end is predestined….that we “shall be delivered“. Returning then to the saying above with greater understanding we can see that “whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate” IS a reference to ALL men as they are “made subject to vanity” only to be “ delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and it IS in this “glorious liberty” that we will “be conformed to the image of his Son“. Paul goes on to tell us that Christ IS first and all others will follow and here we should see the change in tenor from the universal to the individual as it is individually that we achieve this “glorious liberty“. Here in this next idea the apostle breaks from our understanding of called as we state it above but in words only and not in essence as words do fail us; here he tells us that while ALL are predestinated, they are also called and here we should see the actual prompting of the Soul as well as the positive acceptance by the man which leads him to being justified and glorified. This Greek word dikaioo, which is rendered here as justified, is defined as: to render righteous or such he ought to be; to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered; to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be 2. It is in this idea of righteousness that we find the disciple and in striving to righteousness we find the aspirant.
Our point in ALL this is to properly understand the idea of predestination as it is used by the apostle and to defray the doctrinal implications of this word. Further, we must look at this idea against the Truth of predestination as it is effected by the Soul in cooperation with the Plan of God of which the Soul IS aware of his part. This IS where we began, with Paul being awakened to the reality of his mission as the ready help to the Lord in the spreading and the implementation of His message of Love. As the man in form focused upon himself in the world as a Jew and as a Pharisee, Paul apparently has no idea of his future mission and, as we said in a previous post, his awakening to the prompting of the Soul happens in a large way and with such divinity expressed that one can only wonder how he did not realize this before his vision on the road to Damascus. As we posited, perhaps his participation and cooperation in the death of Stephen is a turning point for him as he witnessed Stephen’s speech and his forgiving nature till his death. And we will not KNOW this without revelation and we will have no revelation with out our Right focus on the things of God. From our perspective it matters not how Paul arrives at his place as a disciple of the Master and we can be sure that it is not a matter of God’s choosing him from among others as a righteous man as he was contrary to the Master and His teaching until that fateful vision and, this would be against our fundamental understanding of free-will and the Truth that “there is no respect of persons with God“. Paul, as the other apostles and players in this Great Drama, is predestined to come as part of the Master’s party to help and to assist Him in the implementation of His mission but this predestination IS from his own Soul who had heretofore accomplished the degree of discipleship as a man in form in prior incarnations that is necessary to be able to fulfill the requirements of the day.
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.
Continuing with our presentation of the Prayer of Saint Francis as the Quote of the Day, we should realize that without the apparent links to doctrine, this is well suited to be the Prayer of the disciple and therefore our prayer as well as aspirants to that High Calling. Of course these things that we are saying here in this prayer ARE expressions of Love, ALL of them, and it is by our example in the world that we express them and in the idea of sowing we can find our ‘suggestion’ of’ Love, pardon, faith, hope, Light and joy to those whom we may contact and who may be feeling the opposites. The second stanza is more personal from the perspective of subduing one’s own personality and its ‘needs’ by seeing the needs of one’s brother and neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both FIRST. And, as we say below, we should see this idea of dying not in the context of the our death on Earth but in the context of the Apostle Paul’s words that tell us: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). This sin is for us our focus upon the things of the world and this death IS one’s continued existence here in this world entombed in the illusion and the glamour….eternal Life then IS our realization of the Truth of Life of the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within which we find when we turn our focus to the things of God.
This is the Prayer of Saint Francis which we repeat again from a previous post as our Quote of the Day. If we were all to accept these ideas as guiding Lights in our lives, we would be expressing the Love and the Faith that the Master teaches. It is attributed to the 13th-century saint Francis of Assisi, although the prayer in its present form cannot be traced back further than 1912*. Regardless of the True authorship, the sentiments revealed in this prayer are genuine and are in keeping the intent of the teachings of the Master and His apostles. We should note here that the dying is not necessarily the death of the body but the death of the carnal man in the world when one is born again. In this context we read this about Saint Francis: Francis was the son of a wealthy foreign cloth merchant in Assisi, and he lived the high-spirited life typical of a wealthy young man, even fighting as a soldier for Assisi. While going off to war in 1204, Francis had a vision that directed him back to Assisi, where he lost his taste for his worldly life**. Here is the antithesis of the rich young man of the gospels.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
This is a prayer that is Truly in line with the teachings of the Master and the ideals encapsulated in this should be those that govern our lives and our prayer should be that ALL can see Life in this same way. We should try to see the reality of these words in the verses above regarding feeding and visiting the least of His and our brethren; in these words is a deeper meaning, as clearer expression of Love and, we should look at the Master’s words above as an expression of Love and not merely in the terms that He presents as this is the intent of the entirety of His teachings.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 7 Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
- 10 Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers
- * Wikipedia contributors. “Prayer of Saint Francis.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013
- **Wikipedia contributors. “Francis of Assisi.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Jan. 2013.
