ON LOVE; PART CDXCIX
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
“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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 12:29-31).
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).
Any man who is seriously seeking to become a True disciple and be Truly accounted worthy of the Kingdom of the Lord likely faces much doubt and uncertainty and this likely because there are none that can Truly show him the Way. That there IS none to show the Way IS what we read in the Tibetan’s words regarding this and while this IS True, this IS at the same time NOT completely True as the Way is the reality of the Master’s instructions as we read them in the gospels. We ended the last post with some words from the Apostle James who we see as the most straightforward and blunt of ALL the New Testament writers; the last verse we posted shows the ultimate reality of the journey of the man who would achieve his spiritual reality and this IS the same message that we get from the Master and His other apostles but in terms that are not quite so clear. James says bluntly that: “the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:1-4). This is the reality of that choice between God and mammon where the Master paints this in a way that the hearer must discern the meaning and there likely ARE NOT many that believe that they ARE serving mammon and not many who Truly understand the meaning of that word. The Master tells us that “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
In the combination of these ideas we DO have the Way as it is outlined for us by the New Testament, the way to discipleship and the Kingdom, and, while this may seem to be without that idea of Love that we hold out as the beginning and the end of the journey, this IS not really so. In these words of serving God is the whole of the reality of Love and this from the rather simple perspective of keeping His words and, as we can see in the Great Commandment at the top of our essay, it IS in Love that we Truly serve God. It IS important to understand just what the Master means by this word mammon and here we should remember that His use of the word treasure, which He speaks about just before thin in the Sermon on the Mount, IS NOT just the riches, the wealth and the possessions, that this IS thought to mean; in our view this idea of treasure is the totality of what becomes important to a man and those things upon which he spends his time and his energy. Let us look at how these ideas ARE understood.
Treasure: According to the lexicon this word means: the place in which good and precious things are collected and laid up a casket, coffer, or other receptacle, in which valuables are kept; a treasury; storehouse, repository, magazine; the things laid up in a treasury, collected treasures 2. It is generally the latter definition that this word is assumed to mean. Strong’s tells us that this Greek word thesauros means: treasure, what is stored up; storeroom 3 while Vine’s has a more complete understanding of this word which, while it IS not the same as ours, does take the idea further away from the purely carnal ideas of the lexicon and Strong’s; we read: denotes (1) “a place of safe keeping” (possibly akin to tithemi, “to put”), (a) “a casket,” Matt. 2:11; (b) “a storehouse,” Matt. 13:52; used metaphorically of the heart, Matt. 12:35, twice (RV, “out of his treasure”); Luke 6:45; (2) “a treasure,” Matt. 6:19-21; 13:44; Luke 12:33,34; Heb. 11:26; “treasure” (in heaven or the heavens), Matt. 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 18:22; in these expressions (which are virtually equivalent to that in Matt. 6:1, “with your Father which is in Heaven”) the promise does not simply refer to the present life, but looks likewise to the hereafter; in 2 Cor. 4:7 it is used of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” descriptive of the Gospel, as deposited in the earthen vessels of the persons who proclaim it (cp. ver. 4); in Col. 2:3, of the wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ 6.
We should note that Vine’s takes into account the way that this word is used and this has been our point as well as there can be no carnal treasure in the Kingdom of God nor can there be the reality of this in the heart. Here we should also note that what we see as those things that are the focus of the man as His treasure, what he attends to, Vines see that the treasure is the gospel within the earthen vessel; we however see that treasure as the Soul, the Christ Within. In both Strong’s and the lexicon one could extract our meaning from the words offered but this IS NOT how these is all generally viewed. Vincent stays away from defining this word that is rendered as treasure, opting instead to offer the legend of St. Thomas and Gondoforus 4 which we have posted in In the Words of Jesus parts 387 and 843. Here the story tells us that Thomas gave away ALL of the king’s treasure to the poor and sick and that this IS ALL replaced by a palace of gold, silver and jewels in heaven. This IS of course but a story and again we must see the reality that there ARE NO such places in the Kingdom, a point that is missed by many in the doctrinal church who believe that there are “many mansions” there for believers.
We see this idea of treasure in our own unique way which we find in our understanding of the Master’s intent and His own usage of those ideas that expands this word into what one considers as a treasure and this we see as the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions of the man. When these are oriented toward the self and the self in the world they become one’s “treasures upon earth” and when these these are oriented toward the things of God, these become one’s “treasures in heaven” and the Master offers us the reality of these ideas in telling us that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). Where then ARE our thoughts, our attitudes and our actions? Are they in the self and the world and therefore ARE “treasures upon earth“? Or, are we focused upon the things of God which makes our focus our “treasures in heaven“? Now we should understand here that the Master’s point is that ALL things that are treasured in the Earth ARE those things which are corruptible and this idea is inclusive of ALL carnal things from the wealth and the possession, to the relationships that one may hold dear, to the attitudes that one may hold regarding his own Life in the world. This treasure IS what IS become important and this treasure is what IS in one’s heart which IS his consciousness in the world.
Mammon: According to the lexicon the Greek word mammonas which is rendered mammon in the King James version and as wealth, money and riches in other translations means: mammon; treasure; riches (where it is personified and opposed to God) 2. We should note here that this definition includes the idea again of treasure. Strong’s tells us that this word means: wealth, assets 2; while Vine’s tells us that it is: a common Aramaic word for “riches,” akin to a Hebrew word signifying “to be firm, steadfast” (whence “Amen”), hence, “that which is to be trusted;” Gesenius regards it as derived from a Heb. word signifying “treasure” (Gen. 43:23); it is personified in Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:9,11,13 6. There is no real idea here as to the intended breadth of this word mammon and hence the view that this IS in regard to riches and wealth and treasure. Vincent gives us his comments on this word from its usage in the Parable of the Unjust Steward where, while it is used in a clearer context, it still not understood as we see the Master’s intent. Luke attaches this saying about God and mammon to this parable and this may help to give the idea of mammon greater force than we find in the more general statement from Matthew where it is offered between the verses on treasure that we reference above and the next ideas on “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25).which is where are intend to take our discussion. This parable IS rather straightforward as it depicts the unjust man who has control of his employers business and who is cheating his employer by ‘wasting’ his goods. Upon being caught and not wanting to be left out in the cold if you will, the man makes arrangement with those who owe his employer money; they conspire to show that they owe less and in this the unjust steward is assured of favor by these businessmen of the world. We must remember here that this IS a parable as we read that “the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light“; we may assume that lord IS the employer as he is referenced this way earlier but we should see by the entire verse that it IS more than this. First the employer who had been cheated and IS being cheated again would not commend the steward; this makes no sense at ALL and while this may not be intended to be the Lord, we can certainly see that this can be the Master’s reference to the worldly attitude of the steward; that this IS his lord who IS doing this commending. The comment about the “children of light” IS likely the reflections of the Master to those listening as is the next verse which reads “And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations“. Here is the first reference by Luke to mammon and in this context we can easily see the idea of the world much easier that we can see the idea of riches.
The next use of this word comes later in the parable as the Master’s proverbial saying that “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?“; here again we have the combination of unrighteous and mammon and here we should not read that there can be both righteous and unrighteous but rather that mammon is unrighteous. How then does one be faithful to this if the idea IS riches and then what ARE the True riches. We should see here that the Master IS intentionally confounding these words and thoughts so that we must discern the True meaning; we should see that while technically this word may mean riches, that riches can be easily seen as we see the idea of treasure above. If we can see that treasure IS what is become important to a man then we can see how mammon can be the unrighteous place or state in which this treasure is found; the world. It IS from here that we find our next use of this word which IS much the same in words and identical in intent as the words from Matthew above; we read: “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16: 8, 9, 11, 13). Again, this IS a parable and if we can see the idea of riches as the story and the reality of the world as the inner meaning then we can see more clearly this idea of mammon. Vincent’s comments on this are: Of the mammon of unrighteousness (εκ του μαμωνα της αδικίας); The same idiom as in Luke 16:8, steward of injustice. Compare unrighteous mammon, Luke 16:11. Mammon should be spelt with one m. It is a Chaldee word, meaning riches. It occurs only in this chapter and at Matthew 6:24. “Of the mammon” is, literally, by means of. In the phrase of unrighteousness, there is implied no condemnation of property as such; but it is styled unrighteous, or belonging to unrighteousness, because it is the characteristic and representative object and delight and desire of the selfish and unrighteous world: their love of it being a root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10). Wyc., the riches of wickedness 4.
None of the definitions here for mammon see this as we do and except for some expansion in of treasure in Vine’s none see our perspective in that idea either. Nonetheless, these ideas are for us a cornerstone in understanding the reality of the Master’s message and, if these words are Truly about riches and wealth and possessions, then these ideas make the reality of the Master’s apparent condemnation of them all the more important; there IS NO safe harbor in this view. In Matthew’s context these words on God and mammon have equal importance but from a different perspective; there Jesus relates them to the idea of treasure directly; in Luke we can see the idea of one’s serving the lord as serving man’s worldly attitude and in Matthew we can see the same in the reality of treasure. Both ideas are portrayed in similar light; the unrighteous mammon is the activity of the man in the world it IS his friend and his focus and it is where he is comfortable; it IS where he continues to cheat so that he may stay. The treasures of the heart IS the same idea; if they are of the world they are temporal, worthless and corruptible but if they are “treasures in heaven” the ARE the same, they are “the true riches“. In Matthew’s Gospel the teaching moves from the words on treasure to the ideas on God and mammon and then directly to the Master’s words on “take no thought” which idea contains the fullness of the former ideas on treasure and mammon.
There is much more that we could say here regarding these sayings but for our purposes this should suffice to move us along and we close today with a reminder that it IS each man individually that must discern the Truth of the Master’s words and His intention in using them as He does and, if we look at these ideas of treasure and mammon and “take no thought” with James’ words above in mind, we can come closer to realizing the True meanings; that ALL of these are teachings on the division between the world of the self and the self in the world, and the spiritual Life of the Soul as the expression of the Life in the world. In the last essay we looked at the ideas of our Tibetan brother who gave us some understanding about the man in the world as he moves from that reliance on mammon to his vision of the greater reality and then, as the aspirant, how he struggles with the duality of Life in the world where he sees both God and mammon. We should understand here that these ideas from the Master are most important when we are in this state of duality; that it IS here that Jesus words can help us to see. The full saying from the Tibetan goes thus:
Dissatisfaction, disgust, distaste, and a deep fatigue are characteristic very frequently of those who are on the verge of discipleship. For what is a disciple? He is one who seeks to learn a new rhythm, to enter a new field of experience, and to follow the steps of that advanced humanity who have trodden ahead of him the path, leading from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real. He has tasted the joys of life in the world of illusion and has learnt their powerlessness to satisfy and hold him. Now he is in a state of transition between the new and the old states of being. He is vibrating between the condition of soul awareness and form awareness. He is “seeing double” **
We should see here that Dissatisfaction, disgust, distaste, and a deep fatigue are the qualities of the Life whose treasure is of the world and whose lord is mammon and that for the man who can glimpse the greater reality the journey IS clearly found in the Repentance and the Transformation of which we frequently speak. As we discussed as we began above, the Tibetan also tells us of that reality that we depict; as that each man must individually discern the Truth.; he tells us:
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.**
This IS the Truth of the journey.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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.
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love;
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness
in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love;
but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him, because he first loved us.
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen,
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And this commandment have we from him,
That he who loveth God love his brother also
1 John 4:16-21
Today’s Quote of the Day from the First Epistle of John is his reflection on God and on Love. John tells us that God is Love and, as we have discussed, Love is certainly as aspect and an attribute of the Godhead and one which is supremely represented by the Christ. John tells us further that without Love there is no relationship with God and likens the Truth of dwelling in Love to being in His Kingdom and in His Presence. He draws for us the idea of Love for ones fellowman being the prime prerequisite for Love of God for although one may say that he Loves God, it cannot be True unless he first Loves his fellowman. In John’s words the equation is certain: “he who loveth God love his brother also“. And, lest we forget that the idea of Love that the Master teaches in not the emotional attraction that we live with daily, we repeat again: LOVE is….
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’. To this we add the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
- 6 Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
- 7 Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.
- ** A Treatise on White Magic or The Way of the Disciple by Alice Bailey ©1951 by Lucis trust
