IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 924

ON LOVE; PART DXIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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).

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“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).

In the last essay we discussed some of the Apostle Peter’s words regarding our theme of forsaking and although there IS NO direct mention of that word, we should be able to see the apostle’s intent in such sayings as “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” which he speaks to his audience of aspirants and disciples. Again we must understand that this word lusts IS ALL encompassing and thereby includes ALL worldly thoughts, attitudes and actions that are directed at the self and the self in the world; ALL things, ALL temptations to satisfy the the desires of the personality in the world. This IS a difficult idea to understand for the man who IS in the world but this IS as well an attitude toward Life that grows in a man as his sense of the Kingdom Within grows and this IS likely why the Master tells us of this growth in His parabolic sayings that we have been discussing. As we noted several posts back, the two parables on the nature of this growth, the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven, are seen by doctrine in a different way than we see this as doctrine continues to deny the idea that the Master offers us saying that “the Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). It IS ONLY when we can accept the ideas of the Kingdom Within, the God Within and the Christ Within that we can understand these sayings regarding the growth of one’s conscious sense of these in his Life. The apostles speak much about these ideas of the Christ Within and God Within and we have been discussing these ideas throughout our time posting on this blog and whether we call this the Christ or God or the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost, the reality IS the same as the we find in the Master’s words of the Kingdom Within. The many references to these ideas include:

• “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of” (Romans 8:10) referring to the conscious awareness of this.
• “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27) referring to the mystery of this reality that is made KNOWN to those who are striving toward that strait gate and striving to keep His words.
• “if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). We separate this from the first point so as to show the reality of the God Within and the Christ Within….that these ARE the same from the same perspective that the Master can say that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).
• “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?”. Here we should try to see the reality of this word reprobate which should be taken to mean rejected or abandoned and here we should try to see that NONE ARE abandoned nor are they rejected. Doctrine does not see this in this way as they prefer that it IS ONLY those who believe according to their doctrine that ARE approved of Christ and some render this saying as that is should mean “Unless, of course, you fail the test“. The apostle tells us in the next verse that “But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates”  (2 Corinthians 13:5-6) and here we should take our reference that NONE ARE abandoned…NONE ARE rejected. Vincent tells us of this Greek word that is rendered as reprobate that: Reprobates (αδόκιμοι); An unfortunate translation. A reprobate is one abandoned to perdition ⁴. This IS a difficult word that appears to be interpreted according to the doctrinal view of the way that it is used. We can see this then in two ways; first as that NONE ARE rejected or abandoned as we prefer based in our own understand of the relationship between God and man, or second that we must put into this the idea that if one fails the test, that Christ IS NOT within. Here in the second instance we should wonder then what IS the test? If it IS keeping His words, then few there are that can Truly have the Christ Within and we KNOW that this IS NOT the doctrinal approach.
• “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us“. This IS from an earlier part of the same Epistle to the Corinthians and perhaps we can see these words as the apostle’s introducing this idea of Christ Within as here the prior verse tells us “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”  (2 Corinthians 4:7-8). In this we should understand that this treasure IS “light of the knowledge of the glory of God “. Here again we must understand that these things are realized by the man who IS approaching this glory and seeing this Light. It IS True however of ALL that God has “shined in our hearts” but few there are that can see this Light. Here again the other choice is to believe that it IS ONLY those who believe the doctrines of the church who have this Light and this regardless that they are keeping His words which we KNOW IS the entryway to the Kingdom and that His words on Love ARE the KEY.
• “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:8). This rendering of formed is held by ALL references that we have seen and none seem to relate this Greek word morphoo to another similar word metamorphoo which is rendered as Transfigured. which IS in our view the highest of achievement for a man in this world. The change of metamorphoo is the end of one’s journey in consciousness and that place where a man has complete and full control of the physical world; it IS here that the man can move the mountain. We should try to see morphoo in this same Light, that this IS a journey in consciousness and the realization of the Christ Within. Our ultimate reality here IS largely the same as doctrine except that we understand that this is a primal fact, that God, the Christ and the Kingdom ARE Within man, every man, and that it IS by realization that we come to KNOW this and it is by striving to keep His words that we get these realizations and revelations.
• “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). We have discussed these words many times and here again doctrine puts a criteria of being a Christian according to doctrine onto these words while we see the reality as that ALL men have this anointing, this Christ Within, and the activity of Him in our lives as the Holy Spirit. Again we must see the idea here of realization as this IS how we come to KNOW the Truth of these things.

There are many other places where these ideas are presented and we should note that it IS by faith that we come to understand; but this faith IS NOT idle, it IS active as we strive toward that strait gate and the method of our striving IS to keep His words; this faith IS the reality of KNOWING by degree and this faith grows in direct relationship to the growth of the Kingdom Within. And it IS in this growing sense of KNOWING that we come to realize the Truth and we should remember the Master’s words here saying that “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). There ARE many words from the Master that tell us of the Christ Within and the God Within but these too must be discerned in the Light of the Soul and here again we present that one that tells us of our own day of revelation and realization as He says: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20); this IS NOT that we believe as that mental or emotional response, this IS that we KNOW. We leave this part of our discussion with this saying from the writer of the Book of Hebrews, another that is misunderstood and misapplied; we read: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is , and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). How do we diligently seek Him save by our striving and how do we Truly strive save by working to keep His words.

In the last essay we discussed in some detail the role of temptation and we related this to our current topic of forsaking most directly in our statement that: Focus upon the things of the world is to succumb to the temptations of Life in form while focus upon the things of God IS to resist these temptations and in this resistance we can find the better part of forsaking. In resisting temptation a man will steadily build himself in the reality of forsaking but we must understand this as resisting ALL temptations that regard the things of the world and we should understand that the things of the world ARE ALL things that take our attention, our focus, away from the things of God. Here we should see that totality of  commitment to God and to Christ that the apostles speak of and there IS NO shortage of sayings to this effect. The perspective to be taken here IS that man IS a divine being who has been “made subject to vanity, not willingly” (Romans 8:20) but by the very Plan of God. It IS in this realization of one’s divine nature that one can Truly understand the apostle’s idea above that “Christ be formed in you” and it IS in this realization that one can see the greater Truth toward which the divine nature of the man in the world strives. Here we can see that the carnal nature has no desire to have any part in this quest as the carnal quest IS for the things of the world…for ever more and better.

But the consciousness of the man IS an extension of that divine nature and while it is held captive by the personality, it continues to feel the promptings to attend to the Light from above, to focus on the divine nature and it IS in such focus that the consciousness begins to realize the Truth and to recognize the temporal nature of the things of the world and the insufficiency of his satisfaction in obtaining them. It IS here in this sense of recognition and realization of his divinity that a man can understand the Truth of the Christ Within and the God Within as the reality of his divine nature and it IS here that a man can and will begin to resist the world and the ways of the world; it is here that a man can Truly resist the temptation and in so doing begin that process of forsaking. And it is here that a man gets that revelation that this IS a thing that he must DO and that this IS the completeness of the Way to the Kingdom.

Like Love this idea of forsaking is a difficult undertaking; in both of these the man in the world must give up his claims to the carnal self, see himself as the divine man and realize his Oneness with ALL men; and he must come to understand that it IS the “affections and the lusts” that must be overcome by resistance and that in this there is that reality that there is naught in the world that can in any way benefit the spiritual Life. There is a saying that helps us to separate our vision as men from our divine sense,  a saying that can help us to understand that in the flesh a man DOES NOT KNOW the Truth of God; we read: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Here we must understand this idea of Loving God which IS ultimately as we have discussed recently in regard to the Great Commandments above. Love for God IS unconditional and there IS nothing that can take a more important place in the Life of a man and while this is downplayed by some doctrine, this IS yet a Truth; this IS our reality as divine men living through the personalities of men in the world. And the Master tells us rather clearly that there IS a link, and indelible link, between Love for God and striving and DOING which we read as: “If ye love me, keep my commandments” and then again as “If a man love me, he will keep my words” and then so as there IS no misunderstanding of His meaning, Jesus says: “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:15, 23-24).

While it may seem that we are taking the simplicity of God to the complexity of DOING we ARE NOT and it only seems this way because of the simplicity of doctrine that DOES NOT call out the need to DO as we clearly read in the New Testament. The Truth IS a difficult way but in our striving toward the goal we do grow and we do so in direct relationship to the growth of the Kingdom Within. In saying this we should see that the greater difficulty IS in the beginning; that the greater difficulty is in the Truth of Repentance which IS that decision to change. And this IS the first pronouncement from the Master as we read that in the beginning of His ministry, as He was finished with the temptations that we discussed in the last essay, that “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). So we Repent, we change our focus from the things of the world to the things of God, and we strive to keep His words and in so doing we begin as well to resist temptation and to understand the duality in which we must live; how “then with the mind I myself serve  the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Here in this saying we should understand the mind in a divine sense, that it IS NOT the carnal mind which comes from a different Greek word and which IS a facility of the flesh, the form and its personality. This IS our struggle through duality, a struggle in consciousness, a struggle of choices in which our role IS to resist, to resist the temptation which can be seen as the greater part of forsaking.

We did not get back to the relationship between these ideas on forsaking and the words of Paul to the Romans that we began several days ago. We have taken this excursion into the idea of temptation so that we can better understand our journey upon the Way to the Kingdom. We close today with these words from the Apostle James on temptation and we will get back to Paul’s words in the next essay after we discuss James’s most poignant points; he says:

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:12-17).

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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.

The verses below are from Young’s Literal Translation of the bible as some of the wording is clearer than in the King James Version. What is the message here but the same as our message and the message of the Christ. We partake of the promises and the divine nature through the knowledge and understanding of God and when we leave the corruption of worldly life that exists in fulfilling our own desires and lusts. This IS forsaking and the reality of what it Truly is that we forsake.

through which to us the most great and precious promises have been given, that through these ye may become partakers of a divine nature, having escaped from the corruption in the world in desires. And this same also — all diligence having brought in besides, superadd in your faith the worthiness, and in the worthiness the knowledge, and in the knowledge the temperance, and in the temperance the endurance, and in the endurance the piety, and in the piety the brotherly kindness, and in the brotherly kindness the love; for these things being to you and abounding, do make [you] neither inert nor unfruitful in regard to the acknowledging of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4-8)

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888