ON LOVE; PART DXIV
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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 the reality of forsaking from the Apostle Peter’s perspective as he tells us of the man who IS seeking God, the man who IS striving, “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” (Peter 4:2). In this saying we find that direct link between temptation and forsaking as here Peter tells us that we should NOT live in the ways of the world and that we should NOT live in the desires of men which are most always for the pleasures of the world. This combination of ideas IS a part of the greater reality of Repentance that follows a man even after he may choose to follow the ways of God over the ways of the man in the world; here we should try to see the reality as well that these lusts ARE not the things themselves by rather one’s thoughts and attitudes about these things; these lusts are the actions of the personality, the mind and the emotions, regarding such pleasures which may be psychic or physical. Perhaps Peter writes this way because of his own experiences as an apostle of the Lord. We have always portrayed Peter as our ready example of the Life of a disciple and have shown how he is held out by the Master as being carnally minded in things that we ourselves would not consider as such. We see the Master reproving him for his disbelief and his lack of understanding also and it is difficult for us to see clearly what wrong the apostle has done. In this we should see the constant growth that the aspirant and then the disciple must undergo as he strives toward that point of perfection to which the Master point us saying “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and as He shows us His own perfect example that we should follow saying: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).
From our reading of the gospels, Peter is made to stand out and while we do not KNOW this for Truth, we believe that this IS a purposeful thing in the Master’s mind which IS recorded by the gospel writers because of the importance to the Master and to show us what we are intended to see: the steady and seemingly continuous growth that we must undergo as we strive toward the Kingdom of God. And so we see the words from Peter above as that statement that this change must come and even after one’s decision to change his focus, a man must continue in his own Repentance as he Transforms himself constantly toward this perfection. And in these changes that can occur day by day we should see the Truer sense of forsaking as the man lets go of ALL attachments and attractions to the world and the ways of the world. We should try to see this in a psychic way first and in a physical way as needed to live in the reality of the apostles words above and to NOT “live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God“. This IS a difficult enterprise as we have discussed and as the Master tells us and undergoing these changes must be done willingly and freely which we should see as the greater reality of the Apostle Paul’s writings which are seemingly against the law. These changes ARE done in the full understanding of Love and the role of Love in the Life of the aspirant and the disciple and this IS NO different for us today than it was for the disciples in Jesus’ day.
And this IS the greater reality of the idea of forsaking, that it is not only riches and things of the world but the attitudes and the thoughts that motivate the man in the world, that there should be nothing done for the self; no plans, no schemes, no acquisitions; no worldly desires as we read in these other words from the apostle that we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day:
“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” (2 Peter 1:4-7; Young’s Literal Translation).
These words from Peter which we discussed a few days back ARE the same Truth as those above; here they are framed against the partaking in the promises and we should understand in this that we can “become partakers of a divine nature” if we can realize the Truth of forsaking, that we can be among those who have “escaped from the corruption in the world in desires“. This IS contrary to human thoughts and attitudes and this IS contrary to the teaching of doctrines that tend to allow for the man to be attached to and attracted to the world. Here we should remember that this forsaking IS NOT for ALL men to consider and to achieve; it IS however a requirement of those who would “become partakers of a divine nature“, those who would spend their time focused in “the will of God” and we should remember that it IS in the “the will of God” that we find the Kingdom of God which IS the Master’s Truth as He tells us “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” (Matthew 7:21). Yes these are difficult things to accomplish but we MUST remember that it begins in that primary act of Repentance which is the decision to change the focus of one’s Life and then carry on in the Transformation of the man who IS striving; and this IS the tool of the man who Truly seeks His Kingdom…striving. Striving to keep His words is what we can do as men who have heard the call of our own Souls to the Good, the Beautiful and the True, to the things of God, and are following that call. It is in this striving that we can achieve ALL as the sense of the Kingdom Within grows steadily in a man and, while one may not complete this in this Lifetime, he will have found some part of that “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7) and which is found in the Light of the Soul that increases in the Life of the man in direct proportion to his focus upon the Truth.
As we say, this IS NOT for ALL men at this time; most are comfortable living in the the illusory world of the self and can only see their lives as being there, in the world of glamour and of illusion. In this we are reminded of the words from Paul to the Romans which we will return to below, his words on the reality of this vanity, this separation from the Truth of which Vincent tells us that in this use we should see that: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. This IS Life in this world and it is from this that men must be delivered or, rather, must deliver themselves, which IS the reality of salvation. In this deliverance is forsaking, the giving up of those false ends in favor of the Truth of the spiritual reality of man. And it IS here that we should understand the role of temptation; that this IS the emotional and the mental reaction to the perceived pleasures of the world as they are presented to us in a seemingly endless procession of attractions and attachments that take man’s attention and consume his focus. Here we can see that one can perceive a thing of pleasure and be attracted to that thing emotionally and mentally; it is this attraction that IS desire and lust and it IS the prospect of having that thing that results in temptation. We should try to see here that this idea of temptation is only effective for the man who is sensing some form of duality whereby choices are necessary, as without this duality the man will merely conform to his desires and his lusts. Here then is the measure of one’s place in that scale of duality where to the right we find the things of God and to the left the things of the world and here we should try to see that for the aspirant these temptations and choices are more to Lifestyle than they are to the individual doings of the man in form. And it IS in this way, as aspirants, that we should view our thoughts on temptation and forsaking as in the lower sense of this found in the individual doings the choice is generally between two worldly things, perhaps one better than the other but worldly just the same. For us the choice is between the world and God, between God and mammon if you will. This brings us back to the words from the Apostle James that we left off with in the last essay:
“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).
James’s words here reflect the power of temptation for the man who is at least somewhat focused upon the things of God and here we should see the aspirant and perhaps even the disciple who, like Peter, may still have some carnal tendencies. James tells us that in overcoming the temptations of Life that the man will “receive the crown of life“and we should understand this as an ongoing affair for so long as a man is plagued by temptation. And he cautions the religious here as well that they do not think that temptations are presented by the Lord and in this we should read that ALL temptation is of the world. There are many yet today that see temptation as a test offered by God but this IS never so as we read in James’ words and in the proper reading of Paul’s use of the word reprobate that we discussed in the last essay. There ARE NO tests, there IS ONLY the DOING by each individual man who IS his own judge in these things; it IS only the man himself that KNOWS his own heart and whether his heart IS True to his own outward presentation of himself. In the Master’s words on this idea of KNOWING the heart, He tells us this in His words to the Pharisees: “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). While this may seem contrary to what we say here, it really IS NOT when the reality of the God Within is considered; it IS He who KNOWS as the Apostle John tells us in his words on “the anointing which ye have received of him” of which he says that “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:27, 20); here the word rendered as unction IS the same Greek word that IS rendered as anointing. It IS the God Within that KNOWS ALL things but it is only in one’s focus upon the Truth of God that one will realize this KNOWING; the Pharisees in that day were concerned about their doctrines and their own lives in the world and their focus was NOT on the things of God. Had their focus been right they would have understood the Master and accepted Him as a few did and this trend of focus upon the self and the traditions and the doctrines persists in most every religion yet today. The testimony to this fact is found in the reality of Life in this world as compared with the Truth of the words of the Master and none are clearer than those at the top of our essay…His words on Love.
The temptations then ARE from the world, they ARE always from the world and they erupt from the carnal self, the emotions and the minds of men. It IS here that we can see the heart of forsaking for the aspirant who is striving toward the Kingdom but this idea of temptation afflicts ALL whose conscience IS reflecting some glimpse of the Truth so as to force a choice. Where there is no glimpse there is no temptation as the natural way then is merely to do as the carnal self desires. And this is for us the nature of sin, the ways of the world that are tempting the man to follow and to do that which is worldly in nature and the death here is of course that the man remains mired in the carnal Life and in carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions. We should KNOW that this DOES NOT work out in Life in such black and white terms as there are degrees of temptation and of lust and degrees of following as one may succumb to the temptations to do one thing and wholly resist the temptation to do another. The apostle then tells us in his own way that NOTHING good comes from the world or from these temptations to do worldly things; he says that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above“. He tells us as well that there is NEVER any doubt to this Truth of good from above and temptation from below in the same way that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11); there IS NO variability, NO change of His effect in the world as to what is right or wrong, or good or bad, or of what is for the self in the world of men. There IS only the steadiness of God affecting ALL men the same way as expressed through each man’s individual God Within which, when the man in the world can realize His presence, becomes the essence of the perfect gift from above.
What we should see here in these last few essays is the reality that as we can resist the temptation to participate in the things of the world for selfish gain, we are forsaking those attitudes and thoughts which created the temptation and thereby eliminate that particular thought, attitude or action from our lives. This IS a large part of the overall process of forsaking for those things which come upon us in Life. We are perhaps left then with the attachments and the attractions in which we are nurtured and which we may hold dear as we approach that point of Repentance and for which we do not yet see the Light of Truth and how the idea of Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above“. Returning to Paul’s words to the Romans that we have been discussing we should be able to tie these ideas together; the words from the apostle’s letter to the Romans are:
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 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. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:13-23).
Here we see the same ideas from another perspective as the apostle says that “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die“. We should understand this as that if a man succumbs to the temptations that he remains mired in the ways of the world and perhaps we can see here that it IS this temptation that must be mortified as this IS what leads a man to the worldly “deeds of the body“. It IS as a man can resist the temptations of Life that he can begin to realize the Truth and we should see this resistance as it IS the result of one’s focus upon the Truth and it IS in this focus that we ARE “led by the Spirit of God“. While he consistency of this resistance may not the be normal way for the man who is striving as he continues to live in the world of duality and temptation, it IS his objective. While James and Peter are giving us ideas on how to live, Paul here is giving us the reality of what happens when we do live according to the Will of God; he tells us that we are “led by the Spirit of God” and that we realize that we ARE “the sons of God“; that we are in the adoption, the unity of son with Father, and are entitled to ALL that He IS and ALL that He has as “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ“. This IS a reality for ALL men as Souls and it IS the realization of this in the consciousness in the world IS the product of the focus upon the things of God and striving to keep His words. And it is here in this state of focused striving that revelation and realization come to us by degree and it IS here that we are able to understand the suffering, the affliction that the Soul endures through living Life in this world as men. It IS here in this realization of Truth that we sense the reality of “the glory which shall be revealed in us” and how that in the final analysis this suffering is but a part of our individual and corporate service to the Plan of God.
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.
We repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
