ON LOVE; PART DXV
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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).
We have been noting the relationship between forsaking as the Master teaches us and the idea of resisting temptation and we should understand that this is no better understood by the mainstream church than ARE any of the other precepts of the Master. Too many people believe that these things apply to the next man and not to himself as he may believe that by his ‘faith’ he is saved or else that he has nothing that requires forsaking; this IS of course from the teaching of one’s particular doctrine and not the words of the Lord. Too many people believe that the Kingdom of God can be attained whilst one spends his Life in pursuit of the treasures of the Earth instead of the treasures of heaven and most do not understand that this idea of treasure encompasses ALL things that attach a man to the world or attract him away from his focus upon the Kingdom of God. And too many people see these words as translated from the Greek as representing what the English word commonly portrays as they think that treasure IS riches and possessions instead of the reality that one’s treasure IS those things that he deems of importance; those things that take up his focus and his time….that treasure IS every thought, attitude and action of the man that keeps his attention away from the Kingdom. And similarly this idea of temptation as it is relegated to encompass those things that one would consider as sin; here few realize the Truth of sin even though it IS spelled our for us by the Master and His apostles.
For us as aspirants there is a different dynamic as we have come to that point of reliance upon the Truth of the Master’s words and not the doctrinal interpretations that were formed centuries ago and continue in similar form for the convenience of men, for the convenience of his Life in this world. Here we have a picture of men who find their comfort in the idea of ‘doing well’ in Life in the world and this IS of course a movable idea that has a scale of its own. We can see this in the fact that what one may consider as doing well, another will see as either NOT so or NOT well enough. It IS here that the struggle in the world exists; it IS here that the focus on the self and the things of the world plays its role; it IS here that it IS the degree of focus that should be measured as the sin of man and not just those grossest of things that the world envisions as sin. We read in the words of the Apostle James in the last essay: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” and in these words we understand that this refers to ALL things; ALL that one desires in the world are these temptations and the apostle gives us the converse of this in telling us that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights” (James 1:14, 17). These are not just idle words but words with meaning so as to tell us that the Good, the Beautiful and the True comes from God and that the things of the world DO NOT.
These words are not rightly understood; forsaking, temptation, lust and sin are ALL seen as that thing that another DOES or MUST DO and this affects even by those who are purportedly religious. Most DO NOT understand that ALL things of the world ARE the things of sin….every thought, attitude and action. James makes this clear in his words saying that “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not 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 4:4)”. Unfortunately this is seen in the context of the adulterer, which word should be omitted according to Vincent leaving only the female idea 4, and that it does not apply to ALL; the reality is of course in the metaphorical value of this idea where the apostle is speaking to those who profess to Love God but at the same time are engrossed by and in the world of things. The Apostle John tells us similar saying: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world“. This is the same idea but here the Truth is lost in the idea of lust and pride as men DO NOT understand the reality that the subject is “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” and that lust and pride are but examples that can encompass much. There is another word that is connected to these ideas that IS also misused and misunderstood and that is the reality of the idea of carnal which IS thought by many to apply only to sexual ideas and the grossest of things as IS sin. The Apostle Paul tells us this which is similar to what we have above; he says: “the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). In this verse the word that IS rendered as carnal IS the same word that is rendered as flesh in other versions and IS the same word that is rendered as such in the apostles words on the “works of the flesh” which we spent considerable time on recently. Here then we should see those same ideas as in the “works of the flesh” should be applied to carnal and of course be seen as sin and we repeat this here again for clarity: “the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like” (Galatians 5:19-21).
We should see in this list many or the ordinary ideas that afflict man in the world; these are the “works of the flesh“, these are the workings of the “carnal mind“, these are “the things that are in the world” and it IS in succumbing to these in temptation that IS sin and that makes one a “friend of the world“. And we should see the Master’s words in this light as well as he speaks to us about the treasure of the heart and about that choice between God and mammon. In Matthew’s Gospel we find these ideas together, separated by yet another reality whose meaning IS found in these sayings above and in our idea of focus; we read:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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 6:19-24).
In the Master’s parabolic language there is much said that IS missed. This treasure IS not only the physical but by the very phraseology the idea IS clearly ALL those things that can take one’s heart, one’s consciousness; this can be the things of the world or the things of God and while there are infinite combinations of these things possible, the intent in this particular part IS about what the man attends to. Here there is moment by moment judgement of what one’s focus IS; of what IS the treasure of one’s heart. And the Master continues here to speak about single-mindedness and we should remember that the words are parabolic and have naught to do with the physical eye of a men; here Jesus tells us single-minded focus upon the things of God has the result that “thy whole body shall be full of light” and this IS the Light of the Soul, the Christ Within upon which one IS focused. Conversely we have the eye that IS evil and again this IS not the physical eye but the focus of the consciousness; in this word evil we should see sin and in sin we see focus upon the self and the things of the world. And we should see the idea of “thy whole body shall be full of darkness” simply as the absence of the Light of the Soul shining in the consciousness of men. This IS the Light of which the Master says: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Finally we find the reality of God and mammon and again we have a word that IS NOT rightly understood but which IS seen as riches and possessions; mammon IS the things of the world, the carnal things, the things of the flesh; mammon IS in the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions of the man when focused upon the self and the self in the world. Mammon is the “treasures upon earth” and the focus upon them IS serving mammon. In other places we find the Master speaking of the “mammon of unrighteousness” and making friends with it; here we can see the idea of making friends of others who serve the things of the flesh, others who serve mammon instead of serving God. And the same idea with the Master’s words on”unrighteous mammon“; wealth and possession CAN NOT be unrighteous in their own accord but CAN only be so in the heart of man and it IS the man that IS focused upon the things of God who will see this as such. In these words from the Master we should see the reality of His intent which is the same as those words above from James and Paul and John; ALL are words that set that divide between the things of the world and the things of God and the Master ends this part in those most profound words: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon“. Here the keyword IS cannot; it IS NOT possible to do both and seeing these words while observing our own Life and the lives of men creates that vision that few there are that are serving ONLY God.
The human problem here IS the same as the doctrinal problem which IS that the parabolic language of the Master and His apostles IS NOT rightly discerned. Any who will look away from the self and read these words, ALL of them, will see the common thread of the need to eschew the things of the world and this IS the other part perhaps of forsaking. In these ideas we should see the reality of the need for the man who strives, the man who seeks the Kingdom, to have this attitude of avoidance which is in reality an attitude of forsaking, as to the things of the world. One’s focus IS to be on the things of God or, at a minimum, to be sincerely striving toward that goal and here we should see that it IS in striving that we achieve and it IS in striving that we come to the Light step by step, moment by moment and day by day. This IS the message of the Master and His apostles from which we see the reality of shedding ALL that keeps us from our goal which IS the Kingdom of God and the service of the disciple. This IS difficult; it is difficult to give up what we have and what makes us comfortable and so we deflect this responsibility by NOT seeing the Truth of His words, but, in so doing a man falls yet further into the clutches of the illusion and glamour in which he lives. In this difficulty however we can take strength in striving and, as part of so doing come to the right perspective regarding temptation; here, while we may find it hard to shed what we may have, we can perhaps resist adding yet more things to be later shed; we must remember here that we speak here about the totality of our thoughts, attitudes and actions and not only the physical things of Life in the world.
This difficulty IS the subject of the next part of the words from the Paul that we have been using as our secondary track and from which we have seen the reality of being “led by the Spirit of God” as being BOTH the result of and the cause of one’s ability to “mortify the deeds of the body“. We framed this as that the man who IS “led by the Spirit of God” is the man who has been able to “mortify the deeds of the body” and that these ideas go hand in hand; the greater the leading of the Spirit the greater the mortification and the greater the mortification the greater the leading of the Spirit in a previous essay and in this we should be able to understand our point regarding the steady growth of the Kingdom Within for the man who strives. There is not a criteria that one overcome ALL things in a moment and we should see that the speed with which a man can become Transformed is directly related to strength of his focus, the consistency if you will, upon the things of God. Repeating Paul’s words again:
“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).
This difficulty that we speak of above IS in many ways the reality of the suffering of which we read in Paul’s words to the Romans, that suffering with Christ as He was subjected to these same realities during His incarnation as Jesus. This suffering IS NOT the plight of man in the world, it IS rather the plight of the man as the conscious Soul trying to free himself from the ways of the world and it IS with this in mind that our discussion went to the ideas of temptation. We have discussed Paul’s words in past posts from other perspectives and the reality IS that we ARE Souls living through human forms and in the illusion of Life we come to believe that we ARE those forms; why this IS so we DO NOT KNOW and in like ways we DO NOT KNOW very much regarding the Truths of Life at ALL. Paul here in these words however gives us some clues and some hints to the reality of our presence in this world and we should say here again that there are not many who see the apostle’s words in the way that we DO. And so we suffer as Souls, not in the general understanding of this word, but in the understanding that we are afflicted as was the Master with the need to live in form.
Paul shows us however that there IS a way out of this morass of corruption in the world as he tells us that height of “the glory which shall be revealed in us” when this work IS done far exceeds the depths to which our affliction has taken us. And this work IS our service to the Plan of God which IS another difficult idea to comprehend but which is a Truth as it IS the Plan of God that put us here and it IS by the Plan of God that we “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and this IS rather clearly spelled out here if we can discern the apostle’s words. The words of the twentieth and the twenty first verses here ARE in our view wrongly broken and we should remember that the chapter and verse markings of scripture IS the work of men and as such in accord with their own doctrines. Here, when we read Paul’s words together and render hope as expectation and because as that, we find a different emphasis and a different message. Both of these word changes ARE within the scope of the definitions of the Greek words and we should understand that the common idea of hope, that wishful idea of the word, CAN NOT apply here as we ARE speaking about God. Vincent also helps us here by attaching “in hope because” to the twenty first verse and saying: In hope because (επ’ ελπίδι ο’τι); The best texts transfer these words from the preceding verse, and construe with was made subject, rendering ο’τι that instead of because. “The creation was subjected in the hope that,” etc. In hope is literally on hope, as a foundation 4. While Vincent retains the word rendered as hope, he sees this in the view of expectation and frames this as the foundation for this idea of God that “the creature itself also shall be delivered“. We see expectation as the better understanding as this is the greater reality from the perspective that God simply KNOWS and while the reality of the world is chaotic free will, He KNOWS that in the end ALL will be right. We then render this as
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children 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
