ON LOVE; PART DCLXXXVI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “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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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.
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
As we continued our discussion on grace and its relationship to the operation of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the aspirant and the disciple in the last essay, we were able to find some place for our ideas in the words of the Master from John’s Gospel which we repeat below. In the Master’s response to the request by Phillip for Jesus to “shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us“, a request that IS made after the Master had already told them of the unique and divine relationship between He, as the expression of God in the world, and the Father. Here, in the Apostle Phillip’s failure to understand, we can see that there IS a lack of grace working in the apostle, that Phillip has NOT yet had the realizations and the revelations that would show him these Truths in the Light of his own Soul. This IS an important idea for us to grasp as we proceed through this chapter where this relationship becomes the tone of the Master’s words. He relates this to the lives of the apostles as well in His teaching on the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth. As we discussed, while doctrine has taken the Master’s words saying that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” as a sort of battle cry for the prominence of Christianity, we see that the deeper meanings of these ideas are an introduction if you will to His teaching on these relationships. Our subject sayings again with the addition of the next verse:
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:1-12).
In His words to them ALL Jesus tells them that they KNOW as He says “whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” and we should try to see the Master believes that this revelation should have been theirs; that they should KNOW this in the resulting grace that comes in their standing in the word which He admonishes them to continue to DO saying “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me“. This IS better rendered as “believe in God and believe in me” according to Vincent and we should also understand that the depth of this believing IS KNOWING; that the very idea of believing in IS, again from Vincent, in essence one’s keeping His words which we read in Vincent’s terms as: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. As we KNOW from our previous discussion on this idea of believing, the most basic understanding IS KNOWING as this Greek word pisteuo relates to that other, pistis, which IS generally rendered as faith. Our idea of KNOWING here IS taken from the context in which these words are ofttimes used. The most important of these IS in the Master’s idea of “faith as a grain of mustard seed” (Matthew 17:20) which IS directly relatable to another saying on this same subject of the mountain and which we read as that a man “shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass” (Mark (11:23). In these ideas we have the relationship of believing and faith and we have as well the deeper idea of KNOWING; the mustard seed KNOWS it will be a tree and this KNOWING IS the epitome believing without doubt. And this IS the sense we should get from the Master’s words at the beginning of our selection….the apostles KNOW God and they KNOW the Master and they keep His words.
This IS the reality of Jesus words which come after He tells them that He IS leaving them and after Judas IS dispatched to ‘betray’ Him; don’t be troubled, stand in the word and continue to KNOW and keep His words. And it IS in this context that Jesus tells them that they KNOW the whither and the way and it IS in response to Thomas doubt that the Master gives them more. The more however IS NOT in the saying that doctrines have adopted as their battle cry but in the ideas that follow upon this; the Master’s word IS the Way which IS in keeping His words; the Master’s words are the Truth and it IS in keeping His word that one experiences that Life more abundantly (John 10:10) which IS NOT intended to be carnal as many do interpret this. This IS the Truth of man’s approach to God, that one CAN NOT approach except He KNOWS and one CAN NOT KNOW without the Truth of His words which Truth IS revealed by measure to the man who keeps His words. In this IS the essence of spiritual Life, of grace and the growth of the Kingdom Within. In a word, this ALL comes to us through focus….our ardent focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True; upon the things of God.
Thomas however DOES NOT understand this and Jesus adds to this idea of the “the way, the truth, and the life” the greater reality of the relationship between the Father and the Master and, more deeply, the relationship between these ideas and the whither which IS the “Father’s House“….the Kingdom of God. Here we should see that the Kingdom IS found in keeping His words, which IS the Way, the Truth of those words in the Life of the disciple, and the spiritual Life that flows into the heart of man as grace, as the KNOWING that comes in the revelations and the realizations of these Truths. ALL of this IS resolved in the idea of KNOWING the Master, the Christ, which IS found in the flow of the Love and the Power of one’s own Soul, the Christ Within; and, in KNOWING this, one KNOWS also the Father as the essence of the Life of the Christ Within, the essence that IS the God Within. Now these ideas ARE NOT spelled out here in these few words which are more limited to the relationship between the Master and the Father; between His Truth and the Father’s Truth, which ARE the same and which idea follows upon the Master’s earlier words telling them that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30); the further expansion of these into the lives of the apostles and ALL men comes further on. We come back then to the ideas above, that now Phillip DOES NOT understand the Master’s words and here the Master replies saying that same thing that He had just told them and which they can only understand individually through the grace that they receive by measure; Jesus says “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” and then goes on to teach them further on the Truth of this relationship.
Thia further teaching IS of much importance to the aspirant and the disciple of the Lord; it shows us the relationships between what Jesus represents as the Love and the Power of the Christ in the world; the reality that these CAN ONLY come from God, and the True idea of the relationship between the Master and His True follower. Here we should see that in the Truths that He has espoused, the Love that He has expressed, the miracles that He has done and the Greatness that He IS, IS the work of the Father and the work of the God Within the Master, the God who IS ONE with the Master as He tells us saying “I and my Father are one“. Here we should try to understand the deeper significance that Vincent puts upon this particular idea of one; he says: One (ἕν ); The neuter, not the masculine εἶς , one person. It implies unity of essence, not merely of will or of power 4. In this we have the greater reality of this Oneness, that is IS Oneness in essence which IS defined as: the basic, real, and invariable nature 7. This IS the relationship between the Son and the Father and between the Soul and the Spirit, whether this be of Christ or of any man and this idea IS further developed by the Master as He tell us that the very words that He utters ARE the words of the Father and here we should see a twofold idea. In the previous thought we are seeing the spiritual effect of this Oneness of essence, this Oneness of the Inner Man who IS the Christ in Jesus and the Father; in this next thought however we have the added idea of the Man Jesus as it IS he who phenomenally expresses the words and the works that ARE of the Father. It IS here that we should see the separation of the True Man who IS One with the Father and the vehicle of that True Man as the body and the personality of Jesus.
Again we have parabolic ideas that ARE hidden in the reality of the words that the Master uses and which are released in the Truth of the words that follow as He tells us that whatsoever He has DONE, which IS actually done and said by the Father, the Spiritual Essence of the Christ who IS speaking, can be DONE as well by the disciple who KNOWS the Truth and the Way and who has found the reality of his own spiritual Life. While the Master’s words seem clearly stated, there is much that IS hidden in them and among these hidden things ARE the essential Oneness of the Spirit and the Soul, the Father and the Son or, if we prefer, of God and Christ; we read again:
“the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father“
In this idea of dwelleth which IS rendered from the Greek word meno, we should see the act of being in those mansions that we read of in the first verse and which word we see as abode which comes from the related Greek word mone. In this we should see this idea of dwelling as abiding and the place of that abiding as the abode, the “Father’s house“….the Kingdom of God. This combined with the previous idea of Oneness should give us the flavor that the Master intended; that it IS the God Within Him who IS DOING. To this we should add the underlying Truth that the physical body itself, the body that IS the Man Jesus, CAN NOT be spiritual and divine any more than the body of another man and that IT is the expression of this body and this personality that IS divine. In this IS the Truth of True discipleship, the expression of the fullness of the Love and the Power of the Soul, the fullness of God, through a form in this Earth. The Master IS telling the apostles, still in answer to Phillip’s question and request, that they must KNOW that He and the Father ARE One, that there IS NO separation and the Oneness IS further explained in the most esoteric idea of “I am in the Father, and the Father in me“.
There IS an esoteric depth to this idea that IS difficult to conceive and which IS yet more difficult when the idea of the body, the Man Jesus, IS placed into the equation; in this view the way of understanding this IS found in the words of the Apostle Paul who says “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). This however IS not Jesus reference here as His words are in regard to the spiritual nature of things and the greater idea IS that these two, the Father and the Son, ARE essentially the same and that they CAN NOT be divided, that One IS the expression of the Other. And this IS the same idea of expression that we use of ourselves and of the Master in form, that the form IS the expression of the Soul, of the Love and the Power of the Soul; here however it IS not the body and the Soul that ARE related, it IS the Soul and His expression through the body; and this expression IS the Holy Spirit as we see the Trinity that IS God. The Father then expresses His Will through the Christ, as the Spirit expresses the Will of God through the Soul, and it IS in this Will that we find the Love and the Power that the Soul in turn must eventually express to the world. In the revelation and the language tools that we have, there IS no easy way to say this more clearly.
But the Master goes on and shows them that by the divine nature of the works themselves, that they should see God and in this we should see the panoply of ALL that He did and said; from the Virgin Birth, to the healing of the sick and maimed, to the ability to quickly remove himself from a danger, to walking on water and calming the sea, to the feeding of the multitudes, to the Transfiguration and to every word that He uttered; ALL of these ARE the divine works of God. There should be NO doubt in the apostle’s minds and hearts that the Master IS the Christ and this KNOWING should come to them either by the revelation and the realization or by the very nature of His divine expression.
These ideas are used by many doctrines to show the divinity of Christ Jesus and with this we have NO dispute except that many such doctrines hold this divinity as His separation from us as men and from His own disciples and apostles despite the fact that He tells them of their sameness with Him. And this IS the gist of the next verse which we added to our text today; here the Master offers the Eleven, and us through them, this insight into our own divinity, or own expression of the Love and the Power of the Godhead in the world of men. We leave off today with a more introductory version of this same idea from the Gospel of Luke where we read:
“The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).
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 again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.
Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita
It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 7 Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
