Monthly Archives: July 2014

ON LOVE; PART DCLXXXIV

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

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).

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ

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.

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ

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).

In the last essay we came to what has become a pivotal point in our study of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. This IS the Master’s words that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me“; this a saying that has fueled the Christian belief that it IS ONLY as a Christian that a man can Truly be ‘saved’ which itself IS a word of immense importance to those who DO believe in this way. Our discussion of this IS a part of our overall topic of grace and we are here in these words from John’s Gospel to explore the deeper relationships of grace and the Holy Spirit which the Master discusses in much detail in this chapter and the succeeding ones. In the last few essays we have been reviewing the first three verses of this saying with an objective of showing the deeper meanings and the hidden ideas that ARE missed by many whose view IS doctrinal and in accord with the idea that man IS this existence in the world and that the Kingdom of God IS that place that one will go after death IF he has met the varied criteria of the teaching that he has chosen, the teaching of the denomination or the sect to which he has aligned himself. This idea of varied criteria IS itself a reason to look askance at the teaching of these doctrines which, while they can help many to have some relationship with God, DO NOT fill the needs of the True seeker. Repeating our selection from John’s Gospel again:

“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” (John 14:1-11).

In the first part of this, up to the Master words on “the way, the truth, and the life“, we have found that there IS a deeper understanding to be gained which IS away from the doctrinal view of mansions or even abodes in a substantial Kingdom of God or the “Father’s house“; We have found that in the deeper meanings of the Greek words used, we can find that the Master IS telling His apostles to stand strong, to not be troubled, and to continue in what they have come to believe and this sense of believing should be understood as what they have come to KNOW. We have seen in that the idea that “I go” we can see the alternate ideas of poreuomai which can be that He leads us or that we follow Him and that the pronoun, I, and the preposition, to, in this phrase ARE added in translation. We have seen as well that the word that IS rendered as place, topos, can be seen as a metaphor according to the lexicon and can be understood much like the English word place and as: the condition or station held by one in any company or assembly; opportunity, power, occasion for acting ² according to the lexicon. In these ideas we can see the greater reality that in His leading the disciples that they are being prepared for the station of True discipleship; by their own steadfast following and keeping of His words which comes in that believing and KNOWING.

A KEY for us in understanding the fullness of these words IS in the next verse that begins with if; in the view that Jesus is telling them that He will “prepare a place” in heaven, a mansion if you will, for them, the idea of if causes as questioning of His own previous affirmative statement. However, if the view IS that He IS leading them or that they are following Him and that He IS preparing them for greater glory, the idea of if can work from the perspective of their success, that if they continue in believing and KNOWING, that they will continue to be with Him, in His Presence. In this part we should understand the rendering of “I will come again” as Vincent shows us; as: His continual coming and presence by the Holy Spirit ⁴. While others see this in the more doctrinal ideas of His resurrection or of His ‘second coming’, this idea from Vincent offers us a broader view of the usage of this phrase and the next where the idea IS rendered as “receive you unto myself“. This part IS offered in one bible version, the God’s Word, as “I will bring you into my presence” and of this Vincent tells us that: Jesus, by the Spirit, takes His own along with Him through life, and then takes them to His side at death. He himself conducts them to Himself ⁴, as part of the longer interpretation that we included in the last post. Here in Vincent’s ideas we can see the same sense of His Presence that we find in the God’s Word translation and in this deeper meaning we find a greater sense of Truth than we can see in John Gill’s idea of: and receive you unto myself; I will take you up with me to heaven; I will receive you into glory ⁸.

Our point here IS of course that the doctrinal view of these words only holds in the doctrinal view of Life and the doctrinal view of the Kingdom but breaks down in the Light of the Truth that the man IS NOT this existence here on Earth but IS the Soul who expresses that divine Life in form as a disciple of the Lord; and that the Kingdom of God IS NOT a place in the sky where one may go at death but IS the Presence of God within the man, a Presence that IS realized by degree through focus upon the things of God. We should remember here that the parabolic nature of the Master’s words IS intentional and we should see this same continuing into our current saying on “the way, the truth, and the life“; we should also remember that the doctrinal ideas and the doctrinal renderings of these words IS based in the preconceived ideas of doctrine which confounds even the search for the True meanings of His words. We however are not constrained by this as our view IS ever the broader and more spiritual one that sees the reality that “the things of the Spirit of God…..are spiritually discerned” and can NOT be viewed from a worldly perspective of doctrines and traditions.

It IS in the context of the questions by Thomas that the Master offers us the idea that He IS “the way, the truth, and the life” and we should try to see that the idea DOES NOT end in this most misunderstood phrase that we began discussing in the last post where we included Mr. Gills doctrinal commentary. When we can understand the True nature of the Christ as an Aspect of the Godhead and see that the fullness of this potency IS the very nature of the Great Soul that came to Life in the form and personality of Jesus, we can then understand the complexities of this idea from the Master and how that this answers Thomas’ question. And the easiest way to view these ideas IS to view them from our own very personal level; to understand that we ARE also Souls and that we too have the fullness of this potency as Souls whose reality IS the Kingdom of God, and who IS the same sense of Presence to which the Master refers above. It IS because of the depth of these ideas that the concepts that the Master offers throughout this fourteenth chapter ARE difficult to grasp and it IS in the Power of these Truths that these concepts are kept covered from men by parabolic ideas and sayings; sayings that ARE only understood by the man who IS ready to seek yet further. In the symbolism of the Virgin Birth of the Master we have the reality of His Life as Jesus; it IS in this that we should view the idea that He came among us possessed of the ability to express the Truth and the Love of the Soul, of the Kingdom of God, through His form and Life as Jesus. It IS in this reality that the Master IS the Way; His achievement in Life was ordained in the Kingdom of God and He IS likely the ONLY Soul who could have come to us in the fullness of the Godhead. And we should understand that He DOES this willingly; this IS His True sacrifice and it IS the God Within, the Spirit of which this Great Soul is the manifest Aspect, that IS in touch with the Father and which IS the Father. This IS what the Master IS teaching His disciples here in these words and the words that follow and it IS only in one’s ability to separate the man Jesus from the divine Soul that IS the Christ and to see Jesus as the expression of this divinity in the world that we can better understand the Truth of His words.

As these ARE parabolic ideas, we can only discern that part of which we ourselves ARE capable and, again relating this to ourselves, we should understand that as Souls we ARE divine as the Master IS divine but, while He could by His very nature bring this divinity to Life in this world, we CAN NOT do this except by discipleship and we CAN NOT be His disciples except by keeping His words. In this we should understand the nature of His saying that He IS “the way, the truth, and the life“; NOT that it IS ONLY in believing in Him as doctrine prescribes, NOT that one must profess Christianity which IS NOT a factor in His day, but in the Truth of following Him and His example and in keeping His words. And this IS the Truth as well, the Truth of man’s salvation or the deliverance of men out of clutches of the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world….out of one’s focus upon the self and the things of the self which IS in opposition to the Great Commandment and the Golden Rule. And this IS the Life, the Life of the disciple in the world, the Life that the Master shows us in His own Life; a Life where the expression of Love and of Truth, as these flow within the grace of the man whose focus IS True, becomes the Life of the man in the world. This IS the message to Thomas: that they should follow Him in His Ways and in the divine Truth that IS within His words and that they should live the Life of the disciple as He has shown them to DO.

And there IS a reality in so DOING; there IS a reality in the Life of discipleship which Life steadfastly keeps His words and stands upon them and maintains and grows that KNOWING attitude that IS brought by grace. It IS in this Way of Life that the disciples realize “whither I go ye know, and the way ye know“; the disciple KNOWS these things but can lose track of the Truth in moments of carnal focus as we see in the lessons offered to us in the Life of the Apostle Peter. Thomas KNOWS but he must be reminded of what he KNOWS and this IS the purpose of these words from the Master…to remind him and perhaps them ALL of the Way, the Truth and the Life that allows the disciple to Truly approach God which IS to Truly approach his own divine nature in his waking consciousness in this world. This IS the deeper Truth of the Master’s words that follow saying “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me“; that NO man can approach God or his own Spirit, except by “the way, the truth, and the life” that IS represented by Him and by the Christ Within every man.

The doctrinal approach DOES NOT agree however with our view as they DO NOT see the reality of man as the Soul that expresses through the body nor the reality of the Master as the Christ who expresses the divine Life through Jesus. The doctrinal bent IS seen in these ideas from the web site of CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network:

Many people have criticized Christianity and believers in Jesus Christ as being too narrow-minded because we preach that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. They point to the numerous other religions of the world and say, “How can your way be the only way?”

One of the answers to this question is that Jesus himself declared that He was, in fact, God in the flesh.

I and the Father are one. (John 10:30, NASB)

He who has seen Me has seen the Father… (John 14:9b, NASB)

Jesus did not give Christians any other option but to preach that it is only through faith in His sacrificial death on Calvary that we can receive salvation from our sins.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14: 6, NLT)

Jesus claimed to be God. We have to judge his statements about himself as either true or false.

The Truth of these quotes from the Master ARE hidden in the Truth of Life and the nature of the True man as the Soul and the Spirit. The Master tells us that we can be as He IS and that we can DO as He DOES but these words are NOT understood except from a carnal perspective where they are dismissed by most as meaning something else. These ideas ARE among those that should be seen literally but which ARE NOT while the parabolic ideas of “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” are taken literally. In these ideas that are used by the doctrinal church to ‘certify’ their belief in this view of the Master as the single way to God….NOT in following Him as He has shown us which IS a feat that can work across ALL religions and doctrines, but in the requirement to be Christian and to believe in Christ according to the their doctrines, there ARE also the deeper meanings of Life and of God.

• In “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) we have the psychic reality of the Godhead. This IS NOT a physical world phenomenon but a spiritual one that says that the Trinity IS One God; that IS Spirit and Soul ARE essentially One and ARE Aspects of the greater reality of God. This IS True of us as men and this IS True in the Life of the Master where we find the Christ expressing the Potency of the Love that IS God because He IS that Potency that IS God. There IS NO carnal view of this.
• In the next saying above; “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” IS the same reality as to look upon the divine expression of the Christ IS to look upon the divinity itself which IS God. Here we should understand a deeper dynamic that merely sight as the disciples have been with Him, they have been in His Presence. This IS the realization that must come to Thomas and perhaps others and this IS a deeply significant realization which one man may NOT be able to share with another. It IS ONLY in the readiness of the seeker to ‘see’ this Truth that this grace will come.

The final point is of course our subject saying which we discuss above. In ALL of these ideas we should be able to see the idea of perception and of True seeing which, as in hearing, can only be discerned spiritually. We close again with the Apostle Paul’s words: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	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!

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com