ON LOVE; PART DCCX
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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).
In the last essay we continued with our look at the concept of grace and the relation of grace to the operation of the Holy Spirit. We discussed how that the Master IS preparing His apostles for His own absence in the flesh by showing them some of the deeper Truths. We should see here that they DO NOT readily understand His words which ARE framed in Jesus’ parabolic tone for which the Apostle John uses a Greek word that IS rendered as proverb. There IS a reality here that IS likely missed by many but the Truth of the confusion of the apostles IS apparent in this fourteenth chapter of John as well as in later chapters and in other gospels. In His words the Master is taking His disciples on a spiritual journey which IS most likely unprecedented except in the most esoteric of circles. While the apostles are of higher spiritual insight from the perspective of a man in the world than are other men in their time, they must still deal with the constraints of their physical presence and their own individual personality with its own degree of mental acuity and emotional baggage. In this we should be able to see how that the grace that comes to a man, his revelations and realizations, IS what allows for his conscious understanding of the deep spiritual ideas that the Master IS presenting. In this each of the Eleven are different, they have varying degrees of ability to see these Truths and in this we should see varying degrees of grace.
We KNOW from the previous verses of this fourteenth chapter that Philip and Thomas DO NOT understand the ideas that are being conveyed by Jesus regarding His leaving and how that they can remain with Him, how that they can remain in His Presence; this IS the crux of the ideas embedded in the Master’s on the Father’s House and how that there IS place for them. To this the Master adds that in His continual coming to them from the reality of their individual focus upon the Truth, that they can and will remain in His Presence. This IS NOT the way that these ideas are conveyed by the translators whose doctrines show heaven as another place but, as we have discussed earlier in this series of essays on this chapter, this IS the greater reality. And this IS the reality of Thomas question saying “we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5); there IS a current reality here in Thomas question and not one that IS to be understood in reference to the apostles’ death; they KNOW that Jesus IS leaving their presence and He IS reassuring them that they will still be with Him. The Master continues on to tell them of His relationship with the Father and, although He has shown His divinity by His own words and works, His words seem to further confuse some of the apostles.
It IS in the idea of His being the Way, the Truth and the Life that so much Christian energy is expended as they seek to show Jesus as the ONLY way to God. We see this however in a different Light; we see that this IS to be understood much the same as His Name as we see in “whatsoever ye shall ask in my name“. While the outer view here IS to see this as He Himself, as Jesus, the deeper reality IS based in what He represents, His words and His teachings. These ARE Him in so many ways and it IS these that ARE the Way, the Way of Love and the Way of keeping His words. And His words ARE the Truth and His words ARE Life which ideas John presents to us in other ways as well. If we can approach this from the apostle’s perspective as he presents this to us in the Prologue to his gospel where we read that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1), we can see the idea of the Christ and God being the Word, the Logos, and in this we should try to see the deeper meaning of the idea of “I am” in His phrase saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). When we discussed this phrase from the Master in a previous essay (In the Words of Jesus part 1097), we framed our view this way: 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.
Another part of this reality can be seen in the words form John’s Prologue that tell us that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Here we see the relationship between the Christ the Word, and the man Jesus; the Eternal Christ manifest to the world in the form of the man Jesus. We see also in Jesus words the reality of His own words and the Truth as He tells us of in His prayer to the Father: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:17); and when we see this in the light of our current chapter, that “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10), we can see much of the Master’s intended depth. And the same parabolic ideas can be found concerning the idea of Life, that He IS the Life; again in His own words we read: “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Can we see here in these ideas how that the Master’s being the Way, the Truth and the Life can account for more than doctrine provides in their most literal interpretation.
Our point here IS that this IS a complex answer to Thomas question of “we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” and that this engenders yet another question from Philip as the Master relates this idea to His Oneness with the Father and in this we should see that this IS His intent. It IS because of the obscurity of the Master’s answer that Philip questions Him further and it IS in Jesus’ apparent dismay at Philip’s question that His answers turn to the Master’s own reality, the reality of His Life and His works. Jesus’ point IS that the apostles should understand this Oneness of Himself with the Father simply by the reality of the works that He does and the words that He teaches and His dismay IS apparent in His tone of asking Philip “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?” (John 14:9). It IS during His parabolic answers regarding His Presence and His relationship with the Father, answers that show that so long as they stay close to God, so long as their focus remains on Him and His things, that the Christ will also be in their Presence….that the Master IS as close to them or as far from them as IS their sense of the Presence of God. It IS in the heels of these great Truths that the Master offers our current selection which we repeat again saying:
“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. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:12-20).
Here, in the same parabolic tone, the Master shows the Eleven how that they too are One with the Father, that they can DO these same works which we KNOW from His previous words ARE from the Father. We should see that in the same way as He says “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works“, the Eleven can say as well….this IS the privilege of the True disciple. And the parabolic tone continues as we read about asking in His Name; here again we should see the reality of what it IS that He represents and here we are closer to the reality as we KNOW that He IS “the way, the truth, and the life“; that the Christ IS the Way of Love and the Way of keeping His words. And His words ARE the Truth and His words ARE Life. It IS in this idea of asking that we find the reality of the Comforter which we should understand here as “another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth“. Can we see here the unfurling revelation of the divinity that IS to be found in them as the “the Father that dwelleth in me“? Can we understand these ideas? At the end of In the Words of Jesus part 1118 we posted Vincent’s remarks on this use of the Greek word that IS rendered as Comforter and there ARE some interesting ideas to be found in his words; today however we look at the very end of Vincent’s comment where we read: The Holy Spirit is to be another Paraclete, and this falls in with the statement in the First Epistle, “we have an advocate with God, even Jesus Christ.” Compare Romans 8:26. See on Luke 6:24. Note also that the word another is ἄλλον, and not ἕτερον, which means different. The advocate who is to be sent is not different from Christ, but another similar to Himself. See on Matthew 6:24 4.
In this view of another we should try to see the same idea that the Comforter IS Christ as we also have in Vincent’s reference to John’s Epistle where we read of an advocate; this word comes from the same Greek word as does Comforter; we read: “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (John 2:1). There IS much confusion regarding the Master’s use of the idea of another in our selection above and in our view of the context of Jesus’ words, we see that He IS speaking here about His own Presence. We should try to see here that this IS the reality of the Christ Within as the Master goes on to tell them that “ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you“. We should try to see here that in this idea of “shall be in you” there IS ONLY the necessity of realization which comes as the grace that will come to them and this IS much the same as these other revelations that He IS showing them in parabolic language and which they must grasp in the Light of their own Souls. Heretofore the Master IS by their side and now, in His departure, He will yet be with them as One with “the Father that dwelleth” in each of them.
There IS no easy way to understand these ideas of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and these remain nebulous in the doctrines of the churches where too much is seen in too literal a fashion. In our chart below which we have been carrying in every essay, there IS an understandable reality of the Trinity of God. The beauty of the Trinity IS in its Oneness, that the Trinity IS a singular event and IS our ONE God who we see in a variety of different ways. We see the Will of the Father; this IS His very BEING, the IS that results from the reality of “I AM”….this IS God, this IS Spirit and this IS Life in its Truest essence. We see then the Love of the Son, the cohesive nature of the same Oneness that IS God; this IS the expression of His BEING and it IS this in this expression that ALL remain as One, a multitude of individual sparks of the One divine flame. This IS the Love that IS God and that IS the Christ and this IS the Love that IS represented to the world of form as the Souls of men. And what of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit IS the activity of these other Aspects of God; the activity of the Will of God as this IS expressed through the Love that maintains ALL things. In the Kingdom of God this Aspect IS unseen; it IS the constant expression of the Souls of men and likely of ALL things divine. It IS when the grace of realization and revelation come into the Life of the man in the world, when the man recognizes the divine Power that he IS, that this constant expression of the Soul can be seen in the world….and it IS seen as the expression of the Love, which IS the reality of the very BEING of God, The Holy Spirit IS the operation of the grace of the man whose focus IS on the things of God.
Just as “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), so grace and Truth come forth in the Life if the disciple who can live in the reality of His words saying: “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do“
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
