Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CXXXIV
“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 first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:14-23).
While we have gone off onto this tangent which started with the idea that the words of our Lord have been in many ways confounded by the doctrines of the church as they pick and choose and interpret scripture to suit the needs of the doctrine itself rather than the reality and the Truth of the message, we must remember that we are not condemning this as it was likely started as a way to define the undefinable and to create a structure by which they could teach during those rather emotionally charged times starting 2000 years ago. Our reality here should be to see that the tenor and the tone of the teachings have progressed little over those years although the doctrinal practices may have; so many still focus upon the crucified Christ and teach about His death on the Cross rather than to teach His Life lessons in earnest and the fact that He is Risen and, as He told us, that He is with us always. While there are some later denominations and sects that have come forth over the centuries that focus a bit more on the use of the mind as opposed to an emotional response, which they may call the heart but which is oft not the same heart that the Master speaks of, they are mostly ridiculed by the larger church and labeled in ways that demean the sincerity of their efforts. It is unfortunate that some of these newer and mental approaches to God have been focused upon the changes to the Life of the personality and the form through the use of the mind rather than being focused upon the better access to God that the mind may afford the man. This is, in effect, the same focus upon the world, one’s Life in the world and the things of the world except that such focus is from a different perspective.
Our point in this is that the focus of our text has become this idea of God versus the doctrines that teach Him and not the lead saying from the Apostle Paul that we have been posting at the head of our essays. This is because we do start out each essay with the intent to get to our point but many times fail to do so and this last several days is an example of this and the paragraph above, as it drifted from this same explanation into the world of emotion and mind as they affect the church and its people, is an example of why. This being said we continue from where we left off in the last post, discussing the ideas set forth in the disputed verses at the end of the Apostle Mark’s Gospel which give the Master’s instructions to His disciples. The message, according to Mark, is not so straightforward as the Apostle Matthew’s rendition as regards what a disciple or an aspirant should do but rather Mark focuses on the outer effects of being one. From Mark’s writing we can see the rarity by which a man can enter into His Kingdom and be His disciple from the perspective of what we know about the several abilities of the men who have come to our attention as Saints and as True men of God across ALL religions. We should note that in the phrase from Mark’s Gospel saying that “In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover“, that this is NO indefinite position, it is straightforward and sure. This separates the ideas that one may have about the purported healings that this or than minister can accomplish from the understanding of ‘shall‘ which we should see in the ‘always‘ category; that is that there is no doubt that the man requiring healing will be healed. It is so unfortunate that so many believe themselves disciples who have not nearly approached the criteria that the Master sets forth and that they believe that it is their Power or the Power of God through them, that heals the people that they may pray for. It is also unfortunate that the failures of healing are by some healers blamed upon the person requiring healing, that they lack faith enough for it to happen. This is a judgement that the healer or any man purporting to be ‘of God’ should not make as it not only is contrary to the ways of the Master and His disciples, but also serves to make the Life of the one seeking healing all the more difficult as they are caused to question their own faith or to question the intent of God in their lives. There are none who understand the dynamics of healing as they occur in the world and we should note that they do occur across a wide swath of religions and cultures and at times without the intervention of any man of God at all.
We touched upon three points in the last post but never completed our discussion on the second as we got wrapped up in the ideas surrounding the word that is translated in the King James Version (KJV)as damned and in the Revised Version (RV) as condemned and there is one version that agrees with our assessment of judged as the right intent. Before we move on to the missed point which is baptism, we should add here that this translation of non-belief as damned and condemned is likely responsible for much of the church’s rather harsh assessment of that brother that one is supposed to Love and this because he does not believe as the church does. Looking at other people, one’s brothers and neighbors, as heathen is not a Christian attitude as taught by the Master but it has found place in the doctrines of much of the church and this regardless of whatsoever religious affiliation a man may have. He may be a Muslim or a Hindu who is exceedingly closer to God by the way of his Life that are the accusers that KNOW ONLY DOCTRINE and this should not be so. This leads us to the idea of baptism which we have covered in some detail in past posts and which we see as much more than the outward practice of a disputed ritual by the church which believes themselves as ordained to perform it. Infant baptism, baptism by immersion or baptism by the pouring of water are among the doctrinal disputes across much of the church when the reality of baptism itself should be the focus.
When the Master tells us that we should baptize in these sayings that we have been discussing. What is He really saying to us as regards baptism?
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20) [New American Standard Version].
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following . Amen“ (Mark 16:15-20).
The word(s) translated as baptize(ed) or baptism in the New Testament are given to us with their doctrinal understanding and not the spiritual which is a part of the parabolic nature of scripture. It is likely that none of the uses was ever meant to refer solely to the ritualistic performance but rather to the deeply spiritual meaning that lies behind the ritual and that one can be baptized without ever experiencing or even knowing of the practice of the ritual. This however is not the accepted view of the churches, some of which require an adult baptism because a person baptized as an infant is not acknowledged by them as Truly baptized. Our interpretation is the same across ALL of the uses of the word baptism and that is that it is an immersion; not in water or any other vehicle as that is just the outer ritual practice but it is the inner spiritual result of immersing oneself in the Lord through ardent focus upon the Christ Within and the Life of the Soul. When the idea is the ”baptism of repentance” we see this as the immersion of the consciousness into the changes that are required by one who is seeking the spiritual Life, who comes to the Lord for cleansing or remission, with an understanding that repentance IS the process of change. In so coming to the baptism it is understood that the voluntary immersion into the necessary changes is the objective. Repeating our ideas from a previous post: this is true then with persons coming to John the Baptist as they would have gone before to the priest; this was their way of approach to God and we must believe that they came in sincerity and understood the ideas behind the word baptizo. The changes from the teaching of John the Baptist to the Master should be recognized in His teaching and in the teaching of His disciples which is that a person no longer needs to go to the priest but is free to approach God on his own and to do so in sincerity. The ritual was of no real use in the Baptist’s day other than to carry over the custom of the ritual itself; it is the sincerity of the person and his willingness to be immersed in the necessary changes that made one what we now commonly call baptized. The same is true today; the variety of rituals throughout the churches are just that, rituals, and it is only the person who is sincere in making the necessary changes, sincere in repentance, that is Truly baptized for he is immersed then in the change.
In our verses above we should try to see the idea of the disciples baptizing as that they are commanded to indoctrinate others into this immersion in change or into the immersion in the spiritual Life of a disciple which is evident in the wording of the saying from Matthew’s Gospel saying “make disciples of all” as well as in the ideas engendered by His telling us to teach “them to observe all that I commanded you“. This should be abundantly clear to ALL who see discipleship in its True Light. In Mark’s Gospel we get the same message from the word believe as the Master says “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” and this we interpret as following the Master and keeping His words which in the final analysis is discipleship; the art of being a disciple is incorporated into His words. Mark then goes on to tell us of the Master’s vision of what a disciple can and will be able to do which, if we count this part of the gospel as True, is additional testimony on the special criteria that is applied to one who would call himself a disciple.
In a prior post where we speak about the exchange between the Master and two of His disciples who believe that they should have some special favor, He tells them that His is a full immersion into the Life of the God Within and He asks if they believe that tthey are able to do likewise. We said previous that: Carrying these thoughts forward to our subject dialogue with James and John we find the Master speaking about His own baptism, His own immersion and asking them if they too could handle this same baptism, this same immersion. Jesus says: ”Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” (Matthew 20:22). We discussed the ideas put forth by the cup in the last post and should be able to see the relevance of this part of the Master’s question to be one of asking if they, James and John, can, as men, stand up to the trials and the tribulations that are forthcoming; He is asking if they can be strong enough to deflect the wiles of the flesh and remain in the spiritual perspective that will be required. The rest of the question is one of immersion and for the proper context we must look at the nature of the Christ; which is to say the nature of the Life of Jesus and at the totality with which He immersed Himself in the Inner Life of the Christ Within.
We will end here for today and pick up with our thoughts on this and on our opening verses in the next post.
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 leave this Quote of the Day again for today.
In accord with the ideas that we close with above we bring again to your attention the ideas by which a man should Live. This Quote of the Day is the realty of how we should focus our lives and in so doing, all the other things alluded to above will take care of themselves and this is a great part of the selfless attitude of the disciple and his ability to forsake ALL.
Values to Live By
A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;
A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.
Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;
A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;
Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.
The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.
