Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART VII
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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For the last two posts we have looked at some of the established doctrinal documents of various Christian denominations and sects. We posted the Confessions of Faith of the Methodists, the Articles of Faith of the Mormon Church and the Apostle’s and the Nicene Creed of the Catholics. Each of these sets forth the basic beliefs of the particular denomination and similar statements of belief are published by most all of the thousands of different denominations. There are additional documents as well that go toward the formation of the doctrine and the general and organizational order of each of these but we are only looking at the beliefs as they are stated in regard to the teaching of the Master and His apostles here in these posts. As we read through these we can see the differences in the approach of each and can find, based upon our own beliefs, areas of both agreement and disagreement within each of them.
This look at the variety in the presentation of these statements of faith brought us back to a topic that we have spent much time on in past essays and this is faith itself and the allied term of believe. We ended yesterday by our noting that there is an apparent difference in the approach to these ideas by the Master in the verses that we presented yesterday and the approach of His apostles and we must note here again that if the simplicity of the apostle’s approach were as it is believed to be today, there would be many in the world who could move the mountain or cast the tree into the sea. It is fortunate for humanity and for the world that this is not true. When we look at the words of the apostles as that they are intended for disciples eyes and not for the general public, we can make a bit more sense of their approach and their words and we will use this as a working premise as we proceed.
The Master’s comments on faith and on believing are certain, there is no ambiguity in His pronouncements at all. He tells us clearly that if we have the RIGHT faith and that if we believe and DOUBT NOT, that we can do these dynamic things of which He speaks. We should try to understand that these ideas that He gives us are by example and it is in the strength of the example that we should get the message that the mountain and the tree are but symbols of the heights of the power of the man in form through whom the fullness of the Christ Within flows. As we begin we again note the words of the Master and His apostles on our relationship to the Christ to which we add that this relationship is through the Christ Within and His realization by the consciousness which is of the Soul and used by the form.
- The Master tells us that: “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 14:12). Here we should understand that the idea of believeth on is as we have said previously, keeping His words and following Him. These ideas are properly framed for us by Vincent whose words we repeat here again: to believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one’s self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Savior, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life.4. The most important part of this is of course the last statement which is in the doing, the action of a man who Truly believes in or believes on the Christ; that he will keep His words and will follow Him.
- In our understanding of the relationship between the Father and the Son as it corresponds to the relationship of the Spirit and the Soul or the Christ Within of a man, we can look upon this next saying with a bit more understanding as it relates to the prior point. The Master says: “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth : and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel” (John 5:20). When we can see in this saying the reality of another which tells us that “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27), we can begin to see the reality of the mountain and the tree in a different Light. The God Within, through the Christ Within can affect ALL things through form. Can we see that the God Within is the Power that operates through the Love that is the Christ Within and that when these are operating through the consciousness in the form and the personality we can come under that same saying from the Apostle Paul which tells us that:
- “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) which is the Apostle Paul’s testimony that the Power of God was active in the Life of the Christ. Speaking to the Corinthian disciples Paul says “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) and this is a statement of fact albeit one that is only realized by the disciple. This shows us that the same God that is in the Master is in the man in form; it is in the fullness of this presence in consciousness and everyday occupation that is the goal of man. To the Romans Paul says “….if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11) and in this we should understand that same Truth and see that in this quickening is the fullness that we must seek.
- For our last point in this series we go to John who tells us of our similarity to the Master, no, our sameness with the Master, and this should be understood in its own fullness as a statement of fact that tells us that ALL things can be accomplished by the man who is the True disciple and the KNOWER of the things of God and Man and that in this word KNOW we find the fullness of which speak above. John tells us that: “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Although it may seem as though we have gotten off track here we have not; this is True because ALL of these things are related. The Master links for us the idea of doing as He does and then even greater to both faith and believing; this we can see in our understanding of keeping His words and following Him as we derive these from Vincent’s words. If this is not enough we have the Master’s own words that we discussed yesterday also and especially in the words we find in the sayings from Matthew’s Gospel. We have to put these ideas together and we should likely KNOW that this is the way that this is intended to be. The Master says:
- “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). Here we get the understanding of the role of faith and we should KNOW by the context that this faith is to the extent of KNOWING that one can do the thing as the mustard seed KNOWS that it WILL be a tree.
- “If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done” (Matthew 21:21). Here the Master adds for us the further explanation of doubt not and this is a very important extension of His prior remark as in this we can see the extent of the faith. While he does not repeat the idea of the “ faith as a grain of mustard seed“, we should understand that this has been already established as the way of moving the mountain.
- Now one might say here that the idea of believing is not included and to this we must say that the idea of doubt not does include believing and, if this is not enough, we can refer back to the Master who further says to us “That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23) and here we can clearly see the relationship between not doubt and shall believe.
We should see here that the ideas behind the moving of the mountain and the destruction of the fig tree are included in our beginning saying of greater works and again here we must emphasize that the mountain and the tree are not intended to be specific things but rather they are examples of the Power that the True disciple can wield in the world of form. We get an example of this in another exchange between the Master and His disciples; in the example of the mountain and of the tree there would be much harm done and this is especially True of the mountain if one could but imagine this happening. The Master, when confronted by James and John, makes a statement that covers not only Himself but those who follow Him and would be like Him; this exchange is difficult to understand but the result is clear:
“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village” (Luke 9:51-56).
Vincent is silent on the meaning of most of these verses and other commentaries suppose some friction between the Jews and the Samaritans as the cause but regardless of the reasoning, “they did not receive him”, and this is the cause of the apostles question. All this aside, the answer is clear…..there should be no harm done. We can see in this the idea of meekness as we understand it as well. Here and with the mountain, one could do something for the sake of the flesh and vanity, one has the Power but declines to use it in the Spirit of Love.
We did not get to the relationship of these rather clear ideas of faith and believing in contrast to those of the apostles and we will try to get to this in the next post. We leave our Quote of the Day for yet another day; we have been speaking about the role of the disciple and this affirmation paints this role clearly for us.
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 our quote of the day for another day as in it we find some of the realities of what is man as Spirit, Soul and the Life within the form.
Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
I am a point of light within a greater Light. I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine. I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God. And thus I stand I am a way by which men may achieve. I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand. I am a beam of light, shining upon their way. And thus I stand. And standing thus, revolve And tread this way the ways of men, And know the ways of God. And thus I stand.
Looking at Life as we depict it above in relation to this affirmation we can see the idea presented that we are a part of God and that this is true on multiple levels, the levels that we call the Trinity. Relating these first three lines to the chart above can offer some clarity as to the nature of God and of man. For more on the ideas in this Affirmation of the Disciple please refer to the Quote of the Day from In the Words of Jesus parts 179-181.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 13 The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org
