IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 517

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CVI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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We took a pause yesterday from our look at the Book of Genesis’ early chapters on the creation of man to discuss again the common Christian understanding that it is is ‘God Ordained‘ that man should pursue all that he can acquire during his Life here on Earth and that so long as he IS a Christian, attends the church of his choice and tithes properly, the things are the Earth are actually his reward. From a strictly carnal perspective there is likely merit in one of these ideas; that it is ‘God Ordained‘ can be seen in the reality of the perspective given by the our words from the Apostle Paul on the whole of this creation being subject to vanity and that this is done by  the Plan of God. Paul tells us that: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20) and in this we can see that it IS the Plan of God that brings man, as Souls, into Life in the Earth and into a state that the apostle calls vanity and which we call illusion and glamour. It is in this vanity that a man believes that his Life is of this Earth and his objectives are tied to the things of this Earth and from Paul’s words we can see the reality of its being ‘God Ordained‘. However, the remainder of this is ‘man ordained‘ and is founded in the Christian sense of separateness, the Christian objective of the perceived commandment to ‘Christianize the world’ and the orderly collection of funds though tithing that will support the church and the church leaders and this in a rather disproportionate way. These ‘man ordained‘ ideas ARE the very substance of the Master’s disapproval of the ways of the Pharisee and other religious rulers of  the Jews as He tells them and us “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7) repeating the words of the Prophet Esaias and this tells us that these realities existed in pre Christ times as well and, from our perspective, they have existed throughout the Christian era and up till today as well. Our point in ALL this is simply that there IS NO place in the teachings of the Master that these ideas are supported except by the misconstruing His teachings and the taking of His words out of context; The entirety of the Master’s message is one of Love and Unity and Brotherhood  it is in these ideals that ALL other things do work out and there is no place that the Master supports mans desires for the things of this world….it is quite the opposite of this that He teaches.

The importance to us of this reality of the Master’s teachings is great, not so that we can correct or condemn others actions as it it the ways of the world, the illusion and the glamour, that make one’s focus upon the things of the world of primary importance to the man as it was and likely still is to us as well, but rather so that we can understand that although it may seem that they are right and we are wrong by way of their seemingly convincing argument, that the Truth of His words are with us. The common understanding has had over two thousand years to frame their argument and in the bits and the pieces of scripture that they can so easily piece together that they have convinced themselves of the rightness of their positions. We bring to our attention again here the reality of the Master’s teachings as we have presented them over the course of this blog and stress the idea that when we KNOW and understand the effects of the illusion and the glamour in which we ALL live, we can take control of our own lives, put ourselves upon the Path and journey to His True Kingdom as disciples of the Lord. And, in our understanding we come to KNOW the realities of Life as they come to us as revelations of Truth, the ideal of which we find in Paul’s expression of prayer for the Ephesians of what should be our True desires; the apostle tells them: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power” (Ephesians 1:17-19).

We must remember here that God and Christ are for us the God and the Christ Within which are ever ONE and that the Spirit of Wisdom and revelation is the activity of God and Christ in our conscious Life, it is the Holy Spirit and, most importantly, we must KNOW that the way that we believe is to keep His words which tell us that through Love and righteousness we should live with our focus upon the things of God. In this statement is much difficulty for the man in the world and it is this difficulty that causes many to seek refuge in those doctrines that tell them that they can live in the world of men and place their primary focus there and it is the illusion and the glamour that allows them to believe that this is True. We end this part with some quotations from the Master and His apostles which, through right discernment can lead us to our objective and our goal:

• “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ?” (Luke 6:46).
• “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
• “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
• “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
• “And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:24).
• “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).
• “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4).
• “Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them” (Luke 21:8)
• “Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have” (Luke 8:8).
• “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many….And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many…..For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:4-5, 11, 24).
• “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18).
• “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise” (1 Corinthians 3:18)
• “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7).
• “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
• “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
• “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous” (1 John 3:7).

In all of these words from the New Testament we try to paint the picture of Life the way it is intended for us who would be disciples and the perils of deception that abound in the world of men. The Master short answer to the dilemma of Life in the world as a Son of God is found in the simple statement on God and mammon; simple to say of course but hard to do. In His words “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) is the simplified reality of how to come to discipleship and how to attain the Kingdom and we should understand that this requires that a man turn away from the ways and the things of the world and focus singularly upon the things of God.

We did not get back to our verses from Genesis today and will try this again in the next post. We close with this idea in regard to the way that the world sees things and the way that they are seen by the disciple. The world believes that they are right in their myriad of opinions and treatments of most all things and this is especially so in religion. This is so even though there are so many different expression of religion and, as we have noted before, each of them believes in their own rightness above whatever others may offer; this attitude is the epitome of glamour from the perspective of ones religious Life. In this belief, whatsoever comes along in contradiction is abhorred and this has always been the case as we see in this final verse said about the Master by the Jews in His day and which is easily repeated today: “And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him: for some said, He is a good man: others said, Nay; but he deceiveth the people” (John 7:12).

It is up to each of us to draw our own conclusions and to follow the Master’s instruction to: “Take heed therefore how ye hear“. We leave our words from Genesis again and will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

“And God said , Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;  And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying , Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” (Genesis 1:26-2:25).

• The other part of this is in the next chapter where God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul“. Here we have either a repetition and explanation of the creation of man in the image of God and both male and female or we have a secondary creation that brings the spiritual man into Life in the earth. Our understanding is the latter and this would become man’s existence in the Garden of Eden.
• Next we have the creation of the woman who was, according to the text, already created with the man during the creation in the image of God. Again this is either repetition and explanation or it yet another step in the bringing forth of the spiritual man into the Earth. There is another rather obscure saying in Genesis which may go well here: “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose” (Genesis 6:1-2).
• Last we have the trees; “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil“.

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 and which goes well with our topic over the last several days. Today we see the God Within us as the Christ Within and this is good in the Christian world and this is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God. We should see that it matters not what we call this Inner Man as it is the same in ALL, it 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.