Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CXXV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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Too much is made of the idea of King in the doctrines of the churches and we are reminded of this by our posting of the Christmas song Hark! The Herald Angels Sing as our Quote of the Day. For the Christian this word may work well  but for the WORLD to which the Christ is sent and who have other traditions, it is not the best choice for their understanding of the Power, the Glory and the Love that IS the Christ. As we have often discussed, the general understanding and the right understanding of the reality of the Master are muddled and confused in the ideas of Jesus and the Christ.  When we look at this from our perspective of the True man as the Soul and as we look at the reality of the saying of the Apostle John speaking of Christ Jesus that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17), we can find the greater Truth for our understanding. Jesus IS the Man in the Earth that expresses the Christ and this in ALL its fullness. The Apostle Paul tells us this saying that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and in the combination of these sayings we should be able to understand a greater part of this Truth that effects us ALL. Jesus the man is but the form in the Earth, He is the Vehicle of the Christ, the Second Aspect of the Trinity that IS God and which on a lower turn on the spiral of Life and reality, is for us the Christ Within.

And this is the reality of Christmas as well, that for the first time in the KNOWN history of the race of men in form on the Earth, the fullness of the Power and the Glory and the Love that IS God, the Christ, is borne into this Earth and is born in a way unlike that of any before. This is the story also of Simeon and Anna that we discussed yesterday from another perspective; today we see this as that these divine persons, divine from our perspective of their expression of the Light of the Soul in their Life in the Earth, recognized the Divinity of the Christ in the body of the Infant Child. There are esoteric theories regarding how this ALL came to pass in the birth of the Child Jesus and there is likely much Truth in them but for our purposes it is enough to understand that just like us who follow him, the Master is the True Man, the Christ of God, expressing the Power, the Glory and the Love that IS God through His form which we KNOW as Jesus. The Master IS the True and full expression of the Christ and He tells us clearly that we too can achieve His own greatness sans our manner of birth and that we can do so in this Life in this world by our total commitment and focus upon the things of God. By doing those things that He tells us are required for True discipleship and for being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God which is, as we KNOW, within. In this regard Jesus simple words speak volumes as He tells us of what the True Believer can do:

• “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” (John 14:12). In this we MUST understand that encapsulated in the idea of “believeth on” is the fullness, in our Life in this world, of keeping His words and following Him as the Christ of God and this is done, whether a man realizes it or not, by his expression of the Christ Within though his Life in form. We come back again as we always do to Vincent’s interpretation of these words. Vincent’s complete words on this are:
  • 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.
• “For verily I say unto you, 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). For reasons different than the belief of many in the churches, we KNOW the reality of this saying is far beyond any thing that one may want in the Earth. We KNOW that this faith that the Master speaks of here is the ultimate of KNOWING; a KNOWING so deep that a man “shall not doubt in his heart” and that in this divine state a man is thinking naught about the things of the world. Here we see the reality of the Power and the Glory and the Love that is God working in our own Life but only when we can come to that fullness of expression of the Christ Within that puts us in that place of KNOWING without doubt; KNOWING as the Apostle Peter does as he heals by his mere proximity.
• “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord” (Matthew 10:24-25). “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). In these two sayings we have the totality of the understanding of the Truth that we are “as he is“; in the first from the perspective of the world of men as in this saying the talk is of the persecution that the Master will endure and that the disciple should KNOW to endure as well. In the second we have the more heavenly perspective; remembering of course that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), we should see here that the Master is telling us that in our perfection, the completeness of the Christ Within expressing through form, we ARE “as he is“. It is here and only here that we can “say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). It is here and only here that we can KNOW and understand the reality of the Truth that “greater works than these shall he do“.

We should see here in these words and phrases the reality of our BEING “as he is” and here we should try to look a bit deeper at our reality in this Life in form. The word Christ that we use to depict the Son Aspect of God, the Logos if you will, means literally anointed and while this concept is vague we should see Christ as the Anointed of God and, according to John this same anointing is in us as he tells us that: “the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). While John’s point here may seem to some to say that we must receive this anointing as a Christian, the same words can tell us that we “have received of him” as men in form, ALL men and we should remember that language fails us in scripture as for some ideas there are not sufficient words. We should remember also that these words are spoken in a way that they could be understood by the disciples to whom John writes as well as to those later generations by this same discernment of which he speaks; the discernment that comes from that anointing. We should understand that these things are but a matter of realization and the realization of John’s words is found only in the final thought….that we “abide in him“.

So then we have the Christ in Jesus as the “fulness of the Godhead” and we have in man on the Earht the “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). In Jesus this is sure from His birth and in us it is but a hope which we KNOW as our expectation, an objective and a goal that we must individually work out in this world. And, it is in this working out that we come to KNOW those things that we say above, that we can realize in our Life in form that we ARE  “as he is“.

This then brings us back to the idea from which we began today and that is the idea of the Master as a King. There is much in doctrine that gives us the idea that Jesus is King and this is a claim that is unfounded except in doctrine. The Master never refers to Himself as King and He never answers the question posed by Pilate. Let us look here at the idea of King in the gospels:

• “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:1-3). Here we have the Wise Men speaking and they speak with no authority other than that they “have seen his star in the east“; perhaps this saying and encounter is purely for Herod’s benefit.
• “All this was done , that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold , thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21:4-5). Here we have Matthew commenting on the words of the Prophet Zechariah.  What can we take from this except that in this day the people understood the idea of king as the leader and so in our understanding it is used here and to this end we should look at the lexicon’s understanding of the Greek word basileus which is rendered king; the lexicon tells us this means leader of the people, prince, commander, lord of the land, king ².
• “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34). In this saying by the Master we find ourselves in a parable that teaches us about our way of doing for the Master and for God, and this is by doing for our brothers and our neighbors. We should also see this saying in the context of the defining terms for basileus which encompasses much more than the idea only of king.
• “And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying , Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest” (Matthew 27:11). This is of course a non answer and a place where the Master could have easily declared His Kingship; this is repeated similar in the other synoptic gospels. In John’s Gospel however we get a clearer saying: “Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered , Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:33-37). Here we have only the Master’s affirmation of the Kingdom of God, His Kingdom and the Kingdom of the Soul of every man, the True man, the Christ Within.
• “And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:37-40). Here we have His disciples reference to the Master as King and here again the Master does not affirm this claim but tells the Pharisees an obscure thing such as to refer as much to the praise and the rejoicing as the singular word king.
• “And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 28:38). This is of course written by Pilate or on his belalf and is based upon the words of those who sought to have Him killed and from the perspective that He was usurping the power of Caesar.
• “Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these” (John 1:49-50). Here again the Master does not affirm the claim of this apostle to be; He remarks only on His KNOWING of Nathanael.

Our message here in reviewing these verses is to understand that the Master does not make any claim to being King and that the very word can be understood as we understand it and as He does make claim….that He is our Lord and Master and this from the perspective of the disciple who can accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. The Master never reveals Himself as King of anything save to refer to His Kingdom which is for us our Kingdom also. For more that two thousand years doctrine has made Him King and yet, at the same time, the world, the whole world, has revolted against Him and His teachings. Another idea regarding the idea of the Master as King can be gleaned from this saying in John’s Gospel: “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone” (John 6:15).

Paul writes regarding the King in his Epistle to Timothy and his reference is not to Jesus, nor the Christ but to God; the Father and the King of ALL; he tells us: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever” (1 Timothy 1:17) and again “That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (Timothy 6:14-16).

Now it matters not that one may consider the Master as King; we should understand that this is not a title that He sought for Himself nor one that He desired nor claimed and we should note that none of the Apostles refer to Him as such in their epistles either. But He is for those who accept His teachings our Lord and our Master and for this one need meet no special criteria as we KNOW that what the apostle tells us is True regarding the anointing, the Christhood of ALL: “the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him“. This anointing is of course the Christ Within ALL men, their very Souls.

We close today with a last Christmas verse; this one in the form of a prophecy that does not claim Him King:

“For unto us a child is born , unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

We should understand that this word government IS NOT what we perceive but rather the idea of dominion; the dominion of “The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace“. Young’s Literal Translation says it this way: “For a Child hath been born to us, A Son hath been given to us, And the princely power is on his shoulder, And He doth call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace“.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We did not get to our Genesis theme of the Trees and will try again to do this in the next post.

• 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“.

• “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; 2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created . 3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: 4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: 5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died” (Genesis 5:1-5) .

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:

Taking a Christmas theme for our Quote of the Day we present the full lyrics to the song we KNOW as Hark, the Herald Angels Sing. With not too much doctrinal bent this song does give us the reality of the coming of the Christ. We should note that the original words as written by Charles Wesley in the eighteenth century were as “Hark, how all the welkin rings, glory to the king of kings“. We are told that “welkin” means “vault of heaven” in which we can understand the King James Translation of “heavenly host“; this idea of heavenly host is alternately rendered in other translations as “heavenly forces”, “great band of spirits from heaven” and the “heavenly army” (a very contradictory term) to name a few. For us, the idea of “welkin” serves the reality of the True idea from scripture best.