IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 670

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCLIX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as  other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:13-18).

As we look at the daily news we can be taken aback quickly from the hope and the Peace of our focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True, the things of God, to the apparent hatreds, prejudices and ill will of one man against another and this both individually and corporately. In most every arena, from religion, to politics, to business, to the ordinary lives of the masses of men in the world, there appears to be naught but selfishness and those self seeking thoughts, attitudes and actions that lead to these hatreds, prejudices and ill will and we must be ever aware that these are, ALL of them, based in the illusion and the glamour, the vanity that the Apostle Paul speaks of in telling us that mankind IS and has ever been “made subject to vanity, not willingly“. And the KEY idea here, the saving grace if you will, is the reality of this being an unwilling endeavor from the perspective of the True man, the Soul and not that he, as that group of self-aware angelic beings that he IS, is not here in this Earth scheme voluntarily in service to the Plan of God, but rather unwillingly trapped by the vanity from which he must, as a Soul escape which IS his role, his service, his objective and his goal. We can liken this for our purposes of understanding to the fireman who rushes into the burning building in service to the community as this IS his role; while in doing so he is not willing to be trapped nor lost in the confusion and the smoke but alas, he ofttimes IS and then must find his way out. And this IS the True man, lost in the confusion and the smoke, the clouds and the mists, of illusion and glamour from which he must extricate himself by Redeeming that lost part of his consciousness through Repentance and Transformation; and, as we should be well aware, this IS NOT an easy feat and, in fact, it is not one that we are even aware of as our duty and our role until we can begin to awaken to the call of the Soul as the man in the world.

For us who are so illumined, for those who are awakening to the realities of the Life of the True man, the Soul, this IS the foundation for that Love that the Master teaches us, this is the reason for our expression of the fruit of the Spirit that Paul gives us along with so many other lessons from the Master and the other apostles insofar as one man’s interactions with another. For we KNOW the reality of the True Life and that wheresoever another may be in his reaction to Life in this illusion and this glamour, we have likely been somewhere in that same vicinity ourselves at some point in our long history of Life in form. Now we should also understand here that we hear and see in the news only the egregious acts and that there are many, many millions of men in the world who do not react in these ways where hatred and prejudice and ill will seem to reign and the major part of the differences between men is the effect of, or the degree of self in the daily life of the man. It IS self and selfishness in thought, attitude and action that cause a man to be carnally focused in his Life in the world and this sense of self is fed by the illusion and the glamour, the vanity, to which we are subjected by our very presence in these bodies and their attendant personalities; it is these forces that make us to see that this Earth Life IS the Life and in our escape from this we MUST come to realize our delusion, we must come to understand that Love that IS God, and we must enter into that ever difficult world of duality in which the aspirant stands alone as this IS his crucible this IS his: test of the most decisive kind; a severe trial; as, the crucible of affliction as this is defined by Webster ¹.

This brings us again to these two most profound sayings by Paul, sayings that if rightly understood can help to lead many out of the delusion in which they live:

• First IS the fruit of the Spirit which IS the development of these ideals, these virtues if you will, in one’s Life while KNOWING that to be expressive of these IS to be expressive of the Light of the Soul. Now it matters not if one becomes focused upon the True Life of the Soul, the Christ Within, and the things of God which leads to this expression of the fruit of the Spirit or if one takes this list and tries to express these virtues in one’s Life in the world thereby changing his focus to the Soul and the Christ Within and, of course, it matters not by what name we call this Inner and True man. Either way, this expression IS the result of our own efforts to Right focus and Right living and the end result IS close to the same and both ARE effectively our striving toward that strait gate that opens into the Kingdom of God. From Paul’s words in two places we read that the “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) and then parenthetically the apostle tells us that “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). We have long said that we are often hindered by the translations and the interpretations of scripture by those who produce the texts as translation is most often dependent upon the doctrinal bent of the translation team; here however we are helped a bit in our understanding as the phrase “fruit of the Spirit”  is translated the same in our King James Version (KJV) for both sayings while the actual Greek word used is different. Many versions translate the saying from the Epistle to the Ephesians as “fruit of the Light” and this IS the more literal translation of the word used by the apostle and this IS for us a testimony to our vision of these Truths which say that the effective working principal that flows from the Soul IS the Light of the Soul which we can alternately call, from the perspective of the man in the world, the Light that IS the Soul and, if we view this in our chart below with our understanding of the nature of the Holy Spirit, we will have much to ponder. We must save this for another time however as here our focus is upon what IS the fruit that flows in that Light and it is in this list that we can find ALL of the tools needed by the race of men to overcome the illusion and the glamour that so cloud his existence in the world and keep him focused upon the self and the things of the self. Can we see that in the first list from Galatians, that these are the ways in which the man focused in God will interact with his neighbor, his brother and the stranger who qualifies as both and can we see in the second list from Ephesians, that this is the personally achieved result of such interaction, that the man WILL BE living “in all goodness and righteousness and truth“. This IS the road to discipleship, this IS the growing Life of the aspirant and this IS strait gate toward which we strive.

• Our next idea is found in the reality of our being able to stand and, as we say above to stand alone. It IS in this standing that the man can and does become single minded as he overcomes the worldly nature as the Apostle James paints for us in this excerpt from his epistle: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). While the apostle’s context in different than our current topic, we should be able to see the idea of standing in the single mindedness that James is teaching to those who want anything spiritually. Paul then tells us this to give us the understanding of the tools that we have; not to fight, but to stand: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against  flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Ephesians 6:10-16). It is not our intent to discuss the entirety of these words which we cover in much detail in In the Words of Jesus parts 502, 576 and 614 but rather to relate this notion of standing to our current essay. When we look at the apostles admonition here that we stand and relate this to James ideas on being single minded, we can more clearly denote our responsibility in this world which IS not to fight and not to try to change others, but to stand in our own steady spirituality and teach by our example as a service to our neighbor, our brother and the stranger who qualifies as both. And we have the tools, the armor as Paul tells us, to do so; he tells us we have Truth and that we have righteousness and we should note here that these ARE those same virtues or ideals that we find above in the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of the Light that are our personal achievement garnered from our Right living and our Right focus upon the True Life of the Soul and the things of God. Paul adds to this the idea of the “the preparation of the gospel of peace” and here Vincent gives us some help in understanding this Greek word hetoimasia saying that: Ἑτοιμασία means readiness; but in Hellenistic Greek it was sometimes used in the sense of establishment or firm foundation, which would suit this passage: firm-footing ⁴. The idea of the shoe in inconsequential as is the breastplate as the apostle is trying to convey, perhaps in terms of the standing Roman Army, a picture of the standing Soldier of God. The idea here IS readiness and the firm footing of the one who is ready for ALL in Peace which idea should take us back to the Master’s words as He tells us “That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39) and this is a very difficult thing for a man in the world to do. We should also remember how Paul frames this idea elsewhere quoting in part the Old Testament words of Jehovah saying: “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay , saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19) which he frames for us in a more timeless way that should be seen to extend beyond this Life in form. We should understand here the reality of the message of Love and of Peace which is sorely missed in the Christian world over the centuries and yet even today as man justifies his actions according the the self and the vanity in which he lives. There is another saying of note regarding this idea of standing; Paul tells us that: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1) and in this IS the way of the disciple and the aspirant.

It is in our expression of the fruit of the Spirit and our achievement of the fruit of the Light that enable us to “stand fast in the liberty” and as we work towards our objective and our goal we should understand that we achieve these things by degree, showing more fruit and the greater ability to stand unphased by what may come our way as our focus upon the True Life and the things of God increases. This is our Transformation as it leads us to that place where we are Transformed and it is in this Transformation that we must exercise the KEY to ALL which is that Love that sees our neighbor, our brother and the stranger who qualifies as both in the same way that we see ourselves as we look honestly at the reality of Life…..as Souls in form whose goal is to express that Light which we ARE through our form in the world. There IS naught that separates us but time; we have been where many are now in the world and we are going where many are now in the Kingdom. While this may not be an accurate way of viewing this, there is a reality presented here that we ARE ALL the same; we WILL BE as those who are ahead of us, this is our goal, and those behind us will be as we are as this is their goal and the entirety of the Master’s teachings can be seen as telling us this as perhaps the greatest reason for the concept of Love that He teaches. This is the foundation of the Great Commandment and the reality of the Golden Rule and to borrow a few words from the Dhammapada we see a similar sentiment and, although this is written in relation to violence, it works out in all human endeavor; the Buddha says: “See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? He who seeks happiness By hurting those who seek happiness Will never find happiness. For your brother is like you. He wants to be happy. Never harm him And when you leave this life You too will find happiness” (Dhammapada, on Violence).

In these words from the Buddha we find a hidden KEY should we choose to use it; it is said as “See yourself in others” and it is repeated as “your brother is like you” and we should see these as they are intended, as ALL brothers and as ALL others just as the Master tells us in His use of the idea in neighbor. Repeating again the Truth on Love and our comments:

Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:

“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 12:30-31).

We ask ourselves 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.

We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).

We will continue with out thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	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.

Staying on the theme of Love we repeat again the sayings of the Apostle Paul that put this Love into perspective.

But earnestly desire the best gifts.

And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy,

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains,

but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and though I give my body to be burned,

but have not love, it profits me nothing.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13

(New King James Version)

Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. In our theme today regarding Paul’s writings to the Romans and in the previous discussions on them we seek to impart the better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, as it is from this perspective that we can gain that revelation of Truth and, as Paul says above, be free from the condemnation and the vanity of Life in form, free from the illusion and the glamour. We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post:

Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather 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. This defining of Love is covered in some depth in a previous post; In the Words of Jesus part 47.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888