Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLXIV
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“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).
Our point in the last post and likely in the few before that has been simple and, of course, this main idea IS as it has always been; Love. As we looked at the Old Testament revelations of the Truth of Love as the origin of the Master’s pronouncement of the same some 1500 years later, we see the single thread of Right Human Relations as the basis of the entirety of the teachings which considered the barbaric and superstitious nature of the man in that day as they presented the laws as they should be followed because they ARE given by God. The consideration of the barbarism and the superstition IS in those days their corporate exercise of that same free will that we have yet today as it is implemented by the race according to their point of evolution; evolution of mind and the emotional response to the world. As we have said, aside from the law as it is presented in the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses as they are called (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), the rest of the Old Testament is history and it IS a history of barbarism and superstition for the most part as IS much of the Pentateuch itself. Added to this are the Books of Psalms and Proverbs, the so called Books of Poetry which stand on their own as inspired writings that express the innermost thoughts of the authors who are in their own way and time likely disciples of the Lord. Also added are the words of the prophets which are, like the Epistles of the New Testament, intended to clarify and to amplify the teachings of the law, but which are for the most part written in rather obscure terms and phrases, some of which are not Truly discernible yet today. Here we can add that there is ever an inability to rightly discern the writings of the apostles and of the prophets and we generally attribute this to design, to the idea that the Truth is only discerned by those who are awakened or, as the Master tells His disciples regarding His parables, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables” (Mark 4:11). We should try to see that ALL Truly inspired writings are inspired by and through a man’s own Soul, his divine self, and that in this idea is the better reasoning for the inability of the man in the world to rightly discern them; the inspired writer is speaking about heavenly or divine understanding, an understanding that IS NOT in the ken of the man focused upon the self and the self in the world. So then, from our perspective, there are few that can rightly discern these as there are few who can claim the role of disciple and we should add to this that for the many who may be aspirants today or yesterday, there may be some partial understanding of the Great Truths which the Master calls the “mystery of the kingdom of God“. And, we should add here that in this partial understanding we find interpretation that must per force work through the personality, the mind and the emotions, of the man who IS still partially focused in the world and which focus will color the interpretation.
It has become our position that the study of the Old Testament by the Christian today does not contribute to his quest for righteousness and Love as the expressions of his Life in the world and that the information can actually distract a man from this goal if he becomes overly focused upon it; we say this same thing regarding the study of the bible from an eschatological perspective or any study of the prophetic nature of any of the words and especially the Book of Revelation. Now since we DO NOT make any claim to our own degree of spirituality but maintain the position of an aspirant, we should add here that we fall into the same criteria that we espouse above, that our words and ideas are filtered through our personality in the world and that our own degree of worldly focus colors what we say. It is for this reason that we claim NO authority for the ideas that we put forth but rather offer them from the perspective that we learned from our Tibetan brother who says in regard to his own writings which are much more profound than ours that: They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition….If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of his intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise. If the statements meet with eventual corroboration, or are deemed true under the test of the Law of Correspondences, then that is well and good. But should this not be so, let not the student accept what is said. And we should add here that this should be the view of every man regarding every thing that he may read as commentary, as interpretation and even as the news of the day and in this the Master Himself tells us that these things as recorded in the gospels:
- “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” (Matthew 24:4-5). The saying is clear but we should note that the Master does not give us any understanding of how we shall KNOW the Truth and this should be seen in the reality that, as a disciple and partially as an aspirant, that one will KNOW the Truth; the caution here is not to allow oneself to rely upon the sayings or the actions of others and further on in these sayings He says: “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 24:24) and in this we should see the reality that the misleading ideas can come from any source and that ALL should be measured, if you will, as Wisdom from above according the Apostle James formula.
- “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given” (Mark 4:22-24). Here in these words we have the Master’s telling His disciples, just after His explanation to them of the Parable of the Sower, that ALL things will be KNOWN and will be KNOWN to those who DO hear and from this He continues into cautioning them that they must be careful of what they hear. As we have said in previous essays, this idea of hearing should NOT be seen as the physical hearing but rather and the believing or even the considering of those things that one may hear and this from any source and any manner of perception. And we should see as well that there is a growing of this believing as the Master tells us that “unto you that hear shall more be given” and while we KNOW the context is in regard to the Good, the Beautiful and the True as the disciple would receive it, we should understand that this can and does cut both ways as when the man in the world is filled with believing in and on the things of the world, this also grows to where he will take yet more from the world. From these words the Master goes directly to the Parable of the Growing Seed and here we can see the relationship, from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant, of the growing of the Kingdom Within as the seed that he has planted in his True believing grows within him and he KNOWS not how but will realize the more that IS given.
- “And he charged them, saying , Take heed , beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod” (Mark 8:15). We should see this as a more timeless lesson rather than one that is isolated to these times as the ways of the world of men do not change. Here the Pharisee and Herod are, by their words and actions, setting the example and giving the teachings that men should follow and that many do follow because of the sense of authority that these men project. Here the Master tells us to “beware of the leaven“, beware of the example and of the teaching of the man or even the group who claims authority; as whatsoever is the teaching or the example of presumed authority will be believed and followed by many who do not yet see clearly and this has been much of our lesson over the last several posts. In Matthew’s Gospel this is painted a bit differently and we present this as well to further show the scope of the Master’s intent; we read: “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees“. Here the apostle gives us Jesus response and his own understanding of the intent of the Master saying “How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Matthew 16;6, 11-12).
We should try to see that as much as it is in the purview of a man’s focus that he is able to utter revelation so it is in the same way, by the degree of focus upon the Soul and the things of God, that he will accept what he may believe IS revelation. And so we say that for the man grounded in the world, that he will only KNOW and understand the things of the world and for the man whose focus IS IN God, he will see only the things of God and, for those who have come to realize the duality of Life in the world, we have the sense of believing based upon the degree of focus toward the one or the other, toward the world or toward God. And here we get the gist of what we have been saying regarding one’s reading of ALL scripture; that the greater the focus of the man upon the things of the world, the greater that his interpretation and his understanding will be according to the things of the world and in how the scripture may benefit him in this Life. Conversely the greater the degree of one’s focus that IS upon God and the God and the Christ Within, the greater his understanding and his interpretations will be according the Wisdom from above and in this we find True revelation. In this regard we should see the example of the Pharisee and the Sadducee as well as the rulers of the land who the Master paints for us as Herod, an example that should be extended through time, though history and up until today. How many of the great religious wars were promoted by those in authority who had their focus firmly fixed upon the self and the self in the world instead of the reality of keeping His words? And this IS the overriding point, that if a man IS Truly keeping His words there IS NO war, there IS NO strife, because in the Power and the Love of the disciple in the world, ALL things are possible…..even Peace.
While this may seem to be just high wishes, there is some Truth here from the perspective of the Master’s words that clearly tell us that we do have that same Power as He does and, as we trace the words that tell us of this SAMENESS, we should be able to see the reality of this Power. At the same time we MUST understand the rarity of the man who can accomplish these HIGHEST of expressions of the Love and the Power of the Godhead here in this Earth. Let us look at these ideas again:
- We begin here with the words of the Apostle John who tells us that “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Here, in this chapter on Love, we should be able to see the reality of what the apostle is saying and we should not get too wound up in the apostle’s use of the idea of confession as we should note that in the beginning of the chapter he is referring to the idea of the Spirit which, if he does not acknowledge this Truth of Christ would necessarily NOT be of God and as he proceeds toward the saying he uses this word again saying “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” and here we should understand as disciples that any who would contradict this reality IS NOT of God. This IS likely John’s way of telling us how we should KNOW the truth from the world as we have been discussing as it IS ONLY those who are focused upon God and the God Within who will give the right testimony and here we should remember that this chapter is centered in Love. We point this out so as to give more readability to our target words above that clearly tell us this Truth; that we and the Master are the SAME in our essence and that we can be in our thoughts, attitudes and actions as well.
- The Master tells us clearly that we can do as He did and, of course, He IS speaking to His own apostles and we should remember that we do read of some of them that do accomplish great things. Jesus tells us: “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). From what we believe is our example in the Life of the Apostle Peter, we can see that after the death and the resurrection of the Master that the apostle becomes so KNOWING; achieving what we can ONLY see as the ultimate of faith. We see this in what it is written of him saying “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:15-16). Can we see the Love and the Power of the Christ and the Christ Within working out in the world as the expression of them by Peter?
- The Master tells us this next saying also and again we must remember that this IS offered to disciples and not the man that fails to meet His established criteria for being a disciple; He says: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). The important point here is in the reality of perfect and we should see this word as the Master uses it elsewhere as He tells us “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and in this idea we should see the ultimate of KNOWING as we see above. This IS the FULL HEIGHT of discipleship from our perspective as Souls living through form, and, as we started this list, the fullness of the Godhead which Paul ascribes to the Master saying: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
Seeing then that we are like Him from John’s words saying “as he is, so are we in this world” and seeing that we can do as He did and yet greater from His own words saying: “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” should give us the understanding of our potential, a potential that we realize in keeping His words or, as we read here, a potential that we realize as we “believeth on” Him which we DO KNOW is to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. Understanding these realities we can then understand as well His words on the perfection of discipleship, that point were we can move the mountain through the certainty of faith, of KNOWING without a doubt ALL things within the ken of the disciple here on this Earth. And then it IS in this perfection that we are AS the Master in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily“. This IS our goal and our objective and while this may seem afar off it IS closer that one may think….it is within and it is waiting the fullness of our focus upon ONLY the things of God.
We will continue with our 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 commentt
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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
