IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 914

ON LOVE; PART DIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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 12:29-31).

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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

In the last essay we discussed what we see as the greater reality of forsaking as this concept is offered by the Master in His discourse with the rich young man who is seeking eternal Life. Part of our discussion centered upon how it is that the doctrines and the commentaries of the churches view this and how we see that they downplay the Master’s words; that they minimize them which IS in our view their attempt to seek cover from the reality that the Master expresses. We noted over the last several posts that this IS NOT a new phenomenon but that these ideas can be traced back in time to the early church were these doctrinal approaches were first conceived. What we call the dilution and the changing of the words and the intent of the Master however IS NOT viewed this way by the doctrinal church who firmly believes that their approach IS right and that they are among the ‘chosen’ from the perspective of adhering to their own doctrines, many of which require little or no personal responsibility. Our intent here in saying these things as we have been discussing IS NOT to disparage the organized church but rather to say to ourselves, those who see that it IS in the reality of His words that we are FREE and not in the pronouncements of the various doctrines; it IS to say that as Repentant men in the world today, as aspirants to discipleship, that we have chosen to seek the Truth and NOT the cover of words that allow for us to continue in the ways of the world.

This of course DOES NOT place us above any other even as their faith in their doctrines DOES NOT place them above any other who believe differently as we realize that in the Truth of man, in the realm of the Soul, that ALL men ARE equal….ALL men ARE the same. It IS only in the progress that each has made in his own journey home to the Kingdom of God that we differ; it is only in the vision given through the realizations and revelations of Truth that come in one’s focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True. And this IS our point; that unless one continually seeks the greater Truth in His words and until one begins to tear down the barriers created to cover this greater Truth, the personal, societal and religious barriers that afflict mankind today, there IS no revelation. So long as a man continues under the cover of the darkness created by doctrine and by society, that man will be ‘stuck’ if you will in the mundane and the carnal ways of the world and, as we have so often said, it matters not that one believes himself religious as so long as the drive of the man IS in the things of the world, he is lost. We ARE ALL to some degree lost in the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world; we are ALL confused and confounded by the clamor of world events and by our own role in them. But, as aspirants, it IS our objective to minimize this effect of the world on our individual lives and to ever move forward, to strive toward that strait gate that opens into the Kingdom of God. As we have discussed this is the very nature of the Master’s words as He tells us of the Kingdom of God and what it is likened to; He tells us that the Kingdom is as the mustard seed and that as it is planted in the heart it will grow into a mighty presence; He tells us that the Kingdom is as the woman who places leaven in the dough, that once placed it makes the dough to rise, to grow. These are the nature of the way of the aspirant and the planting of the seed or the placing of the leaven is the Repentance through which we decide to change and it IS from this planting and this leavening that the Kingdom Within will grow.

And this IS the nature of the Master’s words on the pearl of great value and of the treasure in the field as in these parabolic ideas we see again the Life of the aspirant who finds the pearl or the treasure and then gives up ALL else to attain them. This IS our reality; that if we Truly want this pearl, if we Truly want this treasure, then we must do as IS required; we must do as the man in the parable who “when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had , and bought it“, and as the man who discovers the treasure in the field  “and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field”  (Matthew 13:46, 44). These are the realities, that when the Kingdom is Truly discovered that the man will forsake ALL for the Kingdom as this in Truth becomes the most important part of his Life. And this IS the reality of the sayings on Love at the top of our essay; that when we read the commandment that says that we “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“, we see that this IS what it Truly means; that this Love becomes the most important part of Life. We should try to see here that this Love CAN NOT be separated from His Presence and that His Presence IS the Kingdom of God and this is regardless of how one may view the Truth of God….as Transcendent or as Immanent or as the ultimate Truth which IS that He IS both.

These parabolic ideas of the Kingdom ARE NOT seen by most as we see them here in our writing but this should NOT deter us from our objective and our goal and in this IS one of the more difficult things that we must overcome, that our views are contrary to the popular views espoused by the ‘authorities’ of the various denominations and sects. It IS in this that we can sometimes question our own True understanding which comes to us by revelation and by realization but, if what we believe, what we KNOW to be True, IS measured in the Light of the Wisdom from above and in the Love expressed in the fruit of the Spirit, if our own doctrine IS His doctrine of Love for ALL, then we are moving in the right direction and toward the True goal. For us the Master’s words on Love and on the Kingdom are clear as are the words of His apostles and we view the words of others that may be contrary to this Truth as the efforts of men to live in the convenience of the world. In the last posts we called this contrary nature of some religious doctrine a pretense and here we should be careful to understand that this IS not men pretending consciously in most cases but rather it IS men who are deluded, men who are caught in the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world. And while we may thank God that we ourselves are awakening, we should remember always that we were at one time just as deluded as our brothers and just as caught up in the illusion that shows itself as reality.

And ours IS an ongoing struggle; as aspirants we see some Light but this can be as times rather fleeting as we ourselves fall back into the clamor of Life in form, as we are seemingly stuck in our own little world of duality. We should note that it IS the sense of duality that keeps us going as we ever try to decide to choose that which IS right and we should note as well that it was the glimpses of this duality that we sensed as the pangs of conscience and the prompting of the Soul, that brought us to this place where we ARE and which will bring many more out of the clutches of the unreal. It IS here that we KNOW a part of the greater Truth and it IS here that the full effect of the Apostle Paul’s words affect us as aspirants and even disciples as he says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). While these words ARE for ALL men to grasp as Truth, they are especially focused upon us who KNOW and in these words is the greater reality of the spiritual Life; it IS here that we see the greater Truth of the Masters’s admonition that we “take no thought” (Luke 12:22). Here we should see that our focus upon the flesh, the self in the world, may reap benefit but that any such benefit is ONLY of the world; here we should see that anything at ALL that we do that IS of the world, IS of the world, no matter what we may believe and a rather clear example here can be seen in that idea that the more riches that one has or can accumulate, the more that he can give. In our view this IS but a convenient cover against the Master’s words and while it may be True and while the idea of giving more IS good, the motivation IS purely carnal. Can we see the deception here in this idea and how it IS what IS in one’s heart that Truly matters? For us who KNOW this thing, the difference between doing for the self in the world and the doing for the Love and the Truth in our Soul’s expression, there IS greater deception when we choose wrongly, as we let the personality in the world have his way over the Truth of keeping His words. Here we must ever be aware of the differences and acknowledge our own shortcomings and personality faults as we continue to strive.

And our reality in found in these other words that we have been carrying forward in our essays; the apostle tells us that: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). In these words are our own mantram as aspirants; this IS our Life in the world of duality. We ARE in this world, we “walk in the flesh” and it IS in this that we realize the role of illusion and of glamour and that we are, ALL of us, “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20); that we are here under the very Plan of God. The apostle tells us here that our fight IS NOT however against the flesh, the body and the personality that we use in the world, and NOT because we DO NOT have the right weapons for this fight, but because the flesh IS NOT our enemy; our enemy is the vanity with which the flesh IS afflicted. Our enemy IS those worldly thoughts, attitudes and actions that ARE able to keep the attention of the personality on the self and the self in the world. Here we should try to see that it IS the illusory sense of self that keeps our focus from finding the Truth and it IS the glamour of the Life we have in the world that keeps us from even looking for the Truth; we see the unreal and then convince ourselves of its reality. In this ARE the strong holds, in this ARE the imaginations and in this are even those high things that are contrary to the Truth of God and it IS ONLY in the one’s acceptance of the reality of these Truths that one can begin to pull down and to cast down those things that are contrary. It IS in this acceptance that the man in the world can measure every thought against the Truth of the Wisdom from above and take captive those that ARE found to be against what IS this Wisdom; the Apostle James tells us that “the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).

The opposite of this are those things that ARE for the self and they ARE the strong holds and the imaginations and the high things that are “against the knowledge of God“. In these ideas and words from the apostles we should see that these strong holds and the imaginations and the high things ARE found in those opposite ideas that are presented by James and in those things that Paul tells us are the ‘works’ of the flesh:

• “if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work” (James 3:14-16).
• “the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).

In our struggle to rightly discern these ideas, we have dissected these words and looked at their meanings and, while we will not do so again here today, we should understand that many of them are not as we see in the common understanding. Perhaps this IS but another doctrinal tool of cover as the translations and the commentaries lead us to see that it IS ONLY the most egregious views of these ideas that ARE wrong instead of see that many of interpretations of these words are what ARE Truly wrong. We cover much of this in In the Words of Jesus parts 323 and 455 regarding James’ ideas that Wisdom that “descendeth not from above” and parts 606 and 750 regarding the “works of the flesh” and we note here today that most of what IS Truly found in these ideas is the everyday working out of the Life of the man in the world and that in reality these ARE ALL equally sin which we DO understand as that focus upon the self in the world.

In these ideas today, plus those from the last several essays, we should be able to see that there IS a divide between the carnal and the spiritual; not only from the perspective of sin but from the perspective of how one views his own Life as it IS only in the right view of oneself that he can accomplish the necessary changes and it IS only in the view of Truth that one can KNOW what MUST be changed. While much of this IS hidden from us in doctrine, it IS readily apparent to any who take the time to look at the words of the Master and His apostles in the Light of day as it IS in the clarity of those ideas that ARE plainly stated that we find the hints at those things that ARE NOT.

We are coming closer to a fuller understanding of just how it IS that one can forsake ALL in this modern world and here today we should take the message that ALL IS in the heart, in what it IS that is become important to the man in the world and how he may view such things. It is in one’s own heart of hearts that he must measure his thoughts, attitudes and actions; NOT against doctrine but against the Truth of His words.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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.

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. 
God is love; 
and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness 
in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 
There is no fear in love; 
but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. 
He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
We love him, because he first loved us. 
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: 
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, 
how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 
And this commandment have we from him, 
That he who loveth God love his brother also
1 John 4:16-21

Today’s Quote of the Day from the First Epistle of John is his reflection on God and on Love. John tells us that God is Love and, as we have discussed, Love is certainly as aspect and an attribute of the Godhead and one which is supremely represented by the Christ. John tells us further that without Love there is no relationship with God and likens the Truth of dwelling in Love to being in His Kingdom and in His Presence. He draws for us the idea of Love for ones fellowman being the prime prerequisite for Love of God for although one may say that he Loves God, it cannot be True unless he first Loves his fellowman. In John’s words the equation is certain: “he who loveth God love his brother also“. And, lest we forget that the idea of Love that the Master teaches in not the emotional attraction that we live with daily, we repeat again: LOVE is….

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’. To this we add the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!