ON LOVE; PART DLXIX
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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 put ALL that we have from the first sixteen verses of the Epistle of James together as a single statement regarding temptation. Many see these as different topics and some even distinguish the first ideas on temptation from the latter ideas on temptation while claiming that the first are in regard to the affliction that a believer suffers while the latter represent the Truth of temptation. Some see the first ideas as that they are trials that a believer is put to so as to see that they can remain as such and in this we are reminded of the story of Job, which we should add is but a story, that has never been linked to a real person. Perhaps here they have the right result but the wrong story as the Job IS portrayed as a man of God whose afflictions are allowed by God and implemented by Satan in a story that puts God and Satan together in this effort to afflict Job. In real Life the afflictions that come to a man are the result of the ways of the world which in most ALL ways ARE Satan but there is no collusion with God who must be seen as neutral in the face of the free will of mankind which IS subject to accidents, acts of violence, sickness and disease with the latter two a combination of the world’s trends, in epidemics for example, and the Soul’s ability to build suitable forms. Seeing this form of affliction as brought on by God is a shortsighted approach and seeing the affliction of believers is much the same as we are speaking here about God, the God of the Universe, the God that IS Love and, while the Old Testament reveals a angry and jealous God in Jehovah, it should be understood that this IS ONLY His expression to the Jews in that day and NOT the reality of the ONE God of ALL things. Jehovah speaks as God to be sure and He speaks through the person of Moses; here perhaps we should try to see this as a more dynamic approach as in the idea that God also speaks through the prophets and a less dynamic approach in the reality of the Christ who brings to mankind “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).
The reality of trials in James’ words IS a function of temptation which IS in turn a function of that vanity to which the race of men IS subjected as we have ofttimes read in the Apostle Paul’s words saying: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20). Here in these words we have the fate of ALL men in the world as they exist today and have ever existed in the illusion and glamour of Life in form which IS the reality of that vanity that the apostle reveals. And this IS further explained in the last verses that we are discussing, that it IS desire for those things that men believe that they need, a desire that IS fed by illusion, which creates temptation and, from the perspective of the man who Truly seeks God, this temptation DOES set up a trial of sorts but NOT one of affliction. This trial is one that tests the commitment of the man to his focus upon the things of God and it IS self imposed in accordance with the subjection to vanity of the race of men. In this is the reality of the apostles words which we read here again:
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 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. 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. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren” (James 1:2-16).
In these words ALL works together and again, from the perspective of the man who Truly seeks God, temptation will come as it comes for ALL men, it will try the faith, the KNOWING, of the aspirant on the Path and there IS joy in his ability to defeat temptation as he steadily builds up his steadfastness and endurance to these ways of the world and toward that time when he “may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing“. And the apostle tells us that in times of need, when the man is facing temptations for which he is perhaps not prepared, he can ask God for the Wisdom that will help him to overcome; a Wisdom that will ONLY come to the man who is Truly focused, a Wisdom that IS NOT available to the man who IS NOT Truly seeking; it IS in this seeking that he will have “nothing wavering“. The apostle goes on to speak about the man of “low degree” as opposed to the rich man and here we should understand that both of these are more inclusive than the wealth and possessions of the world only; that they are more concerned with the thoughts and the attitudes of the man in the world. Here we should see the idea of “low degree” is self-imposed by the aspirant and the disciple who choose NOT to fall prey to the temptations of the world and that the idea of rich refers to the man who DOES fall prey. ALL things of the world ARE temptations to ALL men and here IS ever the choice of “treasures in heaven” as opposed to “treasures upon earth“; the reality of choosing God or mammon and the deeper ideas of “take no thought” (Matthew 6:19, 20, 24, 25) which the Master presents also as a single thought in the Sermon on the Mount.. Can we see here how these ideas of riches and the way of the man who seeks after these are related to the apostles words on temptation?
In the end of our selection James offers us a straightforward assessment of just how this temptation works our in the minds of men. He tells us that it IS the desires of the man to have that entice him to entertain whatsoever the temptation of the moment may be. Again this need not be a physical thing and the word lust should not bring us thoughts of sexual things nor the idea presented by the lexicon of desire for what is forbidden 2; lust is simply desire or perhaps more aptly ardent desire. Here we should see that the temptation IS the things of the world, the thoughts and attitudes, the physical and the psychical, the car, the house, the career, the position in the church; ALL of these and any others that can be fathomed ARE the temptations that a man may face. These temptations turn on if you will the desire for them and it IS in this desire to gain the thing that tempts which bring forth the planning, the scheming and the attaining of it; and here we should try to see this whole process as sin. There are degrees of sin and the planning to attain the thing of temptation IS a part of this, this is the idea of “lust hath conceived” that is offered by the apostle and we should understand here that at any time prior to the attainment, that one can have a change of heart. It IS in this encounter with the idea of accepting the temptation that we find the reality of the duality that the aspirant faces and which afflicts the disciple as well albeit to a lesser degree. It is the entertaining of this thing desired in the mind and the emotions of the man that can eventually “bringeth forth sin“, the actual DOING or being what one was tempted to be or to do IS the culmination of sin. In the thoughts and attitudes which created the desire to accomplish IS the greater reality of sin and it IS of course the reality of being grounded in this action or activity or state of mind which takes a man away or further away from the Truth of Life.
We left the last saying here although is pertains as much or even more to the next verse as these words are a caution to the man who Truly seeks God….that he “Do not err” which here would be by misrepresenting to himself the totality of the effect of temptation in the Life of the man in the world. We attach these words again to the next group of sayings:
“Do not err , my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God” (James 1:16-20).
Other effects of “Do not err” can be found in the comparison of ideas between the notion that “I am tempted of God” and the apostles reality that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above” and in the reality that these sayings are linked by these words “Do not err” lends some Truth this this idea. However, the greater generality of ALL that precedes IS bound in the idea of the reality of temptation and its effects regarding which many DO err by thinking wrongly of these ideas, thinking that temptation IS restricted only to the gross desires or, as John Gill framed this, things: which are criminal, and issue in shame and death 8. There IS definitely a dividing line here that the apostle IS showing us and that line has the idea of temptation, a world force founded in the beginning of man’s’ conscious existence here in this Earth, a force that IS a product of that vanity which the Apostle Paul tells us we are ALL subjected to as Souls in this world, and a force that can be seen as both the cause and the effect of the illusion, the vanity, of the world of men, on the one side and the Truth that ALL good things, “Every good gift and every perfect gift” comes from God. Here we have two poles of reality in carnal living, the forces of thought and emotion, illusion and glamour of the world of men and the Power of God and the God Within which has the Power to overcome those forces. This IS the dividing line between God and mammon if you will, the dividing line between Truth and the illusion of truth, and we should try to see James’ words as telling us several things here.
First we should understand his statement in two ways; that ONLY the good and the perfect come from God and that there IS NO thing in the world that meets these criteria as ALL things of the world and of the flesh are corrupt from a spiritual perspective; they are beneath the very quality of spiritual matter, the fabric of the Kingdom and of the Soul. We should also understand this statement as saying that there IS NO thing else that can come from God; there is ONLY the good and the perfect as He IS good and perfect which we read in the Master’s words as He tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that we should “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) and as we see in Jesus words to the rich young man to whom He says: “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18). In these sayings we should see the reality of our Good and Perfect God and we should try to understand the deeper ideas which must be assembled from His many words and the words of His apostles; that it is when a man can express the fullness of the Soul in the world that a glimmer of this good and this perfect can be found in this Earth. We should note here as well that the Master deflected this goodness from Himself in this saying to the rich young man and in this we should try to see the greater reality of Jesus intent in this word.
The apostle calls God the “Father of lights” and this is a strange and unique way of addressing Him. Many try to see ideas here that can explain the reality of these words but the simple Truth is likely in James view and in the way that he frames the remainder of this idea that emphasizes the Truth that there IS NO variableness in what comes from God. Here we should see that God IS steady in the dispensing of the good and the perfect which MUST be seen as His own spiritual qualities and at the same time that there IS NO difference in what “cometh down from the Father of lights” to any particular person in which idea we should see both the reality of the Master’s words from the Sermon saying: “he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45) as well as the apostles’ rendering of this into the idea that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). This IS what IS offered to us in this idea of variableness and here the apostle continues with another similar phrase which is perhaps the simple link to the uniqueness of “Father of lights“; here the apostle tells us that with God there IS NO “shadow of turning“.
Can we see here that in God there IS NO darkness, there IS only Light; and can we tie this to the Master’s ideas, again from His Sermon, where He says: “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23)? In this we see the idea of darkness tied to evil and, if we can see evil as the reality of the ways of the world, then we can see that the world IS darkness. In this view can we see that the “Father of lights” IS NOT of this Earth and that from Him the Light flows from above, from the Kingdom of God, and that the darkness that comes in the shadow IS of the Earth. There IS NO shadow, no darkness in the good and the perfect that come from God; this IS the simple message that is woven by James into these words that ARE NOT understood by most as they are stated here in the King James Bible. Vincent tells us that this phrase means: shadow of turning (τροπῆς ἀποσκίασμα); This is popularly understood to mean that there is in God not the faintest hint or shade of change, like the phrase, a shadow of suspicion. But the Greek has no such idiom, and that is not James’ meaning. Rev., rightly, renders, shadow that is cast by turning; referring still to the heavenly orbs, which cast shadows in their revolution, as when the moon turns her dark side to us, or the sun is eclipsed by the body of the moon 4.
We should KNOW that the moon never turns her dark side to us which Truth has a uniqueness of its own and the overall ideas presented by Mr. Vincent seem to be his way of making some sense of the nonsensical phrase for which there IS no such idiom in the Greek. For us the King James expression of “shadow of turning” seems better than any of the other ideas presented by the various translations and in this there IS a reality that follows upon the truth of NO variableness.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
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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.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit (John 3:3-8)
Today’s Quote of the Day is in regard to the new birth which Nicodemus did not understand and which many today do not understand either. The words of the Master tell us of a total commitment to the Lord as the way to the Kingdom and these verses say that as well. This total commitment is being born again. The differences in language aside, we should try to see the relationship between these ideas of being born again which is the essence of discipleship for it is only in discipleship that one can Truly see the Kingdom. These are much misused ideas because they are seen from the perspective of the man in form and no from the perspective of the Soul living through form.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
