YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
What is truth?
We have been exploring the nature and the idea of Truth as the word is used in the New Testament and as it is used by Jesus. Aside from the idea of veracity we should see Truth as reality, and there are many, as well as our personal commitment to righteousness and we should see Truth as an aspect of God. Away from this physical and material existence, in the realms of Soul and Spirit, all is Truth always; it is only here in manifestation, in physical form, in emotional response and in the realm of mind that Truth can become arbitrary and in some ways even disappear. It is lost in the illusion of living this life in form as our substitute for the reality of life as Spirit. It is lost in the glamour of thought and emotion, in thinking that this daily life of ours is of importance insofar as our feelings regarding our personal well being are of supreme importance. These things are not the Truth and the Master tells us this throughout His teaching on the Kingdom of God; He tells us that it is what is in our hearts that matters and this over all in and of this material world. He tells us that what is in our hearts is changeable from the everyday thoughts and feelings of the flesh to the higher aspirations and thoughts that come from the Soul, the Inner Man, The Christ Within.
When we come to the realization of who and what we really are, when the words of the Master sink in and we begin to interpret them as He intended and without any selfish motive, then the idea of Truth becomes for us an integral part of our understanding of the yet higher ideal that He teaches us, LOVE.
Continuing with our look at the Truth that Jesus teaches from the Gospel of John we come to the idea of the Spirit of Truth. The Master tells His disciples: “if ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 1415-20).
Here we have a very complex statement that gives to us much more information that is generally seen on the surface. These words of the Master come but a few verses after His telling them “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” and after His telling them more about the relationship between the Son and the Father in saying “Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. 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 14:6, 11-12).
Let us break this all down. From yesterday’s post we have an idea of the intent and meaning of “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and the need to understand that what is true of the Christ is the truth of the Christ Within as well. The Christ is the Universal Son of God, He transcends all religions and cultures and is an inseparable part of God Himself. He, Christ Jesus, is telling us, His disciples, that He is “in the Father” and that also “the Father in me“. This He says just before telling them that they (we) too have the same power as He so long as we believe on Him. Now we have already discussed the idea of believing on Him; that it must be understood as following Him, being committed to Him. So here in His word He says that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him and that we all have the same power so long as we follow in His Truth. Looking spiritually at this we should see that as Souls and Spirits we are the Way, and the Truth and the Life for our personality and its ‘salvation’, that as the Souls and Spirits, we in Truth are in the Father and the Father is in us and that if we could but know this for a certainty, as a absolute Truth, then we could do as He did here and now.
This brings us to our main text regarding the Spirit of Truth. It is around words and themes like this that entire theologies are created. We must remember that Jesus is talking to His twelve here and that they apparently still do not understand what He is saying and what is happening. Had they understood, there would not have been the confusion regarding who would betray Him and there would not have been the questions from Thomas and from Phillip. So they know He has said that He is leaving them and now He is telling them that He will not leave them destitute but will leave them with the Spirit of Truth. The translation of this Greek word, parakletos, into Comforter is universally accepted but in its original meaning it referred more to a type of advocate. In most all of Christianity this becomes the Comforter, the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. Jesus tells them of the Spirit of Truth that “the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him”. This is much the same as we have been saying about the relationship between the Inner Man, the Christ Within, and the personality consciousness or the flesh. The same is true then as now; the world living in the flesh cannot receive the Christ Within because it does not see or know that he even exists and so we liken the Spirit of Truth to the Christ Within. The Master goes on to say this same idea as “for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” which is to tell them that this Spirit of Truth, the Soul, the Inner Man, the Christ Within, is in you now and so shall he continue. We should note that Vincent says that some editors choose to translate ” shall be in you” as “is in you“**** which works a bit better for our understanding of the matter.
Jesus goes on to say next, to reiterate in a way, “I will not leave you comfortless“; this reconfirming His telling them that He will send them another Comforter. We can take the Greek word orphanos as it is translated to be comfortless or we can look at it literally which would be to say orphans or, as it is translated in its only other appearance, in James, as fatherless. All ways will work the same in that He will not leave us alone but as He says above with the Comforter, an advocate which He tells us here is Himself as He then says that “I will come to you”. This as to tell the disciples that He is also the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, that dwells in them now because they see and know and He will continue so as the Christ Within.
The Master finishes this dialogue by telling us more about the true nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son and our relationship to Them. This is said as “the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you“. This is telling them that the world will not see Him because of His death, He is gone from the world and that because the world does not see spiritually nor in Truth, they will “seeth me no more“. But the disciples do see Him, as we do, because He continues to live in them and us and so long as He lives in us, we live also. This is the true life, the life in the Kingdom and in His Presence and this is the true meaning of His saying “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” (Luke 9:24). Keeping our life in the world of men is losing our life in the Kingdom because we see and know not the Kingdom nor the Master; leaving this life in the world through focus on the Kingdom saves our life by bringing the spiritual part, the Presence of God to bear on our life in the world and we are transformed. Jesus goes on to say in our text that we will know at that day which we can but assume refers to the day that He leaves this world physically. In this He is saying that when this all happens “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. This is the great realization of our relationships with the Father and with the Son. Christ is in the Father in oneness and unity and we are in Christ and so too the Father in that same oneness and unity; in His Kingdom and His Presence and finally, and for us the more important and practical, He is in us also. As the Apostle Paul tells us “this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
This all could be seen as a Truth within a Truth and so deserving of the time spent on it. Some last notes here in reference to the Comforter or the Holy Spirit of Truth: first, the whole idea of the Holy Spirit and the way it is used by some of the Church today is not based on the words of the Master and is loosely based on some readings in the Book of Acts and the epistles. That there is a Holy Spirit is, of course, true but His actions in this world and in the world of the Soul is sorely misunderstood. We should see the personalization of the Holy Spirit as the effect of the Soul, the Christ Within, on the outer life and form; the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Truth working out in our lives. Vincent says: It should be noted too that Jesus as well at the Holy Spirit is represented as Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is to be another Paraclete, and this falls in with the statement in the First Epistle (Johns) “we have an advocate with God, even Jesus Christ”****. He who has ears……
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.
Leaving yesterday’s Quote of the Day for another day again. Darkness to Light and the unreal to the Real; this help is needed ever so much in understanding and revealing these scriptures.
ANCIENT MANTRAM
Lead us, O Lord,
From darkness to Light;
From the unreal to the Real;
From death to Immortality
This mantram is one of the oldest prayers known in the world and is much in line with today’s theme of Truth in regards to the teaching of the Master, as well as overall Spiritual Truth. Lead us, O Lord from the darkness known by not standing in the Light of the Soul to that Light, from the unreality of this temporal worldly existence into the reality of knowing our True identity as Spiritual expressions of the One True God and from this death in personality form to the immortality found in knowing the Light and the Real.
- **** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
