YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
Over the last 120 posts on this BlogSite we have gone from a top heading of What Did He Say to the current one YES, HE is Talking to YOU. In both we are looking rather constantly at what it is that the Master said to us over 2000 years ago. We have been, for quite some time now, looking at the known parables and some of the other parabolic teachings that He gave to us and we are still finding new depth and new meaning in His sayings. The teachings of the Master, when they are uncovered, are rather straightforward and designed to show us the way to the Kingdom and to the Presence of God in our lives. If we can find this Kingdom, and we know where it is, we will also find that eternal life that He tells us of and we will be accounted worthy of the resurrection. Understanding that this resurrection is eternal life in the Kingdom of God and that it is a truly spiritual Life apart from the cares and the tribulations of this life in form and of any form based life including what we may believe as the afterlife. It is a Life that is not possible without our finding the Kingdom. All of what Jesus says, all that is hidden His in parables and His proverbs as well as what is put before us in plain sight, is directed at US; at ME and at YOU. And, of course, at everyone who takes the time away from the lures of this life in form to see and hear Truth.
It is difficult to arrive at that point in one’s life where the Light of the Soul makes a registered impact upon the physical consciousness. It requires our being free enough from the ‘wiles’ of the flesh to first sense the Light and then to react to it. It then requires that the lure of worldly life has not so great a hold on us that, after we sense the light and react to it we turn back to our old ways and to their illusive comfort. This is much the same as the movement of man through the stages that the Master paints for us in the Parable of the Sower. Man is not stagnant and may return again and again to react to the Light; it is only by the effort of the conscious self that change is made and this is the reality of repentance and of redemption. Looking about us we can more or less see those who can be considered the wayside, the stony ground, the thorny ground and the good ground and, if we look closely enough, we can see each of these in our own lives as well.
We have just come through two themes of Jesus’ teaching that we are likening to parables but which are not thought of as such by many others. In these we have come across words that are much misunderstood in the Christian world; among the more recent is angel, resurrection and, from yesterday, repentance. Add to this the confusion regarding the ideas of Love and of righteousness and we may get a glimpse of the state of Christianity today as a doctrine or group of doctrines that in so many ways do not reflect the words of Jesus. In many ways popular Christianity has taken on a life of its own which is separate and apart from the teachings of the Master but which are be easier to accomplish and achieve. For this end, the ease of accomplishment, these teachings may be well suited to the people that accept them and in which they may find comfort. For us however who are reading and writing these essays there is more; we know that the way is beyond the theology of the popular churches and is found in the real meanings of His words to us; and so we continue to seek and to search. It is in this seeking and searching that we find our comfort and our understanding and our place of service.
The problems of language and of translation have contributed greatly to much of the misunderstanding as we perceive it. The words listed above are but a few of the prime examples and we have discussed the varying definitions of many in these posts. For some, like Love, the dictionary meanings are so much closer to the intent of the Master’s teaching than are the thoughts given to us by Strong or by the lexicon. For others, like repentance, the ideas of the dictionary do not nearly approach Jesus intent. This makes it ever more difficult to convey our thoughts on these matters in a way that can be readily understood. So long as the idea of repentance remains being sorry and the idea of Love remains as the interpersonal ‘feeling’ in relationships or the undefined Love for a Christian brother, the nature or popular Christianity may remain the same as it is today. If Christianity is to have the effect on the world that the Master intended and if we are to aid His return to us here on Earth, then we must redefine Love and establish the universality of it that was intended by the Christ. It is through our understanding of Love and our living with it that we will come to understand and unravel the deeper meanings of the Master and the proper understanding of His words.
Compounding the problems of finding one’s spiritual bearing and the problems of language and interpretation is the problem of the multiplicity of theologies. We have discussed in prior posts the idea of the ONE CHRIST of whom His apostle wrote “Now this I say, that every one of you saith , I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 7:12-13). Should we ask any different question today? Is Christ divided? Who is a Catholic? who follows in the tradition of Calvin or of Luther or of others? The church has divided Christ and it so appears that each tradition accepts only that part of the divided Christ that they can discern from scripture in a way that is palatable to them. Add to this the differences within these traditions and the number of divisions of the Master through Christian denominations and sects is unfathomable.
And so it beomes our duty to study the words of Jesus and to define, though His words, the proper doctrine to which we ourselves should adhere. Many of the churches are lost in a sea of doctrines and theologies and dogmatic pronouncements that swallow up many of their followers in the traditions of men that they follow and this while each proclaims that they are the way. Disagreement abounds and it is in this disagreement that we see, and they should see, that these varied paths are wrong and divisive; they divide the very Christ that they preach. The church of today teaches theology instead of the words of the Master, it worships Him instead of following Him and it uses its self created doctrines to define life and salvation. Much of what is taught and believed regarding atonement, judgment, resurrection, sin, heaven and hell and our salvation is steeped in the traditions of the church fathers, in Old Testament superstitions and the interpretation of the writings of the Apostles to match. We know that it is in the words of Christ that the truth is to be found and that the Apostles writings should be so interpreted to match this and not any preconceived ideas.
Taking a short break from the ongoing review of the parables of Jesus, we have been looking at His sayings that, while parabolic to us, are not considered as such by the church world. We have made up names for the first two of these so that we can better refer to them in the future. So far we have discussed Jesus exchange with the Sadducees and have called it the Parable of Teaching the Sadducees and yesterday we looked at the Master’s discussion with those questioning the plight of the Galilaeans which we called the Parable of Preparedness. We looked at these while bearing in mind that Jesus told us, quoting the prophet who was speaking of Him: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35). So much of what He said over 2000 years ago still remains a mystery waiting to be discovered.
Today we will take on the idea of righteousness and will use several of Jesus sayings to reveal the truth enclosed in His telling His disciples and those gathered at the Mount: “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). First we should see here that the Pharisees were, by their own standards and the standards of their religion, righteous people. They are accused by Jesus in this: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Matthew 23:23), of not having or using judgment, mercy and faith in the exercise of their ‘profession’ and He tells them that for this they are hypocrites. We tend to demonize the Pharisees because of their reaction to the Christ but Jesus understood it better knowing that they were blinded by their own view of the world and of God. Yes they were hypocrites but they were the religious symbol of the day and they exercised their duty as they saw it and they served God. In this they were righteous; balancing their place in religion with their place in a Roman society while not caring enough about the spiritual well being of the people of whom they were given charge. It was this attitude that Jesus came to change; He came to bring a new dispensation of Love and Mercy and Peace; He reminds the Pharisees of the nature of God in His repeating of the words of Hosea “for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13; 12:7) but they were not attending to the words of the prophets and thus Jesus displeasure and their hypocrisy.
So when the Master tells us that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees” what does He say? He is not saying that they were unrighteous and that any degree that we may have will suffice. Nay, He is telling us that they are righteous and that we need to be more righteous if we are to “enter into the kingdom of heaven“. When it comes to the Pharisees’ treatment of the Master and His teachings we should see another side; it is here, in their resistance, that the Master rails against them treating them as the hypocrites that they were. In other parts Jesus dined with them and counseled them and some were converted. Much like today, when opposed people harden their hearts and fight.
What is righteousness? It is a state of mind and a state of being that becomes a way of action. It is something that is possessed of God and so possessed by us spiritually as we are in His likeness and His image. Jesus tells us that we should “…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) and in prayer He says: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee” (John 17:25). We know then that the Father is righteous and that we should seek His righteousness which is to say we should seek nothing less. This can be seen as in direct opposition to the Christian philosophy of imputed righteousness that is held by many. Under this we are made righteous by faith and by believing in Christ and by no act of our own. There are however levels of faith and levels of believing or following found throughout the world and depending upon what level we believe at there may be little or no righteousness. There are some that believe that God imputes or accredits the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ to the believing sinner while he is still in his sinning state (abideinchrist.com) and these people are no less sincere than we or any others who proclaim the word of God.
The key that we have discovered is in the focus of our lives and this is according to the many sayings of the Master. If we focus on the things of the Kingdom we will bring the righteousness of our True Spirit nature to bear on our lives and with this comes the Love and the Mercy and the Peace. If we focus on the things of the world and believe in God and in Christ, what do we have? We may feel good but are we any closer to the Kingdom of God and to His Presence? At what point of believing and of faith are we accounted worthy?
We will continue with this theme of righteousness in the next post and add to it some additional sayings from the Master that should bolster our understanding of the intent of the teaching above concerning righteousness and attaining the Kingdom of God.
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 (John 3:3-5).
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.
