YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
We finished yesterday with our discussion of the need for righteousness in our lives and how righteousness is an important part of the equation for our spiritual advancement as the fruit of the Spirit, as the Apostle Paul tells us, is found in it. Of course we need only to see the Master’s many words regarding righteousness to get the whole idea of the its importance in our lives. Let us look again at Jesus’ words:
- Speaking to the Baptist, Jesus tells John that is Their work to full fill all saying “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
- Blessing those who go after righteousness in their lives and stating the reward Jesus says: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
- Blessing those that are mistreated because of their righteousness and stating their reward the Master tells us: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10)
- Our subject verse of yesterday regarding our level of righteousness states: “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) and on this we did make the case that they were not unrighteous.
- Telling us that righteousness IS and attribute of God, the Master says: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).
- Speaking of the Baptist and telling us that righteousness is the way of the messengers of God Jesus says: “…John came unto you in the way of righteousness….” (Matthew 21:32).
With all this, why is there still confusion in the church today? It seems that somewhere over this last 2000 years we have confused righteousness, a state of mind and a state of being that becomes a way of action with works and have put it under the spell of the words of the Paul who says “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Now in this same epistle Paul also tells us that it is in righteousness that we find the fruit of the Spirit and that we will find this also in goodness and in Truth. So then if the fruit of the Spirit is in righteousness and that fruit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) how can it not be the very thing that we strive for? There is probably a fine line between doing ‘works’ in order to become righteous and having that state of mind that is righteousness and through that doing ‘works’. Can not the very act of doing good works also impute righteousness? Unless of course one is only doing those good works so that he may boast which is the whole point of the Master in His teaching on being humble and this should be seen as the emphasis of Paul’s point as well. Paul, you see, goes on in the very next verse in his epistle to the Ephesians to say that “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Reading this in our way we should see that we are, as Spirit first, His workmanship; we are created in Christ and unto good works because as Souls, our Christ Within, we only know good works; and, we should walk in these works of the Soul on this Earth and not in the selfish works of the flesh.
This brings us back then to humble which is where we left off yesterday. Paul’s caution above is that in the flesh we act for the notice, we act for the praise, we act for every selfish reason. When our focus is on the Kingdom however we are no longer acting in the flesh and it is here that the confusion may begin. When the Light of the Soul is working through the conscious personality then the boasting and the pride cannot exist and it is up till this point in our conscious lives that we must, if we are truly striving for His Presence, be aware and careful. Jesus tells us:
- “Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 6:1).
- “And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:5).
- “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward” (Matthew 6:16).
- Speaking of the scribes and the Pharisees the Master says: “But all their works they do for to be seen of men….and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi” (Matthew 23:5-7) so to tell us that these things we should not do.
These are all things that men do in pride; to be lifted up in their own minds before the world. This is the great caution; it is here that the fruit of the spirit is seen and we should know that in pride and boasting there is no fruit. We should note that all of these thoughts conveyed above by the Master are concerning ‘spiritual’ things, giving, prayer, fasting and the pride of the Pharisee’s position. These are the cautions for us to heed; when we reach a point in life where we do these type things like prayer, giving, fasting or we have a position of notice, the time is come to allow the Spirit and the Soul to overwhelm the carnal life of which pride and boasting are a part. To do otherwise is to be a hypocrite.
This brings us to the parable for the day, the Parable of The Wedding Feast II. It goes thus:
“And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden , when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them, When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him; And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room. But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14:7-14).
There are actually two separate parables in this one; the first about being humble and, as Paul tells us, that one should beware “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” (Romans 12:3) and the other is that we should not do a thing for the recompense but for the sake of doing the thing alone. This is repeated often by the Master as relates to lending, giving, loving and even saluting. The matter of the feast is given as a general and a good example but the thought of it all is much more pressing; lending without expecting return, giving for the sake of giving and not because we think that our tithe will be multiplied back to us. Loving because it is the Great Commandment and because it is the true sign of the Presence of God in one’s life and even saluting, a simple joyful greeting given to all for the sake of it only. All this is, in its essence, self-forgetfulness or selflessness, and this is an important part in our spiritual walk. The opposite is selfishness which is the great hindrance to any spiritual purpose. It is in this attitude of self-forgetfulness or selflessness that we also find our reward, our blessing. We spoke of the last part, of reward, in a previous post regarding resurrection and noted that the Greek word dikaios which is here translated as just is also the word translated elsewhere as righteous We should see these two English words as synonymous and we should add this though into our understanding of righteousness as we had been discussing above.
Getting back to the first part of the Parable of the Wedding Feast II and its particular message of being humble, we should find that this also is another ideal that is very much related to the ideals of self-forgetfulness and selflessness. We all possess these qualities which are also to be found to be within the realm of the fruit of the spirit. All that we can count as virtue, all that fit into the ideas of the Good, the Beautiful and the True can be identified as such fruit. Look again at the list put forth by Paul: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” and to which he adds “….the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). Can we find anything here that can coexist with selfishness? can we find anything that cannot be identified with self-forgetfulness and selflessness? We should here remember that in all things, in virtue and in vice, there are degrees of possession and it is ever our Soul’s desire to lessen the carnal and enhance the spiritual.
The general notion in the parable is that we should not think so highly of ourselves as to think that we deserve a special place in any situation. In the example above we should see ourselves finding the best place, at the head table for example, where we can be seen of others with an appearance of importance. The Master is telling us that we should not show off or attempt to show off what we sense as our own importance lest we be made less important by others who actually are the better. He tells us to be humble, to remain with the crowd so that we can be called out of the crowd and into a position of deserved importance should we be found fit. And so it is spiritually; we are all the same in the flesh, it is all temporal and of no real value and, as conscious personalities imbued with Soul Light, we should realize this and in this realize that it matters not how we appear to men. Behind the story of seating and feasts and simple humility should be seen the idea of pride as the opposite of humble and that Jesus lesson here is as much to not be and to not act proud as it is to show humility and this is because we can be proudly humble. Being proudly humble can be seen in an act of seating oneself in the “lower seat” and hoping to be called up higher or taking the “lower seat” because one is conscious of the possibility of having “with shame to take the lowest room”. While this attitude is, according to Jesus, better than being of those who “chose out the chief rooms”, it is noticeably less virtuous than not being and not acting proud at all. Perhaps this message is the Master’s intent in telling these two stories together. Can we not see that pride will be impossible if our attitude is one of selflessness or self-forgetfulness?
A similar thought is put forth by Solomon in Proverbs saying: “Put not forth thyself in the presence of the king, and stand not in the place of great men: For better it is that it be said unto thee, Come up hither; than that thou shouldest be put lower in the presence of the prince whom thine eyes have seen” (Proverbs 25:6-7). The notion of pride is used in a negative context throughout the bible and it is singly a very difficult part of the carnal life to overcome; it is seemingly at the very core of our carnal mental and emotional nature. If we look at the proverb above and into it put ourselves with God as the King and Christ as the Prince and look at it too as the threefold nature of man in Form and Spirit and Soul we can likely find some good analogies to our lives. We should ever seek to be magnified by our Spirit and our Soul, by God and by Christ, and not by our own temporal and vain personality. Webster’s gives us a comparison between pride and vanity which can be revealing as well as helpful in understanding the activity of selflessness and self-forgetfulness: Pride, Vanity. Pride is a high or an excessive esteem of one’s self for some real or imagined superiority, as rank, wealth, talents, character, etc. Vanity is the love of being admired, praised, exalted, etc., by others. Vanity is an ostentation of pride; but one may have great pride without displaying it. Vanity, which is etymologically emptiness,” is applied especially to the exhibition of pride in superficialities, as beauty, dress, wealth, etc.1.
We must be careful and understand that the Master is not telling us to hide what we do. We know that He says elsewhere: “let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Jesus is telling us that we should not do anything for the purpose of being noticed He does not say that we should not be noticed. He tells us that we should not promote ourselves in position nor work for the purpose of that promotion but should let others, of their own accord, give us respect and honor. And the Master tells us that we should not do a thing simply for the reward of it but for the sake of doing. This is selflessness, self-forgetfulness, and true humility and these are all found in righteousness.
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.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:5-9).
In our spiritual walk this must ever be our attitude as well. Obedience to God and to the God Within, taking no claim for the deeds of the lower self but attributing all to the Power of God.
- 1 Websters Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
