IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 126

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

“But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.  He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented , and went.  And he came to the second, and said like wise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him” (Matthew 21:28-32).

In this story of two brothers called the Parable of the Two Sons we find the journey of everyman in his return to God as we saw as toward the end of our post yesterday. We should remember that these are teachings of Jesus the Christ, the Teacher of Angels and Men, and that every teaching that He gives is likely to have a deeply significant meaning that fits within His words: “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). And these secret things are not likely to be the simple morality found as the surface meaning of what He said.

Beginning with this thought and remembering what it is that we say; that we are Spirit and we have a Soul and that as these two components we function through the conscious personality that we have developed in this lifetime. We are not this conscious personality per se but we develop it and work through it, consciously or not, as incarnate Souls. This is not an easy thought to explain nor to understand and what we say here is barely scratching the surface of the reality that it is. Much like one cannot entirely explain the thoughts of any of view of life, we cannot thoroughly explain this to any who are not ready to understand it or who base their view on the preconceptions developed which are likely unexplainable as well. We cannot explain how a flower grows or comes to be nor can we explain the nature of the life of any of Gods Stupendous Creation. We know only that if we plant the seed and give it water and sun it will likely grow and flower and reproduce.

This same can be said of man as a creature of flesh; we plant the seed and nourish it and it is born into the world and if we give it food and water it will grow. But man is so much more complex; he has an emotional nature that comes to a maturity based on what it is fed and he has a mind or mental nature which also comes to maturity based on what it is fed. This is the physical and carnal conscious personality but this is not the man; this is but his expression on Earth. Today we will take this idea a bit further. We should remember that it is as Spirit and Soul (our I am) that we give Life to this physical presence, this conscious personality, and, though our I am gives Life to form, we are not that form. The Apostle Paul helps us a bit with this idea saying “Know ye not that ye are the templeof God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Corinthians 3:16) confirming and explaining the saying by the Master of “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” of which the Apostle John say “he spake of the temple of his body” (John 2:19, 21). So we are the Life that enlivens the body and the conscious personality that it is expressing. We have previously discussed this idea but not quite in this way: the body is born and it is Life in form with no outgoing personality that can be discerned. As the baby is nurtured and grows it is impressed with what he sees and hears around it. At what point the Soul give Life and the nature of that Life is as yet unknown to all but the few and it is meaningless to speculate; where we can adventure however is to what is happening to the child without reference to the nature of the Soul and its specific actions.

The child grows and learns and develops his particular body, his emotional character and his mind set based on what he is fed and then, as he grows older, based upon what he may feed himself. This part of feeding himself should be seen as the action of the particular proclivity of the child coming into incarnation. If we subscribe to the concept of reincarnation this may be based upon the particular need of the Soul which we cannot here explain; we will leave this as the understanding that it is based on the Soul’s own karma. If we do not subscribe to the idea of reincarnation however this proclivity is then seen as a matter of predestination as some believe or chance as others may believe but regardless, there is some natural inclination involved in the Life of the child. We know the mysteries of child prodigies and geniuses and their opposites; of those born blind or maimed and their opposites who may have great physical prowess, but we cannot successfully explain any of this although we do try. We have then a child who is nurtured some and who has some natural tendencies and in the combination of these he reaches maturity and is become a conscious personality ready to face the world. He is however still the Life that enlivens and is expressing through the body and the personality and at some point in time, conditions permitting, this Life of the Soul begins to try to get the attention of that personality; first perhaps as conscience and then as the instinct to do good and move closer to God and here it matters not whether one is of a religious sort or not.

Here we are back at the idea that we started with the two brothers, the Sons of the One Father, and the Masters parable on what can and will happen to them as they make contact with their true selves, their Souls. The first son has developed his conscious personality and has heard the promptings of the Soul, perhaps as conscience and perhaps as that instinct, and he heeds the call. He says yes to the Father, he says that he will do His work. The other son has also developed his conscious personality and perhaps has heard the promptings of the Soul but he is too wrapped up in the Life he has as this personality to pay any attention and so we can say that he says no to the Father. He is busy with career and with family or is just having what he considers ‘fun’ in life. These are the contrasting brothers; the one hears and heeds and acknowledges and the other hears but pays not attention and is too preoccupied; the stories of man.

Here now the Master tells us that this is not forever; He tells us that this is a fluid situation, a changeable one and He uses the presumed life of the Pharisee to make his point. He says here we have this son who said yes to the Father and went about to do His work but he gets sidetracked by any number of things and does not go to the work. He may find that the personality life is more entertaining than doing the work of the Father or he may find that he can do the work of the Father in appearance and profit himself on the side. He may just as well be a well meaning man who sets out to do the work but because he does not really understand it he is easily led astray; he is thinking he is doing His work but in reality is not or he is doing his own. The possibilities are endless and the point is simply that this son is not, though he said he would, doing the work of the Father. At any time this son can repent and change and do the will of the Father again.

What now of the brother? He has not said yes, he was to busy with his carnal life. But the Soul’s promptings do not stop and eventually the Soul truly gets his attention and he repents and he goes to do the work of the Father. The story goes no further and we should assume that the same is true here as before, that this is a fluid and a changeable situation. This son has now said yes and he is doing the work but he too can find the same peril of being sidetracked or just not understanding. We should see this as it is in Life and as the teaching that the Master intended. We say yes and we start to do the work and our success is only in  our persistence and our consistency and of this the Master tells us: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back , is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).

Notice the word repent in these verses; this is not the usual idea of repentance and this too should help us to understand the intent of the Master. The word here translated as repent is the Greek word metamellomai which, according to Vincent, is used only five times in the New Testament. The lexicon says that this word means: it is a care to one afterwards; it repents one, to repent one’s self² which does not say much by way of understanding. Strong’s says that metamellomai means to regret; repent; (pass) to be repentant, change of mind, remorseful³ and this does not take us very far from the everyday understanding of repent either. Vine’s does not address this word at all and Vincent has this to say which should help us to understand: This is a different word from that in Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17; metanoeo, Repent ye. Though it is fairly claimed that the word here implies all that is implied in the other word, the New Testament writers evidently recognize a distinction,m since the noun which corresponds to the verb in this passage (metamellomai) is not used at all in the New Testament, and the verb itself only five times; and, in every case except the two in this passage (see verse 32) with a meaning quite foreign to repentance in the ordinary gospel sense. Thus it is used of Judas when he brought back the thirty pieces (Matt. xxvii. 3); of Paul not regretting his letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor. vii. 8); and of God (Heb. vii. 21). He goes on to talk about the meaning of regular word translated repentance which we previously discussed and he says of it that it is used in every case with reference to that change of heart and life wrought by the Spirit of God…..

Vincent goes on to speak of this word metamellomai that: it is not impossible, therefore, that the word in this passage may have been intended to carry a different shade of meaning, now lost to us. He gives some etymology for which we do not have the font to express and his definition of after and to be an object of care which he says implies after-care as contrasted with the change of mind denoted by metanoeo. He goes on to say that this word is not sorrow for moral obliquity and sin against God, but annoyance at the consequences of an act or course of acts, and chagrin at not having known better. “It may be what our fathers were wont to call hadiwist (had-I-wist, or known better, I should have acted otherwise)” (Trench)⁴. Vincent goes on but we have enough here to make the point that the repentance here is the idea of coming to the conclusion that we should have acted otherwise. So the brother who says no to the Lord rethinks the matter and concludes that he should have said yes and now says it. This may seem like a long way to go for this word but it does take away the idea of the second son being in a sinful nature as well as the lending this idea to those who did not believe John  the Baptist later in the parable. This is an important part for our proper understanding of how this all affects us as men who are hearing and heeding and going back and perhaps repeating this over and over again.

A bit more here to offer some better understanding of the action of the conscious personality and the Soul as goes this parable. Here we posit that the Spirit and the Soul are one and the same and represent both the Father and the Son and we do so for the sake of clarity as we are not able here to properly differentiate these so as to follow along with the thoughts of scripture. We should look here at the Soul as being the immediate progenitor of our physical manifestation, the bringer of Life, and we should look at Spirit as being that Life itself and in this way viewing them as one. As we have said previously, this is an immensely complex subject and a difficult one to understand with our finite minds and this thought will help transition us to our further explanations.

Let us address this conscious personality as the mind for the balance of this essay and work into it some of the sayings of Paul which will give us some food for thought till we can come back to this in the next post. We should see that the mind of a man as he matures becomes what it is from a combination of nurture, what he has learned, and nature, his proclivity and predisposition, and that these are defining his place and his thought life. Now comes the Soul and its prompts, getting the attention of the mind and feeding it new thoughts of the Good, the Beautiful and the True; this is the beginning of conflict and of striving. From a spiritual point here we now need to look at this as the new thoughts overcoming those preexisting thoughts; thoughts of God and Spirit overcoming the thoughts of Self. An with this idea then here are some of Paul’s sayings which are here in no particular order.

• “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
• “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God“. (Romans 12:2).
• “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:5-8).
• “But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:23-25).

These should suffice to give us some idea of the role of the Soul in and on the mind of man and to show that for us today it is the through the mind that we will find our salvation.

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 the Quote of the Day for another day!

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? (Luke 6:46)

This was our very first Quote of the Day and is one that has continual meaning in our spiritual lives; it never grows old and is appropriate to most every essay. It is especially well suited to this essay as we are all sons who should be heeding it. We do call Him Lord!

• ²New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com