IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 302

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LXXXVI

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment . He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:1-21).

Our starting point yesterday, after briefly reviewing our journey through the ideas of propitiation and atonement, was an observation that all of the most important things that concern one’s spiritual walk and spiritual Life are stated rather clearly by the Master and by the apostles and that it is only those things which were to remain a mystery that were offered in parables by the Master and in ambiguity by the apostles in their writings and epistles. We offered as example the Master teaching on Love and we noted that even though it is essentially clearly stated and rather easy to understand, mankind has missed His point and His instruction in favor of the convenience of doctrine that puts no strict parameters upon the way a believer or a non-believer should treat his brother or his neighbor. We should note that this has been true since the early days of the church and that the Holy Wars and Crusades, the Reformation Wars and the conquering wars of colonialism, slavery and racial discrimination in all its forms are the result of man’s looking the other way as regards the straightforward teachings of the Christ. It is in the illusion, glamour and deception of the world, Satan if you will, that have turned man’s minds and hearts against his fellow man for his own advantage be it individual, national, religious or racial. Sadly, many of these attitudes are still prevalent today and so many Christians still do not heed the words of the Master; they still, through illusion, glamour and deception choose to follow doctrines that are supported by the words of men and which are separatist in scope; one only need to listen to the political debate to get this point. That is listen with an open mind and not under the illusion and the glamour of one’s own cause. We ended this segment with another example of the Master’s teachings which implores us all and commands us as Christians to keep His words; especially if we are among those that profess to follow Him and believe on Him. Jesus gives us this commandment in the form of a question which every one who profess Christianity should ask themselves every day; He says:

“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?“

(Luke 6:46)

We come now to our next verse from the Fourth Chapter of the First Epistle of the Apostle John which we have been covering now for some time:

• “Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit“. This is the beginning of a group of verses that can be difficult to understand away from doctrine; this will not be true for us but it is the ambiguity herein that causes men to look away from the reality and toward the convenient. Whenever the apostles speak of the idea that “we dwell in him, and he in us“, they speak in parabolic terms as did the Master and they never Truly define what it is that they are saying. In this saying however, if we can read it in the Light of day, we can discern the right understanding of what it is that the apostle means for us to hear. Let us begin here by saying that the point that “we dwell in him, and he in us” is the same point that we covered in the last post regarding the prior verse and earlier in posts as well and, one which we will address yet again a few more verses down. Our focus here should be on the words that “he hath given us of his Spirit” and starting out we should remember our own basic understanding which is that man IS Spirit as God IS Spirit and it is primarily  in this fashion that we are created in the image and likeness of God as we commonly know from the Book of Genesis and which we discussed in some detail in In the Words of Jesus parts 54 and 218. These ideas plus the Eastern Teaching on the Transcendence and the Immanence of God, that we are part and parcel if you will, should give us a clear understanding of the message of the apostle. The reality here is that every Soul, in or out of incarnation, is the manifestation of the Spirit of God and in this we should see John’s point that “he hath given us of his Spirit“. The apostle is explaining that this is how we know that “we that we dwell in him, and he in us“, by the Spirit of God, the Christ Within, who lives through the conscious personality of a man. What does this say? It tells us that when the Christ Within is living through a man, when he is accounted worthy of the Kingdom and of discipleship, let us stretch this even to include his being an aspirant to discipleship, that he will KNOW. We must remember here that in the previous verse John tells us how it is that we attain this High Place….through Love. The apostle says this same in thing regarding His Spirit a bit differently in the prior chapter and he clarifies this for us in another chapter of this epistle saying “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:27). Do we understand that this saying is of the natural way of the disciple and that it is in this mode of discipleship that one KNOWS his True place in the scheme of things and understands the inner workings of the realm of the Soul? Let us look briefly here at some of the ideas of the commentators who interpret this saying according to doctrine and in doing so let us get a glimpse of how far our ideas are from the common doctrine of the church.

1. John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible⁸ says because he hath given us of his Spirit: not of the essence and nature of the Spirit, which is the same with the nature of the Father and of the Son, and is incommunicable; but either of the gifts of the Spirit, which are divided to every man as he pleases, and which being bestowed on men, and used by them, for the profit and advantage of the church of God, show that God is with them, and dwells among them of a truth; or of the graces of the Spirit, such as faith, hope, and love, which are each the gifts of God; and these being bestowed and exercised, are proofs of the mutual indwelling of God and his people⁸ . Can we see how our reality never dawns upon Mr. Gill and how his interpretation is strictly according to doctrine with so little supported by scripture itself such like that the Spirit of the Father and the Son are incommunicable. How differently they see the idea of man, the True man, being in the image and likeness of God and they miss also John’s saying a bit further down and that we use so often which, speaking of Christ, says: “as he is, so are we in this world” which must be taken to mean the whole of man.
2. The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible⁸ says 13. Hereby–“Herein.” The token vouchsafed to us of God’s dwelling (Greek, “abide”) in us, though we see Him not, is this, that He hath given us “of His Spirit” ( 1 John 3:24 ). Where the Spirit of God is, there God is. ONE Spirit dwells in the Church: each believer receives a measure “of” that Spirit in the proportion God thinks fit. Love is His first-fruit ( Galatians 5:22 ). In Jesus alone the Spirit dwelt without measure ( John 3:34 )⁸. Can we see that although this goes in a slightly different doctrinal direction that it is doctrine nonetheless which, by piecing together verses, points to his conclusion but does not make the case whatsoever as this doctrine is not so stated in scripture. Now many will say that we do the same thing, that we piece together verses and that we make assumptions that are not so stated in scripture and this is True. In our own defense however we must add that the basis of our understanding is in our discernment of the teachings of the Master first and in the amplification of the teachings by the apostles second; much of the church does this quite the opposite. Further, our own doctrine, if we may call it that, is inclusive of ALL which is the same way that we read the teaching of the entire New Testament; we are not separatist in any way and a proper reading of the words of Jesus we show the same in ALL that He says.

For us this simple statement is of great importance as it shows the relationship of the Spirit of the Father to the Spirit of man and there is no other sensible way to understand this. The doctrinal approach is akin to the idea that Jesus comes to live in the man when his is born again even when this is simply by affirmation and by ritual. The reality of this to us is clear; that when the man is focused upon the Christ and the True Man, represented by the Christ Within, that this True Man ‘takes over’ the personality and overcomes the consciousness of the world in and through which he formerly lived. The man is born again and, in effect, a disciple is born and there is then in the Earth a one like unto Peter or Paul or John who lives the Life of discipleship according to the requirements laid down for us by the Master. As we have said, this is the objective of most ALL of the Master’s teachings and the apostles amplification and this is also the inner goal and the destiny of every man should he realize it or not. Our next verse is:

• “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world“. We should see that the apostle here is not inferring that they have seen with their eyes as except for himself there may not be any who have seen or could testify. Vincent tells us of this that: We have seen (peqeameqa). Have deliberately and steadfastly contemplated. Compare i. 1, and see on John i. 14 ⁴ and with this the lexicon agrees. We should understand then that this is in relation to the prior thought one KNOWS because “he hath given us of his Spirit“; that is that because of the working of the Spirit, the Christ Within, that we can contemplate and testify of those things that are revealed to us by the Great Revealer, the Holy Spirit, who is the working power of the Christ Within in form. Can we see how this works with the saying that we cited above form an earlier chapter that tells us that it is by the “anointing which ye have received of him” which “abideth in you” that we can know all things. This next part is the more difficult to understand in our terms as regards “the Saviour of the world” which is a saying that is steeped in doctrine. The lexicon tells us of the Greek word soter that it means saviour, deliverer, preserver and that it is translated in the King James Version (KJV) as Saviour all 24 times² that it appears in the New Testament. With rare exception, the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) among them where it is stated as Deliverer, this word is translated as Saviour which fits best to the doctrines of the churches. Strong’s says this of soter: Saviour, one who delivers from grave danger; note that in the NT this always refers to God the Father and Jesus Christ as Saviour of believers from righteous wrath to a  proper relationship with God³. Can we get a better feel for the intent of the apostle from these definitions? Can we see the relationship between soter and reconciliation as we saw in the idea of propitiation? Vincent tells us that this word soter is used of most all of the Greek gods which calls into question the idea behind the English word saviour. It is interesting to note that the older Webster’s¹  definitions of this word are all in line with the doctrinal approach to it and the newer dictionaries paint it in much the same fashion. Commentaries go along doctrinal lines but there is no real explanation of just what saviour may mean except as refers to salvation; again from a doctrinal perspective. For us we should find our understanding in the words from Strong’s which go hand in hand with the apostle’s prior thoughts on propitiation and if we see these as the same we can then say that: Here in propitiation we find reconciliation and in reconciliation we find repentance and in repentance we find the remission of sins. However, we must see too that for the propitiation to have the effect of reconciling a man to God that there need be that repentance, that change, and it is in this that there can be that remission or that release from the wiles of the world. Is not then our salvation the same thing?

We will continue with these thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day