IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 308

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part XCII

“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).

How does one convince the doctrine based Christian that there is a reality in the world, a reality of brotherhood, that far  surpasses the  ideas that he has learned from the church. That the church’s separatist interpretations of the Master’s words are effectively keeping him away from the Way, the Truth and the Life that can Truly be found in the Christ and in His teachings. Most all men are lost, awash in the illusion, glamour and deception of the world and it is in the PLAIN and SIMPLE teachings of the Master that we can find our Way of salvation and it is in the meanings underlying His parables that we can find the Truth and the Life for the whole of the human family. He told us that “….the Son of man is come to save that which was lost” (Matthew 18:11) but a man can not be saved if he does not realize that he is lost and, in the terms that the Master has set forth, it is ALL that are NOT disciples that are lost and not only those who we as men look down on as vile or evil in our own understanding.

In the Master’s words are the answers to ALL the questions that one may have regarding Life and, as the Apostle John tells us, we are all in a position to discern these Truths: John tells us that: “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). This is a difficult saying as there is no real interpretation for the idea of anointing as is True of many words but, from the context in which this is written and from the overall context of this epistle, we can do as it says and discern the truth. Of Him is for us the Christ Within and the anointing is the Power of KNOWING which we understand comes in stages; we should see the message here as when we are heeding the call of the Christ Within, focusing on Him, that this Power of KNOWING can come to us. Can we see here the criteria for this is in receiving this Power from the God that “abideth in you” and in this communion of KNOWING as a conscious personality that “ye shall abide in him“. Can we see the relationship here to the ideas that we have been discussing regarding the disciple and the aspirant “God dwelleth in him, and he in God” and the criteria that John has put forth saying:

• “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God“  (John 4:15).
• “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him“ (1 John 3:24).
• “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
• “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him“ (John 4:16).

What is the point here? simply that it is when we begin to Truly seek Him that we can be found and in that finding is the reality of keeping His words and in this we can sense discipleship and in this state we can KNOW those things that are the Way, the Truth and the Life. None of this happens by saying or praying or believing that the doctrine will save; this happens only when we make that effort to let the Righteousness of God overcome the personality sense of the man in the world. The first step is to understand that one is lost, the second step is to be found and we must ever remember that the Master and the Christ Within in our own lives “is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). How does one convince the doctrine based Christian that there is a reality in the world, a reality of brotherhood, that far  surpasses the  ideas that he has learned from the church.

Continuing with our verse from the last post “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” we should be sure to understand the relevance of the preceding rant insofar as a disciple’s responsibility to his brothers in the world of men.  Our saying begins with “Herein is our love made perfect” which, as we discussed, refers to the previous verse more than the succeeding words, and which tells us that “he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him“; from this we should pay special attention to the criteria which is that a man “dwelleth in love“. From here we can refer to the Master’s words regarding this same idea of dwelleth although the word is here translated as abide; the Master says: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Can we see here that He is telling us that we should be to Him as He is to the Father? Can we see the idea also of the relationship here to the Christ Within abiding in the Spirit and the conscious personality of a man abiding in the Christ Within; this is the essence of discipleship? The next frame for this idea is then in the end of our verse today, as a part of the thought conveyed in the apostles saying that “as he is, so are we in this world” and we can complete this in the saying that we put forth above that: “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost“

Now this reference is not the only one in which we can see these words of sameness between the Master and His disciples, it is not only in our doing the things that He did. It is rather in all aspects of His being and His Life except perhaps the virgin birth and His coming into the world in the fullness of the Power and the Love of God. He does however tell us that we can accomplish this same fullness in sayings like: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). The idea here of being perfect is one that He speaks of in another place saying: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) which should tell us the importance of perfection in the eyes of the Master. This does seem like a very high bar for man but it is the bar nonetheless and what keeps us from reaching for it is the ordinariness of the doctrine and the dogma that we encounter throughout Life. The Master’s words are very clear however in telling us of what is needed to attain the Kingdom and to be His disciple and we KNOW that these are in reality the same thing; here we should also see that the result of what it is that we do is that we become perfect. We must remember also that Jesus tells us of the difficulty in accomplishing these things and at the same time He tells us to strive and in this we should see that in accomplishing is discipleship and in striving is being an aspirant to discipleship. Let us look again at some of what He says:

• On the difficulty of attaining the Kingdom: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
• On the difficulty of attaining the Kingdom and the NEED to strive toward it the Master answers a straightforward question: “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in , and shall not be able” (Luke 13:23-24). How do we define the strait gate that we see here in these verses? Remembering that much of these teachings are in parable or else that the word has lost its original intent and meaning, we should see this as the Will of God, the Commandments of the Lord for it is in following these that we find salvation as we will see as we proceed.
• Seeing above the difficulty and the narrowness of the Way of Life we can now relate these ideas to the Master’s speaking about attaining the Kingdom and this first from a verse that we have seen frequently of late: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Can we see here the narrow nature of the Path, that affirming His Lordship is not enough but it is of the wide gate and the broad way while the man that “doeth the will of my Father” is at the strait gate and the narrow way?
• The Master goes on to tell us that it is in righteousness also that we find entry and therefore we should see the synonymous nature of these terms; righteousness and “doeth the will of my Father“. “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).  We spent some time on this saying (In the Words of Jesus parts 121-122) where we tried to recognize that these scribes and Pharisees were, in their day, no different than the church leader of today although we may have said this a bit less openly. They followed their doctrines and their dogma and the Truly believed that they were righteous above the ordinary man. In this context then the Master is telling us that we must be more righteous than those whose righteousness is based upon their position and their ceremony; we must see righteousness in the Light of the Master’s saying: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Do we see that His righteousness and His Will are the same?
• Much of the Master’s words on the Kingdom have a parabolic nature to them and this is true of several of those above although there is always some bit of information that can be gleaned by most all people. For example all may not understand the relevance of the ideas in calling Him Lord, Lord insofar as we have discovered in our discussion of confession, but most all will understand the latter part of doing the Will of the Father. This next one is of a similar nature; the reality of it is hidden by the parabolic nature of the saying but at the same time the saying is rather clear. “Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein” (Luke 15:17). Can we see in this the extension of the ideas of righteousness and the Will of the Father into the need to be humble and innocent as a child; that these are a part of His Will and His righteousness.
• “Jesus answered and said unto him, 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). This saying is still, after more than 2000 years, largely misunderstood and is likely one of the deeper of the parabolic sayings regarding the Kingdom that the Master tells to us. We understand it in the Light of the Christ Within; that when, through focus on the Christ Within, we let that Light shine through our conscious personality, that personality is transformed, born again,  born of the Spirit and in the Kingdom of God.
• There are many places in the parables of Jesus that He talks of the Kingdom of God and we have covered much of this in past posts; He likens the Kingdom to many things which we can read into our doings in everyday Life. There is however also a plainness in His presentation regarding the simplicity of keeping His word as the starting point to the Kingdom and it is in this same place that we should find the idea of discipleship and where we should understand that a disciple is not a specially chosen person or a person of any significance in the world, a disciple is simply one who keeps His words, ALL of them. We see that here in the Master’s speaking to the Jews that followed Him: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
• This above is a part of the relationship between the Kingdom of God and discipleship and we should note too that in the Gospel of John these ideas are stated a bit differently as the Kingdom is regarded as abiding in Him and that this is the privilege of the disciple. It is is this gospel also that the finer point of His commandments is stressed and this is Love.

We got a bit lost in this today and we could go on and on with these thoughts and ideas and sayings by the Master. We covered a bit of our verse from our chapter above and will try to complete this in the next post. We close today with a exchange between the Master and a rich young ruler; in this exchange is more of the relationship between the Kingdom and discipleship as the Master defines it in “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple…so likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33). The exchange goes thus:

“And, behold , one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do , that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.  He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus said , Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:16-21).

There is a clarity in this exchange that is often missed. We start with the humble nature of the Master relating to the young man as a man and revealing to him the Truth that the Good is reserved for God. Note that He says this even in His state of expressing the fullness of the Power and the Love of God; for us, we should realize that this is the inherent nature of God and of the God Within as well but that this thing is not revealed here. In answer to the question of eternal Life the Master tells him about attaining the Kingdom of God by keeping the commandments and then expounds what these are. We should note here how the Master elevates the saying on Love from the later commandments in Leviticus to the stature of the Ten Commandments. The young man tells the Master that this he has done and in this we should see the ideas above of keeping His commandments as the way to the Kingdom which the Master does not here address but rather adds more to them. Let us stop here are reflect upon the Master sayings on the Kingdom and then on discipleship above. Can we see here that the forsaketh ALL part of being a disciple is also become a part of attaining the Kingdom of God thus cementing for us our premise that these are the same thing? Can we see that this idea is embedded in the commandments and likely from several perspectives and that it is not so much having riches that becomes an issue but rather it is the lack of forsaking it ALL. Ponder on this.

Note on the Quote of the Day