Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CIX
“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3: 13-18).
We noted in the last post that we were in a discussion of the words that make up what can be considered one of the paramount sayings in the entire New Testament in that it tells us in simple terms the reality of how to KNOW that what we believe is ‘from God’ is such. We should add to this the understanding that not all will consider this so unless they understand the concepts that the Master teaches us on the Kingdom and on discipleship and that James words are to assist us in fighting off that illusion and glamour that lead us into deceiving ourselves by thinking that we are hearing the things of God. The personality of man is a complex issue and there are innumerable volumes printed over the centuries on this part of man that is considered by so many to be his only reality; there are always many things going on in the consciousness of the man which should be seen as the True Self, the Soul, within the form and the personality. The Self is receiving thoughts and aspirations, desires and motivations from both the personality that is grounded in this world of form with its emotional and mental capacities, and from the Soul, the True man that we know as the Christ Within. We have spoken of the duality that afflicts the man when it is a recognized factor in Life and we should understand that it is to those men who do sense this that the Apostle James is writing and not to the man who has no clue as to his spiritual part if we can say this as such. We should understand that this is all by degree and by the preordained purpose of our own Souls which is the result of one’s place in the scheme of things at any given time plus his karmic responsibility. Coming to our point, we should also understand that these words and the translations of them are understandable on many different levels and that the search for meanings that we have undertaken only serves to enhance the ideas that one would commonly take from this section of James Epistle and especially this verse that we are now discussing: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy“. We can be sure that there is even more and greater understanding beyond what we may find here in this series of essays.
We ended yesterday discussing the phrase “easy to be intreated” in which we found the common understandings of open to reason, easy to be persuaded, obedient, reasonable, and willing to yield which is how this is translated in other bible versions. We looked at the Webster’s definitions and there we found the idea of importunity which idea we have discussed before in the Parable of the Friend at Midnight. In this parable we took the idea that the importunity is that the man who receives the guest asked bread of a friend and that because he is a friend, the master of the house complied. Not that he wanted to or cared to and perhaps he is even greatly bothered, but he complies anyway. Now there is no translation above that takes this perspective but there are several that lie on the outskirts of our point. In our example there is no real reasonableness and the master of the house is not persuaded except by himself to comply; there is no sense of obedience and, while there is a willingness to yield this cannot be readily said of Wisdom from above and how to know that it is such. The whole of this idea leaves us seeing that the Wisdom, the thought, the revelation, from above comes to us in a way that is asking its acceptance even though as a personality one would generally and readily resist it. This Wisdom comes to the man as the right thing to do or to think or the right way to be based only on the fact that it is RIGHT. Like the Master of the house who gives his neighbour and friend the bread because he is his neighbour and his friend and because it is the RIGHT thing to do and it is also what the master of the house would want done for him as well were he in that same position. Can we fit into this heretofore obscure saying into the words of the Master?
- “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:31).
- “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
We’ve gone a long way to get to this understanding which does fit the phrase rather well and at the same time shows the interrelatedness of the whole of the teaching. If we can see “easy to be intreated” as easy to give in to then we can see the words used in the translations as mostly valid except that they do not explain the understanding that is intended by the apostle. Speaking of the Wisdom we must see that it is easy to be entreated, easy to be importuned, and we can see this also as a two way street; on the one hand it can be as we say above that the thoughts and revelations that may come are easily seen by the man as the right thing to do. We can also see this from the perspective of the importunate person, the one who is asking, and that in that asking the consciousness is seeking more Light, more Wisdom and this is easily given; this goes well with James other saying that “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). The relevance of our saying is more likely the former and we must admit we have gone far afield to get to this but there are no easy translations nor are the adequate words for some of the thoughts of the Master and his apostles. We can see that not much of the defining terms for this word are really valid in the context that this saying is given and, at the same time, there is no single word nor phrase to express what we have said that this means. Before we leave this point let us look briefly here at the word we are using to interpret entreated….importunity. As we say above, we have discussed this before (In the Words of Jesus parts 148-150, 153) and we see this basically as we have said, that the importunity is on the part of the visitor and the neighbor who are both calling on friends expecting that because they are friends that the will comply; here in this essay today we are further clarifying that point to say give our message above. Two had importunity in this story, the visitor coming late and wanting to eat and his friend who complies by going to a neighbour and friend to get some for him and today we say that in addition to the fact of friendship we have the understanding that on both parts this is the right thing to do. This word importunity is, much like today’s word entreated, largely misunderstood in our view; it is the Greek word anaideia which is translated importunity. The lexicon tells us that this word means: shamelessness, impudence2, while Strong’s tells us in one word that it means boldness3. Vincent tells us that this word is only used here in the New Testament. A very striking word to describe persistence. Lit., shamelessness4. We should here remember the story line of this parable tells us that the first man did go to his neighbour and that the neighbour and friend does give the bread and here the Master uses the idea of “because of his importunity he will rise and give” (Luke 11:8). Can we see that by placing shamelessness or boldness or impudence or even persistence into this saying we are not getting near a reason WHY the friend “will rise and give” and if one of these words were right in this place why would there be a story at all except to tell us to be the way of any of these words. Some teach that the idea of persistence here teaches one to be this way in prayer but there is no real foundation for this. The Master clearly states at the beginning of the parable that “Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves” (Luke 11:5) which speaks of friendship and of asking so why would we think that this would not end in the same way with the compliant acts of both men being simply because A FRIEND ASKS and it is THE RIGHT THING TO DO? We must remember also that this is a PARABLE.
We went a little long on this thought but it is an important one the grasp in understanding the whole of the message from the apostle in this verse.
- Our next word is mercy and although mercy and good fruits are seemingly lumped together, we will treat them separately. Mercy is another word that on the surface seems to be straightforward in its meaning but, as we will see, it has very deep implications for everyman and especially for the disciple. This word is rather uniformly translated as mercy in most all bible translations with some choosing the idea of compassion; the lexicon tells us that the Greek word eleos is only translated as mercy in the King James Version (KJV) and that it means: mercy; kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them; of men towards men: to exercise the virtue of mercy, show one’s self merciful; of God towards men: in general providence; the mercy and clemency of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ; the mercy of Christ, whereby at his return to judgment he will bless true Christians with eternal life2. Except for the ideas of kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them this definition does not really give us any ideas on the meaning of mercy especially in the context of our verse and this definition would only be of use for us if it were not directed only at the downtrodden. Strong’s tells us of eleos that it means mercy, pity; the moral quality of feeling compassion and especially of showing kindness toward someone in need. This can refer to a human kindness and to God’s kindness to humankind1; again there is nothing here that we can use in the subject verse that speaks of Wisdom being “full of mercy“. We find some additional meaning for this word from Vincent commenting on it in the writings of the Apostle John; we should note that for the most part Vincent agrees with the ideas above and explains the usage of the word in ancient Greek writings. However, when he comes to the way it is used by John he has to take a different tact; he says: Grace be with you, mercy and peace (e]stai meq hJmw~n ca>riv e]leov eijrh>nh). The verb is in the future tense: shall be. In the Pauline Epistles the salutations contain no verb……Mercy (e]leov ), only here in John. See on Luke 1:50. The pre-Christian definitions of the word include the element of grief experienced on account of the unworthy suffering of another. So Aristotle. The Latin misericordia (miser “wretched,” cor “the heart”) carries the same idea. So Cicero defines it, the sorrow arising from the wretchedness of another suffering wrongfully. Strictly speaking, the word as applied to God, cannot include either of these elements, since grief cannot be ascribed to Him, and suffering is the legitimate result of sin. The sentiment in God assumes the character of pitying love. Mercy is kindness and goodwill toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them4. All of this is steeped in doctrine and in the historical use of the Greek word but Vincent is forced to see it differently when it is applied to God; he transfers this then to the idea of the character of pitying love. From our perspective we should see that this Mercy is kindness and goodwill and, since all want to include the ideas of miserable and afflicted, we should see this as ALL men who have not come to that High Point of discipleship; here and only here can it make sense that mercy is only to the downtrodden. So seeing this in our context which is that “Wisdom that is from above” is “full of mercy“, we should see that it would flow to us and through us; to us in Love from God as the Wisdom from above and in kindness and goodwill from man to ALL men and in this we would understand that ALL men are afflicted and miserable even when the do not realize this as True.
We will continue with our thoughts on this and our next words in the next post.
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.
We leave our Quote of the Day from yesterday again today and likely for several days so that we can understand the intent of these affirmations which are intended for use by aspirant and disciples such as we believe that we are. Our opening and general statement on these verses has been moved to the bottom. We repeat here the ideas from yesterday as regards our need to foster Love.
So we have seen here that the Soul has purpose and that its major purpose is to foster Love among men; we should understand here that this fostering of Love is not our only purpose as Souls and, while we may not understand what the others may be, we can look to the Master for some glimpse of our purposeful direction. The Great Commission that we, as disciples and aspirants, have received from the Master is a misunderstood version of our purpose as it is portrayed in our verses below; He tells us to make disciples of ALL and to do this is to teach the Love of God and of the Christ and not only the doctrine and bible stories. To teach that the basis of ALL that is is Love, that God is Love and that when we are Truly focused upon the things of the Spirit that this Love will flow through our conscious personalities and be apparent to ALL. We can believe that the translations of the Great Commission that tell us to teach all nations is the valid one but even in this the teaching is not of the doctrine and the bible stories but it is of the Love that the Master told us we MUST have and express to ALL our fellow men.
We have then this major purpose and we have also lesser purposes which would include all that does not involve Love; this could be one’s own salvation, his discipleship and the working out of his spiritual Life in focus upon the Christ Within and God. This is secondary to the giving which comes in Loving and fostering Love. There are likely other lesser purposes which we will not take the time here to discover but we should be able to see that they are ALL covered in Love. We speak in the first stanza of the Soul’s purpose and then we speak of what that purpose is and we see that it involves Love. We come now to Will and we can see here that this Will is also to do with Love that it is the Will to Love; the Will to Love comes in the Power that is in the Soul and in a way we can say that the Power of the Soul is its Will. We should understand that the Will to Love is inherent in us as Souls which are part and parcel of God because “God is Love” (1 John 4:8) and just as the fostering of Love is done through the Life in form, the conscious personality, so is the Will to Love. Again, this is inherent in the Soul so to will to Love from this perspective would be unnecessary; but to bring it to bear on the conscious everyday Life of a man is a part of the fulfillment of the commandment of the Master and the fostering of Love to ALL. To tread the way of Love is to tread the Path to God and it is this Path that we find at the strait gate that the Master tells us of saying “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24) and we KNOW that to strive means to keep His words and to follow Him in every possible way.
This then is our affirmation on Love; that we Will to Love and that we tread the way of Love and in doing so we, as Souls in form, can foster Love among men. We will continue our thoughts in the next post.
My Soul has Purpose, Power and Will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster Love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
As we approached the time of the Wesak Festival we noted that there are Three Spiritual Festivals in three consecutive months each falling on the day of the Full Moon in the respective month. The first is the Festival of Easter, the second is the Wesak, the Festival of the Buddha and the third is the festival of the Christ which is coming next at the Full Moon of Gemini which will occur on June the 5th and which is alternatively called World Invocation Day. There is a little more that three weeks between now and the Christ’s Festival and we will try to use that time to attain a better understanding of what this day should mean to us. We will start here today with this set of affirmative sayings regarding discipleship and its requirements from the perspective of the willing disciple. We will get into the source of this saying as well as our thoughts on its meaning and intent over the next few posts and we will leave it here as the Quote of the Day until we can accomplish this. Spoken as the aspirant or disciple in form who is invoking fullness of the power of the Christ Within, he first acknowledges what he must bring to bear on the personalty, then what he must do with this purpose, power and will……LOVE.
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
