Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CVI
“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all” (Ecclesiastes 11:5).
This is today’s Verse of the Day from biblegateway.com and it awoke in me this morning the idea that no matter how much we may think that we KNOW, as men in the world, as aspirants and even as disciples, we KNOW little of the reality of Life. All that we post here in our daily essays is but thoughts and ideas that we believe are True and which are, for us, the better ideas as based upon what we believe that the Master is telling us regarding Life and our relationship to God and to each other. Looking out we see men who with certainty believe what they do in religion, in science and in social erudition but when we realize that there are so many different beliefs, opinions and theories we should at the same time realize that none have found the Truth and that whatsoever they may have found may contain some Truth for a situation or for a time but that it is fleeting and it is temporal. It is not until we gain, as Souls in form, that High Place of KNOWING, that one can do as the Master tells us saying: “for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you” (Matthew 17:20). This was the KNOWING power of the Christ and, as we have seen in our posts, some of this Awesome Power was touched by the apostles as they were with Him in that day and of these we have the healing stories and miracles of Peter and of Paul (In the Words of Jesus parts 193-194 and 197) where we find that they could heal merely by their Presence, by their KNOWING and by their uncommon ability to “have faith, and doubt not“. If one can have this then he can, as He tells us. “not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed , and be thou cast into the sea” (Matthew 21:21).
So, here we are as men who can only imagine such Awesome Power and we should KNOW that if we look upon it as such that we will likely never achieve it for in its deep reality this KNOWING just IS. As we saw in the last post, James tells us how we should act in this sense of Wisdom that we may have or get regarding Life and all things of the Earth and of God. He tells us that if a man believes that he is wise, that he has knowledge, that he should treat that Wisdom so as to in no way make him to be above others but that he should “let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom” and from this we take that the man should in living a good life exhibit his Wisdom in ALL that he does and keep his Wisdom in humble restraint. Can we see that even in our state of Wisdom as we may consider ourselves that we “knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all“. Getting back now to the saying that we were working with from the Epistle of James, we repeat it here again for clarity:
“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 should understand before we continue here that when it comes to the idea of KNOWING that we accomplish this by degree in most all things and this is especially true for things of the Spirit. In reading the gospel stories of Peter and the rebirth of Saul into the Apostle Paul we should see this as a reality, that we gain by degree and based upon what it is that we do with what we have. If an man is focused upon the Spiritual Life and he acts in this world as James tells us that he should, that he does “show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom” then more of this KNOWING is gained. We can look at this in relation to the frequent saying by the Master that “For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath” (Mark 4:25). It is interesting to note here that he word that is translated as hath is the Greek word echo which has all of the standard definitions of have; Strong’s defines this simply as to have, hold, keep; (intr.) to be3 and these are not readily adaptable to the several contexts in which the Master uses this word echo. While we can generally get some insight from Vincent, he is silent and does not speak of any of these references from the gospels; Vine’s as well only give listings for the verses where the standard have can be seen and does not list any of these sayings by the Master at all. The lexicon, though generally seen by us as doctrinal, gives us a bit more which is usable for our understanding; they say: to have, i.e. to hold to have (hold) in the hand, in the sense of wearing, to have (hold) possession of the mind (refers to alarm, agitating emotions, etc.), to hold fast keep, to have or comprise or involve, to regard or consider or hold as; to have i.e. own, possess external things such as pertain to property or riches or furniture or utensils or goods or food etc.; used of those joined to any one by the bonds of natural blood or marriage or friendship or duty or law etc, of attendance or companionship; to hold one’s self or find one’s self so and so, to be in such or such a condition; to hold one’s self to a thing, to lay hold of a thing, to adhere or cling to; to be closely joined to a person or a thing2. As we can see here the potential meaning for this Greek word echo are very varied and none completely coincide with the ideas that these statements by the Master should convey. We have previously interpreted these sayings in regard to our ability to use the Light of the Soul although this is not quite how we had stated the idea. Perhaps this idea does not appear in the list from the lexicon nor in Strong’s or Vine’s because there is no adequate understanding from a strictly human perspective and, perhaps this is why Vincent ignores this as well.
Back in In the Words of Jesus part 105 we broached this idea from the perspective that what one would have is ‘spiritual capital or collateral’ and this is a good way to view this for our purposes today as it does blend in well with what we said a few posts back on this same saying but in its true regard as to what it is that we hear. In this and other similar sayings in our discussion we used the understanding of believing to express the ideas involved. What we believe in our consciousness is a indicator or our ‘spiritual capital’ which should be considered as what it is that we have here and now in Soul Light, that is the Light of the Christ Within in our lives. To close out this thought for now as it relates to our saying by the Master and to our premise regarding KNOWING above, we should see that whatsoever we may have will grow and become greater with use and that without use, what we may have will be lost as we look to other things and generally things of the world. This is the simplicity and the complexity of these sayings by the Master and we will come back to this theme another time for in it is a wealth of understanding.
In the next verse from our selection from James we find his telling us what the Wisdom that we seek is not and in this it should be clear that he is not limiting this to those points that he puts forth. He tells us that:
- “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work“. We should see that this follows upon the ideas engendered by the previous verse which cite “bitter envying and strife” and of which he tells us that we should not fool ourselves, thinking that these should be the way of man. Vincent gives us some help here that may allow us to see these things in today’s terms, he says: Envying (zh~lon). The word is used in the New Testament both in a bad and a good sense. For the latter, see John 2:17; Romans 10:2; 2; Corinthians 9:2. From it is our word zeal, which may be either good or bad, wise or foolish. The bad sense is predominant in the New Testament. See Acts 5:17; Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:20, and here, where the bad sense is defined and emphasized by the epithet bitter. It is often joined with e]riv, strife, as here with ejri>qeia, intriguing or faction. The rendering envying, as A.V., more properly belongs to fqo>nov, which is never used in a good sense. Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion. Rev. renders jealousy. Strife (ejriqei>an). A wrong rendering, founded on the mistaken derivation from e]riv , strife. It is derived from e]riqov, a hired servant, and means, primarily, labor for hire. Compare Tobit 2:11: My wife did take women’s work to do (hjriqeu>eto). Thus it comes to be applied to those who serve in official positions for their own selfish interest, and who, to that end, promote party spirit and faction. So Romans 2:8: them that are contentious (ejx ejriqei>av), lit., of faction. Rev., factious. Also, 2 Corinthians 12:20. Rev., here, rightly, faction4. Can we get a clearer meaning from this? The common translations of jealousy and envy are clear and useful but these are likely already apparently wrong to any who would be in James original audience as well as to the spiritually minded man of today; Vincent gives these ideas from James a more hidden tone as wrongs that may not appear to be so and hence the ending statement about deception. We should see also that these ideas are considered extreme by James and this from the context of the next statement which calls them “confusion and every evil work” as being inherent in envying and strife. Vincent’s ideas regarding the word that is translated as envy tell us that emulation is the better rendering and in this is not so much the idea of envy as it is the idea of self-devotion and this idea coincides nicely with the opening verse where the apostle tells us that our attitude should be the opposite of self-devotion. This word emulation gives much clarity to James idea; the 1828 Webster’s dictionary tells us that this means” n. The act of attempting to equal or excel in qualities or actions; rivalry; desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it; generally in a good sense, or an attempt to equal or excel others in that which is praise-worthy, without the desire of depressing others. Rom.11. In a bad sense, a striving to equal or do more than others to obtain carnal favors or honors. Val.5. 1. An ardor kindled by the praise-worthy examples of others, inciting to imitate them, or to equal or excel them. 2. Contest; contention; strife; competition; rivalry accompanied with a desire of depressing another1. Can we see how this shows an ardent focus on the carnal lower Life instead focus on the Life of the Soul, the Christ Within which is also the basis of the teaching of the Christ and the apostle. Can we see also the relationship of this idea of emulation to idea of strife and then the way that Vincent interprets this idea of strife for us as signifying selfish interest in officialdom, the church for example, which leads then to the promotion of party spirit and faction. Can we see better in this the earthly, sensual nature and the devilish character; can we see confusion and every evil work?
The idea here is that we would understand that what we may consider as wisdom is carnal and Earthly if it is possessed of emulation or of strife as we have identified these above. James message is that any thought or any revelation that comes to any man is not from above if it carries with it self-devotion or any of the ideas that lie within the term emulation; this is envy and more, this is jealousy and more, this is the ideas taken from the word interpreted as strife and more, this is selfishness in any way and for any purpose, this is any kind of self interest that is put before a mans commitment to the Christ and the Christ Within…….this is serving mammon.
Do we see the complexity of these sayings by the Apostle James? Do we see how they can take on greater proportions when rightly discerned and how they fit into the teachings of the Master who says the same things in different terms. These are the things that we are NOT to do and these are clearly NOT motivated from ABOVE. The apostle tells us that if we believe we are wise that we should show that Wisdom by our works, by ALL that we do and that if we have emulation and strife in our hearts we should not pretend that these ideas are from above and this is True in ALL things. If we are taking any thing that is purely for the lower self and trying to call it from above, we are contrary to this saying by James and it is for each of us to take this to heart and to see where our motivations Truly lie. There is mammon and there is God and we have this as our choice to make and James helps make the lines of demarcation abundantly clear.
We will continue with our thoughts 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 sort of spoke of parts of the first and second stanzas together in the last post as we started with the idea of purpose and took it directly to what that purpose, or at least the major purpose, is; that we foster Love among the sons of men. This is ever our high ideal and our overall goal and calling; although we speak about our goal being discipleship and attaining the Kingdom, there is no difference between these ideas and our saying. In a way this saying is a brief summary of the why of being born on Earth as Souls and this is a deep and mysterious thing that we cannot comprehend but may occasionally get a brief glimpse of. Nonetheless it is for those who are aspiring to discipleship as well as for disciples to accomplish this in our lives here on Earth. This is the crux also of the teachings of the Master as seen from His teaching perspective and our teaching on the concept of Love as He teaches it is one way of fostering this Love. Remembering that Webster’s tells us of this word foster that it means: 1. To feed; to nourish; to support; to bring up. Some say that ravens foster forlorn children. Shak. 2. To cherish; to promote the growth of; to encourage; to sustain and promote; as, to foster genius1, we should look to these defining words as our own methods of foster this Love. We should remember also that one of the primary ways is by our own example which brings into this the ideas from our essay which is “let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom” and we should ever see our works as Love.
Power and Will are also included in this trio of things that we need to be and to do and we should understand that all three of these do come from above if we can use that term here. The Power and the Will are attributes of the Spirit aspect of man and of God while Love and Wisdom are attributes of the Soul and we should not be confused by this. For our purposes the Soul is the manifestation of the Spirit; it is the Living and Conscious expression of the Pure Spirit that we Truly are. This expression is Who and What we Truly are and exists before and after this brief time on Earth and, for practical purposes, the objective of the Soul is to Live this True Life Fully through the form nature. We can try to see that Power and Will are the Life and the Consciousness manifest as Love by and in the Soul and that it is this Soul that desires to Live, to be manifest through the personality of the man in form and that when this is accomplished we are a disciple and when this is FULLY accomplished we will be Like the Master according to His saying that “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40)
We will continue with 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
