Monthly Archives: May 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CXX

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.

This affirmation has been posted daily now for many days both as the Quote of the Day and now as the lead into our daily essay an it should be understood by all who read it over and over again that within this affirmation is the very heart of the teachings of the Christ, our Master. The Master teaches us about liberation in His instructions on attaining the Kingdom of God and He tells us also where that Kingdom is; He teaches us on Love by defining it in His word and by telling us that we must live in Love and act in Love and there is likely no better way to foster a thing than by example. He teaches us to tread the way of Love, to Love our neighbor, our brethren, which He paints for us as everyman and to go about our lives with the innocence and the trusting of a little child rather than the confrontational way of envy and of strife. He teaches us that these things and ALL others that prevent a man from seeing the Truth of Life as the Soul must be subordinated by the keeping of His words on Love and righteousness and ALL that these ideas entail. He teaches us also to be in accord with the Will of God and that the evidence of our accord is seen in the Light that men can see in our lives, in our works…..in our service, and finally, He teaches us to eschew the things of the world and to serve God. Can we see the reality of this affirmation in His words as we have been expounding them in these posts? As we come to a close on our publication of this affirmation we should try to reflect on the Unity of ALL things, of ALL men, of ALL religions and realize that in any Truth we can find the teachings of the Master without the divisions that separate men today in inter-religious and intra-religious  matters and political, cultural and social matters as well.

We left off yesterday looking as some of the definitions of those Greek words that are translated as serve and in our brief review we should be able to see that what the Master is telling us about this is not captured in the defining terms of the lexicon nor in Strong’s concordance and dictionary. We introduced here our understanding of the Will aspect of God and of our Souls in a term that can be understood away from doctrine and the normal understanding of the word as, when we speak about spiritual things, our common understanding often fails to provide the True meaning that we are looking toward. Insofar as the word Will is concerned we have this issue from a language perspective; that although we may be able to see the idea of His Will in our minds, we are unable to express exactly what this is. We cannot properly imagine God and we cannot properly imagine His Will either and because of this we have, from a purely human perspective, placed this idea of Will into our understanding as intentional focused attention which, while not perfect, can show us the idea that we need to maintain in order to do His Will from the viewpoint of the Soul and the Soul in form which we see as the consciousness through which we live. Looking at the definitions of Will as they apply to God in the lexicon we see more of what, in human terms, is wishing and desire and there is no Will in these ideas. The lexicon tells us that the Greek word thelema which is translated as will 62, desire 1, pleasure 1 means what one wishes or has determined shall be done; of the purpose of God to bless mankind through Christ; of what God wishes to be done by us; commands, precepts; will, choice, inclination, desire, pleasure². From the Master’s words “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 any idea in this definition that will lead us to a True reality of the meaning of “the will of my Father” except perhaps commands and precepts which paint an incomplete picture and leave out the concept of the heart of man? Can we imagine Our God wishing for anything? Strong’s gives us a more simplistic look saying that thelema means will, decision, desire; and here again we should understand that there is a great gulf between the ideas of Will and desire.

Understanding that we do not get a proper idea of the words translated as serve, minister and Will as it applies to God, in the New Testament, let us look to Webster’s to give us the proper understanding of the words themselves. Serve, according to the 1913 version means: 1.To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one’s self continuously or statedly for the benefit of; to do service for; to be in the employment of, as an inferior, domestic, serf, slave, hired assistant, official helper, etc.; specifically, in a religious sense, to obey and worship. 2.To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to. 3. To be suitor to; to profess love to. [Obs] 4.To wait upon; to supply the wants of; to attend; specifically, to wait upon at table; to attend at meals; to supply with food;as, to serve customers in a shop. 5. Hence, to bring forward, arrange, deal, or distribute, as a portion of anything, especially of food prepared for eating; — often with up; formerly with in. 6.To perform the duties belonging to, or required in or for; hence, to be of use to;as, a curate may serve two churches; toserve one’s country. 7.To contribute or conduce to; to promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy;as, to serve one’s turn. 8.To answer or be (in the place of something) to;as, a sofa serves one for a seat and a couch. 9.To treat; to behave one’s self to; to requite; to act toward; as, he served me very ill. 10.To work; to operate; as, to serve the guns. 11.(Law)(a)To bring to notice, deliver, or execute, either actually or constructively, in such manner as the law requires;as, to serve a summons. (b)To make legal service opon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.);as, toserve a witness with a subpoena. 12.To pass or spend, as time, esp. time of punishment;as, to serve a term in prison. 13.To copulate with; to cover;as, a horse serves a mare; — said of the male. 14.(Tennis)To lead off in delivering (the ball). 15. (Naut.) To wind spun yarn, or the like, tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather¹. Rather lengthy but good to serve the idea that this is a rather complex word. There are ideas here that we can use to understand the word serve and of note is To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one’s self continuously or statedly for the benefit of and we should note here that there is no reference to the self in this definition. Another idea of use is To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to which captures the relationship between the server and the served and here we should note the idea of appearing to be inferior which is that one does not serve from a position of superiority but rather from inferiority and we could add here that equality may do well also. We should also note here the addition of the idea of to minister which is an alternate translation for one of the Greek words that is translated as serve as we discussed in the last post. There are other definitions of serve above that can fit into our understanding of the word as the Master uses in in regard to spiritual endeavor but these that we have pulled out should suffice to serve our purposes. In yesterday’s post we took advantage of the words from our affirmation that tell us that that Holy Will requires that all men serve and we tied the two words, Will and serve, into one thought as they affect two of the Master’s sayings:

• “No man can serve  use intentional focused attention on two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve use intentional focused attention on God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Can we see this idea?
• “Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister use intentional focused attention on unto thee?” (Matthew 25:44).

In the one saying above we have the idea of the man in form serving either God or mammon and we are looking here at this in a way that shows that one’s service is a direct function of the Will and of the focus of the consciousness. The man whose focus us on the world of things can be seen as having his Will focused on this world and thereby serving it and, conversely, the consciousness of the man whose focus is on the Christ and the Christ Within will be in service to God. Can we see this idea that one’s service will be in that arena that one’s Will is focused and, according to this saying of the Christ, this cannot be in both places; it is one or the other although a man may vacillate between them. We should try to understand here that the idea of Holy Will means the focused Will of our own Souls for this is the place where the man in form can touch all that is Holy; through the Christ Within, through the Soul. It is the dictate of the Christ Within in conjunction with the Christ principal that a man serve and in the context of this saying that service is to God.

This brings us to the next saying which in its entirety tells us how it is that a man in form can serve God. Adding to this saying we have: “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying , Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying , Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal” (Matthew 25:34-46). Can we see the importance of this insofar as how it meets with the Master’s other sayings on neighbour and brethren and Love? can we see the true import of service in these words and can we see that the Master chooses to repeat the idea twice in succession so as the make very sure that His idea is understood?

The profundity of this saying should be enough to tell each and every Christian of the True nature of the teachings of the Christ but, as we know from history, this is not the case. Some take this on its eschatological value alone as it speaks about the coming of the Son of man and about judgement but this is not the nature of the True message here; the True message is that it is in the way that we serve our fellowman that we can see our serviceto God. Others discount the reality of the Master’s teachings to His disciples and to us who read His words and who understand that they are intended for disciples and aspirants; they try  to say that the Master is speaking only of the Love and service within these ranks and perhaps stretched a bit to include other members of the church. John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible⁸ says this about a part of this saying above: Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me: which is to be understood, not in so limited a sense, as to regard only the apostles, and the least of them, for these were not the only brethren of Christ; nor in so large a sense, as to include all in human nature; but the saints only, the children of God, and household of faith: for though acts of charity and humanity are to be done to all men, yet especially to these; and indeed, these only can be considered as the brethren of Christ, who are born of God, and do the will of Christ; for such he accounts his mother, brethren, and sisters⁸. The Master is here speaking to His disciples alone, teaching them and telling them these things at the end of a rather long string of parables and there is no reason to believe that this is not also a parable which is in a strange way told of Himself. The meaning is not in the end times but it is in the principals that He is teaching; His disciples would not be found in both of these groups and His disciples would not need instruction in this basic thing that is a cornerstone of the Master’s teaching and, if this is not a parable, to whom is the Master speaking? Gill misses here the ideas that we live by and that is that those who do the will of Christ and who are Truly born of God insofar as living the Life of the Soul through form, are not in need of any such sentiments from the Master as these disciples, and this is what make one a disciple, they are teaching this and not hearing it only.

There should be no doubt as to the meanings and the purpose of the Master in this parable and the precepts should be ever clear; if a man serves his fellowman from a spiritual perspective then that man is serving God. We add here that if a man is serving God thorough his service of his fellow man then he is doing the Will of God as well as these ideas are Will and Service are forever entwined.

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.

Keeping the Lord’s Prayer as our Quote of the Day we come now to thy kingdom come which seems to be a prayer for the Kingdom to be manifest on Earth. This is a Truth but the reality is seen in the combination of this thought with the Master’s telling us that the Kingdom of God is within. Understanding the Kingdom as that state of consciousness where one realizes the Love and the Power of the Soul as it is expressed through the consciousness of man, we should be able to understand a bit more of its eventual manifestation in the Life of each man and in this is the prayer; that more and more men can have this realization. It is in this happening that the next line can be realized; thy will be done, as well for it is in bringing the Will of God into the arena of our consciousness that we can and will do it and as we can see from today’s post that Will is found in our service to our brothers. The next line: in earth as it is in heaven can be seen as a statement of clarification. We want the Kingdom realization and the fulfillment of the Will that this provides and we affirm here that the Will as it is seen in heaven, in Unity and in Love; in Service one to another and in purity, that this Will will be manifest in the Earth by us who do His will.

We will try to clarify this and continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Our Father, which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done,

in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

[For thine is the kingdom,

the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.]

Amen.*

We will leave this prayer for a few days and try to get a better understanding of it and then move on to The Great Invocation which is, as we are told, given to us by the Christ as well. More than 2000 years separate the receipt of these invocations by the world of men and their language and tenor reflect the changes in the nature of man and his societies over this course of time. The Lord’s Prayer and a brief interpretation are included in the Prayers and Meditations section of the front page of this Blog.

• *  From the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; this version is from the Book of Common Prayer of 1662
• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strongs Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com