Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLIII

Today we begin a look at the way that the words heart and Soul are used in the Bible. We have touched upon this in the past to show the inconsistencies and the confusion of the various terms used to reflect the inner man and the Inner Man. Note that in this parallel use of these words we will capitalize the True Inner Man, the Soul, the Christ Within and keep that which is in our view related to the personality consciousness in lower case. A basic understanding of these ideas is essential to a proper understanding of the interaction of God and man as well as the way in which the Trinity of God works in man who is made “in the image of God” as we read from Genesis: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). Our perspective should be clear just by this saying that is commonly related to the form of man and not the True man thereby relegating the form of God to be as the form of man. The True man is a Trinity as God is a Trinity and the Aspects of God are, on a much higher level of Life, the same as the Aspects of Man and it is in this view of Life that a man finds the reality of his divinity. Our chart,  which we have published often over the course of these essays, shows these relationships from the perspective of man in time and space and the relationships that we provide here should be seen as overlapping and, at the same time, within each other. This is presented for us by the Christ in His telling His disciples that: “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20) and again saying “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art inme, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21). Can we see the reality here in the Master’s words, a reality that is lost in man’s view that God may look like man and be like man. It is unfortunate that the church, while perhaps not promoting this view, does little to deny it nor do they give any better understanding.

Aspect of God	Potency	Expressed as Fire	Aspect of Man
Father	Will or Power	Electric Fire	Spirit or Life
Son	Love and Wisdom	Solar Fire	Soul or Christ Within
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Fire by Friction	Life Within the Form

None of these ideas are Truly identified and explained in the Bible but are rather couched within parables and the parabolic sayings of the Master. The apostles in their turn do explain and amplify much of the Master’s teachings but much of this has gone unnoticed for more than 2000 years because the doctrines developed centuries ago do not allow for the proper interpretations of reality. A good example of this is the found in the many days that we recently spent reviewing and discussing Paul’s words to the Romans in which there is a reality that is totally missed by most. Paul explains the very nature of Life in form and does so in few words and his use of the term creature is much like the Master’s and other’s use of the words heart and Soul. The creature of Paul is the totality of the man in form; that is the consciousness and the Life with we should see as the Soul and as the personality dependent of their focus. What do we mean? We have posited that the True man is the Spirit manifested through that aspect we call the Soul and from here we can call the Soul the True man. This Soul is a part of the divine nature of man and is pure and unblemished in its existence which is ever in those realms of existence that we call heaven. The Soul incarnates in form and we as yet have not the ability to Truly comprehend why although a clue is given by Paul in his words to the Romans which we repeat here for clarity.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry , Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:14-23).

Paul’s clue is found in this closing verse above saying that “but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” We have said that the idea of adoption is the fulfillment of the goal and the objective of the Soul and that is full expression of the Life of a Son of God through form. We should remember that the allusion to adoption is not as we see the word today but should be seen rather as the apostle tells us “to wit, the redemption of our body” and in this we can see the hint of Paul’s teaching as it regards the purpose for the entirety of the Soul’s incarnated lives. There is a depth to this subject that we alluded to in our previous essays and that we will deal with again in the future and this is, briefly, that the animal man which the Soul lives through and to which He lends His consciousness is redeemed by the very presence of the Love and the Power of the Soul and is Truly redeemed by the fulfillment of the Soul’s objective and goal of full expression through that form. In this we may also get a glimpse of the Truth of the Fall of Man. We should remember that in these words by the apostle we also have the reality of Life in form in Paul’s words “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“, which are little discussed and much misunderstood. These points are discussed in much detail in all or parts of In the Words of Jesus part 348 thru 364.

Remembering our understanding of Paul’s words above which we developed over many days recently, we can go further now into the biblical ideas of heart and Soul and reinterpret them in the Light of our reality of Life. There is much confusion of terms as we will see as these ideas develop and we will begin in the Old Testament as this is where we find the origin of many of the ideas that have developed into the doctrines of the churches. Let us begin with the earliest uses of the word heart in scripture.

• The idea of heart as the translation of from Hebrew is mixed and varied and the word carries many meanings which cannot be readily reconciled without confusion; we start there with: “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The Hebrew word here is leb and its meanings, according to the lexicon include inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding; inner part, midst; midst (of things); heart (of man); soul, heart (of man); mind, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory; inclination, resolution, determination (of will); conscience; heart (of moral character); as seat of appetites; as seat of emotions and passions; as seat of courage².
• This same Hebrew word, leb is used also of God and again of man in the same verse and again to the evil part of man’s thoughts: “And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done” (Genesis 8:21). Strong’ tells us that this word leb means: heart; by extension: the inner person, self, the seat of thought and emotion; conscience, courage, mend, understanding³. Which of these do we assign to that part of God that had such thoughts? Which do we assign to man?
• From the perspective of man the idea of leb apply to the good man as well as the evil; here, speaking from the perspective of Abraham, we read: “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed , and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear” (Genesis 17:17). Vine’s tells us of leb that it means HEART A. Noun. 
  ( , 3820), “heart; mind; midst.” leb
  and its synonym lebab
  
  appear 860 times in the Old Testament. Heart” may refer to the organ of the body. lebab can be used of the inner man, contrasted to the outer man. leb
  can be used of the man himself or his personality. The seat of desire, inclination, or will can be indicated by “heart”; The “heart” is regarded as the seat of emotions; The “heart” could be regarded as the seat of knowledge and wisdom and as a synonym of “mind.”; The “heart” may be the seat of conscience and moral character; leb
  may refer to the seat of rebellion and pride; The “heart” stands for the inner being of man, the man himself. As such, it is the fountain of all he does. And, from a purely doctrinal point of view Vine’s says: God controls the “heart.” Because of his natural “heart,” man’s only hope is in the promise of God: “A new heart also will I give you… and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26)⁶ .

We often see cartoon references to the conscience of man as the little, rather holy looking, chap on the right shoulder who is in constant contention with the little red guy with the pitchfork and arrow pointed tail who is on the left shoulder. This is a good portrayal of the situation of man who as a conscious being is standing in the gap between the Good of the Soul and the evil of the personality or the carnal self. The Soul is represented by the little and rather holy looking chap on the right shoulder and the vanity of the world, the illusion and the glamour, are represented by little red guy with the pitchfork and arrow pointed tail who is on the left shoulder. We can only view the presence of the consciousness which is OF THE SOUL within the personality as by the idea we use above of lent, realizing that the Life and the consciousness belong to the Soul, the reality of the man, it is hard to come to a better word for us to use today. This is the perspective, on a personal level, of Paul’s thoughts above saying that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly” which we can take to mean that being subject is the act of incarnation and that vanity is the ways of the world with not willingly given to mean that this vanity is not the Soul’s intent in Life as we KNOW His objective is to fully express the Good, the Beautiful and the True through this form.

We should see the idea of heart in this context of the conscience and from the perspective of the man in form as the inner man and in this we can see the reality of many of the defining terms above. The definitions however also include those properties that are exclusively the Soul’s insofar as thoughts of the reality of the man as in his heart. There is a thin line here that is constantly crossed over as the conscience, the heart if you will, IS both and yet is ever the Soul’s. It is in this respect that the confusion regarding these terms exists which is only resolved by the teaching of the Master that we interpret as the focusof one’s Life. If we look above at the Old Testament treatment of heart in Genesis we find that it reflects the evil of mankind, the nature of God and the goodness of Abraham; the evil because man was focused almost totally on carnal satisfaction, the nature of God as a conscious realization by Jehovah that the condemnation of the creation was fruitless insofar as, according to Paul, God had subjected the creation to its vanity. And, the goodness of Abraham because we KNOW that “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God” (James 2:23). We should be able to see in ALL of these the idea of focus. 

Vine’s continues from above to say that The “heart” stands for the inner being of man, the man himself. As such, it is the fountain of all he does (Prov. 4:4). All his thoughts, desires, words, and actions flow from deep within him. Yet a man cannot understand his own “heart” (Jer. 17:9). As a man goes on in his own way, his “heart” becomes harder and harder. But God will circumcise (cut away the uncleanness of) the “heart” of His people, so that they will love and obey Him with their whole being (Deut. 30:6)⁶. and in this context we can relate the ideas of circumcision with the idea of focus although we must understand that this is not to do with the physical act of such. There is much Truth in these words that All his thoughts, desires, words, and actions flow from deep within him and this is the nature of the conscious man; he thinks and he wants and he acts according to these things yet he cannot understand his own “heart”. Also in the understanding that As a man goes on in his own way, his “heart” becomes harder and harder and this is to say that by the focus of one’s life on the things of the world, on the thoughts and the desires of the carnal man, one becomes more and more entrenched in this state. But, by circumcision, by focus on God, the man will will love and obey Him with their whole being and this means the Life of the personality on Earth, the carnal man and his Soul.

We will continue with these 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 this Mantram of  Unification again for today as it does go well with our topic.

Today’s quote of the day is a repeat of the Mantram of Unification which is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.