Monthly Archives: July 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLXXVI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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We begin our essay today as comments on the Quote of the Day which we repeat here for clarity: ‘We have left this Quote of the Day now for a few days, in part this is because of its beauty and the simplicity with which it reveals what we have been discussing as the Love of God and the Love for God. This idea of Love as it centers on the Supreme Being of the Universe is a word that should not be confused with the normal and mortal ideas of Love which is an emotionally based and thought provoked attraction of a man to others and to objects of desire. The Reality of Love on a Cosmic level no doubt involves attraction of some type but it is no longer the emotionally based and thought provoked attraction that we perceive as Love; it is rather that Supreme Power that holds ALL things in a cohesive Unity called Life. ALL of Life IS God and ALL can be seen as part and parcel of Him and, away from the emotion and the thought of the human family, Love of God is the Wisdom and the Understanding to SEE that God IS ALL. From the perspective of the man in form Love of God should be seen in the words of the Master who tells us that “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23) and we should understand that anything else is NOT Truth.’

In the dialogue between the Master and the Apostle Peter we should be able to glean some greater understanding of this idea of Love as it should affect the man in form. We must remember that Jesus is speaking to Peter, the man through whom the revealable fullness of the Soul, the Christ Within, is being expressed; this Peter at this time is not yet perfect and we KNOW not how he achieves this state but we do KNOW that he does achieve to a place where he is as close to this perfection as we in human terms can understand. We have spoken often of Peter in our essays and how his Life and times with the Master are a journey from the carnal to the spiritual and how his portrayal in scripture is a painted picture of the Life of a disciple of the Master, his trials and tribulations, his accomplishments and his failures, and this picture shows us as well how the entirety of His Life journeyed through the hills and the valleys of Life in form. In Peter we see the growth of a man in spiritual relationship with the Christ and at the same time we see his shortcomings which last until the Resurrection of the Master and which cause the Master to say to him “The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38). We have covered this in some detail in In the Words of Jesus part 311 and in other places in our essays so as to point out that this picture is here for us to understand and to see the complexities of the way of the disciple. We should note here again that these men, His disciples and apostles, were not random men in form that were attracted to or picked by Jesus from among common men; they were rather more advanced Souls who came into incarnation with the Master to aid and to assist Him in the working out of this part of the Awesome Plan of God and that even in this state of being there were difficulties to be overcome before the fullness of the Christ Within could be expressed through them in form. And this is for good reason; the Master tells us more than once of the nature of the True Power of the man in whom this Spirit of God is Truly expressed saying things like “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) and this is a Power that can never be taken lightly; THIS IS THE POWER OF GOD.

We should of course realize that this is the very meaning of meekness as well; that although a man may be able to do such awesome things, he will not as the calamity that it would cause would have devastating effects. Such is True with Peter as well and in all likelihood with the Apostle Paul also; their Power and Love was such that they could heal by proximity. We are told of Peter that  “Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:15-16). And of Paul we read that “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11-12). Can we see in this the Master’s idea of “faith as a grain of mustard seed” and the awesome Power of a True disciple and a Son of God expressing Life through form?

Getting back to our point of the dialogue between the Master and Peter we see the Master speaking after His Resurrection; the text says: “So when they had dined , Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17). There are two words that are translated as Love in the gospels and they can be used rather interchangeably; agapao and phileo. The former is usually thought to reflect the God kind of Love and the latter is generally seen as brotherly Love but this is not always borne out in its usage. The Master here asks the first two times as agapao and the last time as phileo while Peter answers all three times with phileo. To make the point clearer we should note that the Master uses phileo to speak of the Love of the Father toward Himself as the Son (John 5:20); meanwhile in the same context the Master uses the word agapao in another reference of the Father’s Love for Him (John 3:35). So words aside, as we do not know the reality of the meaning of each, we have this exchange between Jesus and Peter which is taken to be the apostles appointment as the shepherd of the flock, the leader of the church, and this is true in doctrine from the time of Christ until today in the Roman Church and up until the Reformation from the perspective of the Protestant Church which diminished this idea because of the conflict with the Church of Rome.

Now doctrine says that this question by the Master is asking Peter if he Loves the Master more than the other disciples do and this is claimed to be as a result of the proclamation of Peter that “Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended” (Matthew 26:33). This is rather universally accepted by the commentators and the interpreters of the bible but there is in reality no foundation that we can see to support this idea. Vincent interjects here the comparison to “Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake” (John 13:37) as well and for us the problem is the same as there is no link implied to these exchanges in these words by the Master. Let us remember here that we are seeing the Life of Peter as an example of the Life of the disciple and we know exceedingly more about Him from the perspective of the gospels than we know about any other apostle or disciple of the Lord. This understanding can give us a different perspective in looking at this final exchange with the Master and seeing it as instruction for not only Peter but for all disciples and aspirants through these words to Peter. Away from doctrine we can see that the Master is asking if Peter Loves the Master more that he Loves the other disciples and this on the foundation that Peter and them ALL are commanded to Love one another. Does Peter Love the Master more is easily placed into the context of “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12). What then can we take from this exchange if we are not to believe the interpretations of the doctrines of the churches?

To answer this we go back again to that saying we have been looking at for several days: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:10). Can we see here the idea that we are implying that the Lord is giving to us through Peter? Can we see that in Loving the disciples that Peter is doing as was commanded and can we see that this is, in the Master’s eyes, not sufficient for a True disciple? Can we see also the same idea that we presented yesterday and that is that ALL service to the Lord and the fulfillment of His commandments MUST involve Love as this is the foundation of ALL?

This then is where we must begin, with Love. Love for ALL. If this idea of Love qualifies as the foundation of this Creation of God, of God Himself, and if it qualifies as the central point in the Greatest Commandments which we quote again today from the Gospel of Matthew where the Master says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40), then it should qualify as of Great Importance in the lives of ALL who wish to follow Him and those who believe that they already do. We can add here that if this sense of Love were even remotely present in the lives of men that there would be that Peace and harmony that only such Love can provide.

Our final words on this before we move on are that it is OUR MASTER that says this to us, that we should do ALL that we are commanded to do and then to do more and we should see that in this idea of Love is found the central focus of ALL His commandments and our KEY to “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21); our KEY to discipleship. How do we do this? Simply: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). Can we do this and teach and encourage others to do the same. By this we show our Love for the Lord and for ALL and, at the same time, we feed His sheep.

We come now to that other part of the saying of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, the beginning of that chapter that we spent many days on and now quote so frequently because in it are the keys to our understanding of Life in form, our True place as “ the children of God” in form and the manifestation of the Sons of God as Souls expressing through form. These thirteen verses that we post below are an introduction to those sayings that follow and which will be more readily understood now that we have discussed those that follow first. When we read them through from the beginning these verses do not take us to where we need to go and perhaps this is because they are interpreted in order and according to doctrine. From the verses that follow we see the perspective of Paul’s words as that of the Soul in form, as the creature, the consciousness that IS of the Soul working through the personality that is of the form and which is “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“. This is the perspective then as we see it; the Soul incarnated into form and subjected to the ways of the world, the vanity, the illusion and the glamour while KNOWING that he “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” and that for this the Soul waits for his opportunity, for “for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:20-21, 23). Taking then this same perspective of the Soul in form, let us look now at the first thirteen verses.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:1-13).

We should begin our discussion with the last verse from Chapter Seven keeping in mind that these separations into chapters and verses is a convention of man and not of the writers. This last verse says: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Here the apostle is speaking about the war of duality in a man’s Life in form, the pulling of the forces of the Soul against the forces of the vanity of the world to which he is made subject, the forces of illusion and of glamour, and of the supreme importance of the self that these bring into being. So then through the Lord the apostle sees the duality as we see it through the promptings of the Christ Within and he sees the idea of keeping His words as we do. At this same time he feels the pressure of the form life of the emotions and of the mind and the generalized appetites of the body itself. These are the conflicting forces for Paul and for every aspirant and disciple as well until that point of perfection where he can say with the Master “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). There are here two ideas of mind which we should try to correctly understand; the one in the words of the apostle and the other as our understanding of that part of the personality that thinks and thinks on whatsoever is the focus of the consciousness at any given time. This latter idea of mind is an integral part of the personality and is not a part of the greater consciousness that we are, that is of the Soul. Like so many of the psychological and spiritual words there is much confusion on this idea of mind which here is from the Greek word nous and which is translated as the understanding in its only use in the gospels. We should see here that this is higher than that mind that can think of ALL things from the gross to the Godly and which is merely a facility of the personality. The use in Luke’s Gospel is: “Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:45) and this refers to that revelation that the apostles have after the Resurrection of the Lord. They may see this in the carnal mind by focus but this is not of that mind, it is of the very consciousness that is the Soul. Conversely there is the saying by Paul that tells us that “God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Romans 1:28) which is difficult to see in our context except to say that this idea of mind by Paul is pre-qualified by the adjective that precedes it and so can be seen to say that this is the same understanding, the same consciousness, that is lost in the illusion of the world. In this way we can reconcile it with our saying above and with others that refer us to the consciousness of the man as the nous and not to his thinking apparatus. None of the apostles sayings make this clearer than “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2) which shows the reality of the change of the focus of the consciousness of the man as it is lent to the Life in form.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

To the God Who is in the Fire and Who is in the waters;

To the God Who has suffused Himself through all the world;

To the God Who is in summer plants and in the lords of the forest;

To that God be adoration, adoration.

Sh’vet Upanishad, II.17.

Today’s Quote of the Day is from ancient Hindu scripture. This book, the Sh’vet Upanishad, is from a group of books on the Philosophy of God that date back to more that five hundred years before Christ. Like many religious texts, and religions for that matter, there is a great variety of interpretations; Hindu scriptures are no exception. Our selection of this as our Quote of the Day is because it fits well into our discussions in this series called ON GOD and although we take most of our information from the Judaeo-Christian tradition, we do believe that all sources of spiritual revelation should be considered. The common Christian understanding regarding God as being outside of His creation is rather opposite of this saying and is opposite much of the reality of Christian Scripture as well. In this saying God is immanent in His creation as He is immanent in man, as the Spirit within the form.