Monthly Archives: September 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XLVI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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” (Matthew 25:34-40).

Yesterday was another day in our continuing look as the simple word ask as it is spoken by the Master in the Gospels. We have shown the inadequacy of the common understanding and made a valid case for setting aside any and ALL ideas that this asking, as it appears in the words of the Master, has anything to do with receiving things of a carnal nature, that is, most anything that has ought to do with the world. For the second time in three days we discussed the same three verses regarding our asking as disciples and aspirants. We have posited that the reality of asking is not in a request but that it is in a demand; a demand that is put forth on the spiritual side through right living and right focus and a demand that is put forth on the carnal side that requires what we call here right position. Right position is but a way of saying that for a man to demand things in the world that he must position his Life to the desired result and this is by education and career and the many choices made that bring a man to today. Of course there are lives that work around this understanding but there is likely an outside influence that ‘puts’ one into the right position as in some type of windfall inheritance or winning. We have said before that the idea of being rich is largely subjective and that rich can mean different things to different people; a man will ‘feel’ rich in comparison to his close peers regardless of the wrung of the carnal ladder this may be on. This same idea works out in carnal asking as it is based upon the ‘relative position’ that a man has achieved and here the idea of asking becomes as fluid as our understanding of riches.

We move on now and back to our prior theme of serving and as we go we should note that this idea of asking God is, like the general idea that God wants man to be rich and have abundance, a doctrinal approach to God by the man focused upon the material world and not an approach founded in right living and right focus. In support of this premise we offer today only one of the many sayings of the Master; here we find the ‘rich’ young man (ruler) speaking with the Master of eternal Life and here the Master answers with the reality of the Kingdom of God:

• “And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill , Do not steal , Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” (Luke 18:15-24).
• “And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery , Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast , and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:16-23).
• “And when he was gone forth into the way , there came one running , and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery , Do not kill, Do not steal , Do not bear false witness , Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:17-23).

Above are the texts of this exchange between the Master and the ‘rich’ young man and whether he was a ruler or not is inconsequential. These three renditions are a bit different in the description of the man and the list of commandments and, for our point, there are slight differences in what the Master tells the man that he is to do and what he will accomplish in so doing.

• Sell an give to the poor is common among these and the message of all is that this ‘rich’ man must give up everything; can we see in this the ideas that the Master gives us regarding discipleship saying “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). There is no ‘wiggle room’ left in either saying as forsaking “all that he hath” and selling “whatsoever thou hast” or “that thou hast” and “all that thou hast” ALL say and mean the sane thing. This is the answer to the man’s question on attaining eternal Life and, as we can see, the Master answers him in regard to discipleship.
• That the man will “have treasure in heaven” is also common to the three versions of the Master’s words and here we should see the reality of the Master’s words saying “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34). Here we should understand the Master’s instruction as telling us that when we willingly strip ourselves of ALL worldly possessions, and we should remember these are more than just the riches and physical possessions, that we no longer will focus upon the things of the world but we will instead focus upon the things of God. This treasure is our focus, it is what is important to us and what we attend to in Life. In this understanding we must also remember that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
• Only Mark adds the Master’s words “take up the cross” and here we have another saying that is related directly to the Master’s requirements for discipleship and for the Kingdom; the Master tells us that “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27) and in the affiliated saying from Matthew’s Gospel we read: “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38). There is yet another saying in the three synoptic gospels regarding this idea of our taking “up the cross” and we should understand that this idea of the cross as spoken by the Master has a deeper significance that just a ‘prediction’ on the Master’s part and there is no real basis for this idea; Vincent tells us that the Master uses the phrase anticipatively, in view of the death which he himself was to die,⁴ but this too is but a doctrinal approach to a word that seems out of place. “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26). We should try to see here that the idea of bearing one’s cross is akin to bearing the burden of discipleship for that is Truly what following Him represents, discipleship, and this burden is in shutting out the likely constant urges of the personality to participate in what the man in the world is doing, to be a part, to take the easier way. And in this view, we can propose the opposite of what the conventional understanding is and we can say that the cross, the death on the cross by the Master, was a symbol of the culmination of bearing this burden and finding the True Life of man.
• The three versions of this all end with the idea that the man should follow the Master, that in this following is the eternal Life that the man is seeking and here we should see and understand that ALL of these things are the same; attaining to eternal Life, attaining the Kingdom, being worthy of Him and being a disciple are ALL synonymous and they are ALL achieved by turning the focus away from the things of the world.

So then we can have right living and right focus upon the things of God and in so having we understand that this forsaking and this bearing of one’s cross is the necessary requirement and, at the same time the result of one’s efforts. We can then also see that the opposite of these things, focus upon living in the world and attaining the right position from which to achieve worldly things is contrary to what most ALL religions and doctrines tell us is the goal of man as regards the Kingdom of God and eternal Life. Seeing all this then one must wonder why doctrines have manipulated the intent of the Master and the meaning of His words to allow for material benefit at every turn and not allowing for it only as some preach that this material benefit is the natural result of right living and right focus. In our view, nothing could be farther from the Truth.

When we can understand the reality of man as it is expressed in so many ways by the Master and His apostles and as it is reflected in our chart, we can then understand that there is nothing here in the Earth that is to our essential benefit, that is to the benefit of the True man. In the saying that we cite above, we should be able to discern the entirety of the Master’s message on this reality as it is ALL encompassed in His words: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me“, if we could but understand what He is saying as He intended. However, we even yet miss the point of His extra comment saying: “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?“. In the Life of the Soul is the Life of the True man and this is the Life that the man can lose, from the perspective of this particular incarnation; the Master tells us that to “lose his life for my sake” that is the Life of the man in the world, one “shall find it” which is the True Life of the Soul and this is of course a realization as they are, for the time that we are in form, essentially one. It is only when a man can KNOW the reality of Life that he can understand this choice of “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” and what a man will give is rather what will a man take and that is Life in form, focused on form, and away from the need to bear his cross and to do as the Master has done so to be able to say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). When we can understand this choice, we can then willingly bear our cross and follow the Master to the promised land which is, as we KNOW, within us.

While we did not reflect today the idea of asking except in review, most all of what we discussed still has that idea at heart when we view this asking as it is right living and right focus. In right living and right focus we are focused upon the things of God and upon the Christ Within, the Soul. This is focus upon the True Life of the man and we can see in our context that this True Life is both the requirement of discipleship and being accounted worthy and, at the same time the result. We should understand this as the methodical attainment in ever alternating steps that increases the degree of a mans KNOWING and so also his focus. We focus and we gain and in the gaining we have more reason to focus and then we focus more and we gain more and this goes on to infinitude. These steps start with hearing the call of one’s own Soul and heeding it to whatever degree of focus upon it and from there it can grow but it only grows in proportion to the willingness to bear one’s cross and here we can see the reality of the Master’s message which follows upon the saying above which we repeat here for clarity:

“If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, can not be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:26-28).

When we can see that there actually is no cost except one’s attachment to this world of things and forsaking those things that Truly do NOT matter, then we can see the freedom and we can be among those of whom the Buddha says How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven!

Again we did not discuss our proposed subject matter for the day but we did discuss matters of great importance to our liberation from the lures of the world and the lusts of the flesh, those things that keep us from fulfilling our destiny. 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.

This Quote of the Day has now been with us for many days and in this we should be able to see and to understand the two levels of understanding from the perspective of the man in form; the one who sees only those things that are presented physically and the other who is “born of the Spirit” and sees Truth.

Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit (John 3:3-8)

Today’s Quote of the Day is in regard to the new birth which Nicodemus did not understand and which many today do not understand either. The words of the Master tell us of a total commitment to the Lord as the way to the Kingdom and these verses say that as well. This total commitment is being born again. The differences in language aside, we should try to see the relationship between these ideas of being born again which is the essence of discipleship for it is only in discipleship that one can Truly see the Kingdom. These are much misused ideas because they are seen from the perspective of the man in form and no from the perspective of the Soul living through form.

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888