Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART LXXI
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do ; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:3-12).
It is our hope that over the last several posts we were able to convey the sense of GoodWill that is at the heart of the Charter and the Goals of the United Nations and that the objective of Right Human Relations is one of the founding virtues. If we can see these things as True and realize that the United Nations is humanities BEST HOPE for an enduring world peace then we owe our support, our positive thoughts and our patience as these ideals are wrought out through international diplomacy. The task of reconciling the attitudes of nearly 200 different nations into a single and coherent attitude of Peace, GoodWill and Right Human Relations is a daunting one but one that can be accomplished when the political concerns of those national leaders are sacrificed for the common good. This same idea is likely True within nearly all of the nations of the world where the political will of the rulers can be seen as akin to the self centered attitude of the individual man.
This brings us now back to the words of the Master and we will start today by continuing with our verses above from the Gospel of John. Much of the intent of these verses in lost in the doctrines of the churches which fail to see beyond the Life in form as they extend this same Life through the afterlife and into eternity. Many take this idea of mansions or even the better translations of dwelling places or abodes as literal but this is not the Master’s intent; nor is His intent found in those translations that render this Greek word as rooms and this likely becuase there are rooms in a house and there are not mansions. The reality of this is like dwelling places or, as Vincent tells us, abodes 4 which do not necessary mean then a physical place. When we look at the deeper meanings from the perspective of the True man, the Soul, we can see that apart from this Life in the Earth there is yet the Life of the Spirit manifest as Soul and which Life we take up again when we have achieved that state of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom. We KNOW from our previous essays that this is no easy matter and it is not the realm of the ordinary or average person who lives his Life in the world of things and the world of self. Remember that the Master is speaking to His disciples after the supper and not to the crowds and it is to disciples that these words apply as it is they who are free from the cauldron of Life and death and the ‘afterlife’ of the continuing personality.
It is the disciple who IS FREE from this tribulation of Life in form and this is, as we have ofttimes said, the objective and the goal of ALL humanity. It is this that is painted for us above and it is this to which the Apostle Paul refers in that text that we use so often from his Epistle to the Romans saying: “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” (Romans 8:20-21). Here we see Life in form as our subjection to vanity which we call here the illusion and the glamour of the world and of the self; we see also that this is not by our individual choice that we come but by the choice of God Great and Awesome Plan with which we willingly cooperate. So we are here and we live and die and live and die with periods of ‘afterlife’ separating our Earthly experiences and we do this with the Great Expectation, the hope as it is translated, that we “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. We should try to understand that Paul also is speaking to disciples and to aspriants and not to the ordinary or the average and he is giving to them the same message that we find above albeit in a different tone and in a different context.
The Master tell us that “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know“. That place is an abode in the Father’s house and when we can see from the spiritual perspective that the Father’s house is ALL things, it is heaven and it is Earth; it is the Kingdom of God. Since we KNOW that He is speaking of things spiritual and we KNOW that the Kingdom is within we should be able to take the understanding that this place is within; the preparation is the union of the disciple with the Master Within which brings forth the fullness of the expression of the Christ Within through form. We KNOW from the text that this is all very unclear to the disciples at this time as this teaching of the God Within and of the Fatherhood of God is new to them; not that it is new in the world as many may believe, but that it was not yet revealed as the Way to God and here we see more of the reality of the Christ and the Christ Within as the Way, the Truth and the Life. So the Master tells them that He is leaving them but that He will return and this He does through the crucifixion and the resurrection; it is in these acts that He SHOWS them the way. We should note that the Master does tell them that they already KNOW and that the Apostle Thomas replies that they do not and, of course, we KNOW that the Master is RIGHT and here is the foundation for our understanding of this Way to God as a revelation that they will receive
Can we see in this that there are not words for the Master to use to convey these Great Truths to His disciples and this lack of words effects our understanding yet today. Jesus’ carefully chosen words are intended to hint at the Truth and not to say it plainly and this we KNOW because He tells us that even to His disciples and even to this time in their association with Him He says: “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh , when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). Can we see the similarity in the message here with the writings of Paul? How the Master tells them of the reward of discipleship being that place that they will go with Him; to His Father’s house, to the Kingdom Within. And how the apostle tells us that it is the Great Expectation of God that we will join Him in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” which is also the Kingdom of God as expressed by the disciple.
Whether we can see the relationships here is of no moment so long as we can recognize that these are about the same things with IS the reward of discipleship and the treasures of the Kingdom of God; this IS the deliverance from the bondage of Life in form and this IS the place that is prepared for us by the Plan of God. The Master’s next thought here, after the query by Thomas, is that much misunderstood saying that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me“. This IS NOT the statement of religious doctrine that has the Master proclaiming that He is the ONLY WAY TO GOD and which is adopted by the Christian churches as one of the keys to their claim of superiority over ALL other religions; such would be contrary to the Truth of the message of the Master. Yet there is much Truth in the ideas that are behind these words from the perspective of the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within as here the Master is saying much the same things as we see in His commands to believe in or to believe onHim. What then is the Way, the Truth and the Life? it is not in the person of Jesus but it is in our own actions of coming to that place in one’s Life where we accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4 for it is in so doing that we can approach the Kingdom as aspirants and become His disciples; it is in so doing that we can express the same Way, Truth and Life which are of God as we depict in our chart below, through our form on this Earth.
|
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Way |
These words, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” have a depth of meaning that can be the subjects of almost constant revelation about the True man, the Christ and one’s relationship to God. When we came upon these words in an earlier post, we added the column to our chart that gives us the relationship between the words that the Christ spoke and the Trinity that we KNOW is both God and the True man. We covered this in some detail in In the Words of Jesus part 470 and we repeat here the point that MUST be understood and that is the ONENESS of ALL that is on this chart, vertically and horizontally as well as just the ONENESS of ALL aspects, potencies and relationships.
We can recognize that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are a Trinity and that at the same time they are ONE and this same principal should be extended to each of the columns. The Potencies of God are ONE as both the Love and the Light are contained within His Will; Love cannot be separated from the Will nor can the Light. From the perspective of the True man this same ONENESS is realized as one cannot separate the Spirit from the Soul any more that one can separate the Father from the Son, the Master tells us that they are ONE, or God from the Christ. This same is extended to the Holy Spirit of whom the Master tells us “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:26) showing us of the relationship. In the case of man and of God we see the Holy Spirit as the activity of the Christ in form or, from our position of ONENESS, the activity of Spirit in form and this Spirit is God and the God within. It is in the coming of the Holy Spirit, the activity of God and the Light of God, into the Life of the man in form that signifies his discipleship as this activity is the expression of the Christ Within to the world of men. As aspirants we but glimpse and touch these realities but as disciples we can become these realities.
The Master goes on to try to explain to His disciples this sense of ONENESS and we KNOW from the text that they have trouble with these concepts which we will cover in more detail in the next essay but which we will itemize here for your consideration in relation to the chart above:
- “If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also“
- “henceforth ye know him, and have seen him“
- “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father“
- “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?“
- “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works“
In considering these phrases let us try to remember the words of the Apostle John that tell us “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) and the words of our Master that tell us “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.
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.:
So that we do not forget that the reality of this ALL is still LOVE which is our Truth regardless of whatever other realizations may come to us in Life, we present here again the Apostle Paul’s words followed by our own understanding of this reality:
….but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:8-10).
The first of all the commandments is, Hear , O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these
(Mark 12:29-31)
We should remember always to link to this Greatest Commandment that other saying of the Master that gives to us the practical understanding of how to love one’s self plus the practical instruction on how it is that we CAN Love our neighbour; He tells us:
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them
(Matthew 7:12)
Unlike so much of the Master’s sayings that come to us in the form of parables and for which we can only surmise that we have the spiritual presence to understand, these sayings are very straightforward and they are the key to many of the promises of spiritual life; they are the very key to the Kingdom of God. To these sayings we add our adopted definition of the Greek word agape (agapao) which is translated into the English words Love and Charity and which is:
‘In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men’
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888.
