IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 485

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART LXXVII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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Still in the dark in the NYC area we again selected a random number and here reprint part 283 of our series In the Words of Jesus. This part is the Good Friday edition from earlier this year and we have added to it part 284 so that the thoughts could be complete. We hope to be able to publish a new essay as the next post as we will have the day off from working in the world and more time to figure out how to logistically accomplish this. We leave our chart below as a reminder of where we are in our thoughts on Life, the True Life of the Soul.

Today is Good Friday and there is no certainty as to why this day has come to be know by this name. This is the day that we celebrate, if we can use such an idea, the death of the Master or, as we should say, the death of His physical body. This day then leads us to that next Great Christian Holiday, Easter, which is the day of the Resurrection of the Master and what so many believe is the taking up again of the physical body. We have covered this idea before in our posts and we will look at this again in the next post; there is much more to it all than meets the eye in illusion that has been created regarding the resurrection, the glamour that this event evoked as regards eternal Life and the ‘general’ thoughts on the resurrection of the dead. Do not misunderstand the way that this is written as we know that there is a crucifixion and a resurrection of the Master but we believe that the ideas surrounding these things are not what Christianity has made them to be. Starting out here we should understand that the whole of this drama is scripted and fated to be from the times of the vague pronouncements of the prophets. We say vague here because the people in their day had no understanding of what the prophets were saying or what the writings meant; these were all recognized after the fact as are some of the happenings and sayings of the Master as the Apostle John tells us in regard to Jesus arrival at Jerusalem for the last time:

“On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat there on; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him” (John 12:12-16)

The Apostle Matthew frames this a bit differently in his Gospel but the overall idea should come through that this is a predicted event that leads up to the Master’s crucifixion which is predicted as well by the prophets and by the Master:

“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him there on. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest“. (Matthew 21:1-9)

The reference to the prophet is to Zechariah of whom it is recorded: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). This overall prophecy is rather obscure and as John tells us above it was not related to the Master at all until after His resurrection or glorification. This is a common occurrence with prophecy whether it be the cries of the Old Testament prophets or the writings of John and Paul or even what prophetic remarks are made by the Master Himself; man tries to interpret but, until one can see beyond his own mortal life, it is rather impossible to comprehend. The doctrines and the dogma that are created around a prophecy are just that; if there were any real substance to what man can say about these things, there would surely be some agreement. So we have illusion and we have the glamour of any man or group so believing that he is right in his doctrine and that all others are in error.

We can say here that the real illusion and the real glamour and the deception that follows them is found in man’s created understanding of Life itself and in his refusal to see the contrary teachings of the Master. So many believe that this Life on Earth is the True Life of man even through the constant reading and preaching of the gospel stories regarding the Master, His death and His resurrection. Let us look first at His own predictions of His death and resurrection and the parabolic nature of His sayings regrading them.

• In the exchange with His disciples regarding who it is thought that the Master is, after the Apostle Peter’s revelation that He is the the Christ, the Master tells them: “that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (Mark 8:31-32).

• The rendition in Matthew’s Gospel is similar saying “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him” (Matthew 16:21-22).

• In Luke’s Gospel the story is the same sans the confrontation with Peter; it goes thus: “The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain , and be raised the third day” (Luke 9:22).

These are all very similar and in two of the three we get a glimpse of the unbelief of the disciples; not that they did not believe the Master’s words but rather that they did not understand the necessity of it all nor the teaching that is encapsulated in it. Common to all three is some form of the following sayings by the master which we covered in several posts and most recently in In the Words of Jesus part 263. This saying is a cumbersome one for much of the church and some of the meanings are obscure:

“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? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:24-28).

Today we will look at this and the allied sayings from Mark and Luke in the Light of Good Friday. We should remember that these sayings come immediately after the first predication of His death and His resurrection; a prediction that we know the disciples do not understand from the basis of their view of Life. Much the same is true of us, we do not understand based upon the illusion of Life that we may have and there are many different and competing illusions. The basic understanding of Life, the basic illusion, is that we are what we appear to be. As an aside, and in like manner as we saw in the last posts regarding the sayings of Paul which we see as knowing in part and then fully, let us look briefly at this saying by the Apostle John regarding what appears: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). There is a depth in this saying that is reserved for those who can look at Life as something other than this appearance in form; as aspirants we are sons of God but we do not fully know what this means. John is saying to his readers that when he shall appear, the Christ Within, the Christ in each man’s Life, then we will enter into discipleship and we will be like Him and see the Truth of Life “as he is“. Is this any different than the saying of the Master that we have been using frequently saying: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).

Continuing with our saying from Matthew and our thoughts on how we look at Life, we should see the commonplace illusion of Life in form and of its being in this personality which is seen as continuing on to a punishment or a reward. This is a hard illusion to dispel but the Master gives us the tools and the understanding to do so if we would only read with an open mind and not one that is beset with the illusions of doctrine. Looking at the saying above we should remember when He said it and the circumstances of its being said. First there is the question as to who the Master is and the answer, by Peter only, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and we then have the Master’s affirmation of this fact but also His affirmation of Peter, that he had this revelation. We should remember that in this time and place there is a different perspective on Life, the Jewish perspective, and we should remember also that one of the main courses of teaching by the Master was in dispelling the commonplace Jewish understanding of God, His commandments and man’s relationship to Him. Peter then is answering based upon his revelation and his understanding as heretofore the only teaching by the Master on His being the Son of God is in the Master’s teaching on the Fatherhood of God. There are occasions where this idea comes up in the words of the writers of the gospels, in the narratives about the temptations of Christ and from the lips of those beset by demons; His own teachings on this are rather restricted to His comments on the Father. In the end there is more from the Master on His Son-ship but this is never explained beyond the idea of God being the Father of us ALL. Based upon doctrine we all can recognize the Master as the Son of God and these affirmations are mostly made in the end where the great accusation against Him is that He “he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7) and most of this is in His proclaiming that God is His Father. How much we see in this and how little is seen in His teachings that we are all sons of God; this is doctrine and this is the illusion.

We have then Peter affirming the divinity of the Master and then the Master’s solemn prediction of His death and His resurrection and here, in two of the gospels, is that exchange with Peter where the Master tells him that he is still too focused on the things of the world when he should be focused upon the things of God. The rebuke of Peter goes this way according to Matthew: “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:22-23). So what do we have here but a question, an answer based upon revelation, the lauding of the revelation and the man by the Master, a prediction, and then the chiding of the one who had the revelation and was lauded. All this leads us to our saying above which is a reminder to His disciples of the nature of discipleship and should be a reminder to us as well.

• First that the disciple will deny himself, will forsake all as is told us is a condition of discipleship in his saying that: “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 cannotbe my disciple…..And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple…..So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33) .

• Second that the disciple will take up his own cross which is also covered in the saying above. This cross is in our forsaking and in our focus; that is, that we see Life as He sees it and that we overcome any and all worldly proclivity. As Vincent tells us: His cross: his own. All are not alike. There are different crosses for different disciples. The English proverb runs: “Every cross hath its inscription” — the name of him for whom it is shaped⁴. We each have our own reality to deal with.

• The third is to understand that this Life in form, the one that the Master readily gives up, is not the Truth of Life. A man can keep his Life in this world and die and in no way benefit himself, his True Self, the Christ Within, the Soul. If however we do accomplish the first and second things above, then we are looking past this Life in form and at the True Life of the Soul; in doing so we find that True Life.

• The forth is an understanding that we must come to in order that we can accomplish the first and the second above which lead us to the third. We must, by our focus, see the reality of Life, see that the True Man is the Inner Man, the Soul. It is in seeing this Truth that we can realize that there is no profit in anything in the world; ALL is temporary, none can be taken out of the world except those spiritual treasures that are built up by not focusing on the things of the world. What do we trade for our realization of the True Self? Look around at the things of the world and at man’s fixation upon them; look around at the illusion.

We will address the last points in the next post as these can help to lead us into our ideas on the resurrection. We end this with a last saying from the Master which relates Love and His Death. He speaks to His disciples and calls them His friends but this only if they do His commandments; that is that they remain His disciples.

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:12-14).

This is a difficult saying and we will continue from here in the next post.

In yesterday’s post we left off with a saying by the Apostle John which we have said offers some difficulty to us who desire to understand the motives and the full message of the Master. The saying was offered as a Good Friday oriented end to our discourse and is one which leads up to His capture, His suffering and His death. There are not many places where the Master decries His impending, predicted and rather scripted death on the cross and in this saying we find Him lifting up this idea so that we might follow. Remembering that so much of His teaching is in parable, can we not see this as such too? Can we see that in Jesus mind that His giving up His physical, worldly, Life is for us a guide that we are to do the same, that we are to bear our cross. As the Apostle Paul puts it, ”And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). For us who follow Him there is no need to die on the cross physically as He did in showing us the way as we can likely see the steps taken of we look from the proper perspective.

• First we must be captured and overwhelmed by the Spirit and the Soul. We look at Life and we do not want to give it up as it is what we have come to know. Here we find Jesus at Gethsemane reasoning with the Father and His own the God Within to let Him be spared the agony of this undertaking while KNOWING that there is no other way and here we find the aspirant reasoning with the Christ Withing, with his own Soul, if there might be a better way than giving up all that we have and we know while at the same time KNOWING that this is the ONLY way. Let us look past the Last Supper and the betrayal by Judas as these are just events that lead us to the capture of our Master in this scripted way and to our capture of our own consciousness by the Light of the Soul. Can we see His words regarding this from our discussion yesterday? “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).

• Next the Master is taken to the High Priest and to Pilate, representatives of Life in the World but from different perspectives. The High Priest demands the death of the Master as His Life upsets the status quo and brings forth continued teaching and miracles which over the more time will outperform the old ritualistic ways in the minds of the people. The Master succumbs to the will of the High Priest because He knows that it is the only way and this is our lesson; the flesh must die or rather the will of the personality must cease to hold sway in one’s Life. We must do as the Master did and give up our claims to this Life here on Earth. Pilate offers some method of reprieve but the Master does not act and He does not ask for mercy or for anything from the powers that are in the world; He offers no resistance. He teaches us here “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) which He says to His disciples and others at the end of His speaking to them again about His own fate and after saying again that “Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33). This is to be our perspective, that we “faint not” in the face of the rigors of losing the carnal and worldly Life of man, that we should offer no resistance to the will of and the Light of the Soul, the True Life.

• Next is the crucifixion, the end of Life in the world of men and being among them as they are. The steady march from capture, to judgement and then to the cross is, for the Master, a seamless journey out of the world and in this is our lesson as well. The Master grows weary in this march and so will we; the Master is given some help in His time of greatest tribulation, help in the carrying of the cross to His own death and it is likely that when we as men can reach this High Point in our Spiritual Lives that we will find some help as well. When the Soul, the Christ Within, comes to this point we will no longer be seeing, as Paul tells us, “darkly” but we will be seeing “face to face” and will be able to say of our own steady march that ”now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12); in the Fullness of the Glory of God. There is a point of no return; for the Master it was upon the pronouncement of Pilate and for us is is the same; there comes a time when there finally dawns upon the man that there is nothing left for him that is of the world and when, as the Conscious Self, he deflects the powers of the world of men to keep him as the Christ deflected the power of Pilate to keep Him.

The Master suffered the physical death on the cross and the world has built much dogma from it and has missed the point that He was making. Perhaps again this was intentional, perhaps the world was not ready for His reality in words but only in His showing them the meaninglessness of the Life that each holds so dear. So we speak of the Blood of Christ as the atonement for the sins of the world and in some ways this is a Truth but not in the many varied ways that the church has positioned it. Based upon the words of the Apostles, the writers of the gospels and the epistles, which were intended to speak to those people in the way that they could understand and to change them from the way they were to the way that the New Age meant for them to be, man has built the doctrines that we know today. In more than 2000 years little has been done to reconcile these doctrines with the reality of the teachings of the Master; in fact, the more modern church has made the doctrines more difficult to attach to a reality and to overcome with Truth.

The world of Christianity is mired in the age old ideas of atonement; be it called vicarious or substitutionary, the idea is that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that in His death He took on all of the sins of mankind and many believe that this is an continuing saga. Much of this is based on the words of the Apostles and much is taken out of context and misunderstood. Sayings such as ”For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21) take on monumental proportion in the doctrine of atonement and are taken to the heart of Christian teaching in place of sayings like: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Simple words like “of no reputation“, “the form of a servant“, “humbled himself” and “obedient unto death” are swallowed up in the doctrine of atonement which, in the True teachings of the Master would better be understood as AT-ONE-MENT.

Returning now to our saying from the Gospel of John that we ended with in the last post:

“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:12-14).

In so many places where we read commentaries on the words “love one another” they are referred to Love for the brethren or for fellow Christians and we have always maintained that, based on the overall teachings of the Master, this is not so but rather the Master never leaves off on His commandment that we Love ALL. As doctrine, where it exists in this form of Love only for brethren and Christians, we find the height of the illusion created by man and one that frees him to look at Life in this myopic way. John Gill, one of our most quoted commentators, frequently ascribes this ”love one another” to brethren and Christians and we state some of his comments here so as to see the Truth that does come through and the bent of doctrine:

• In regard to another saying by the Master, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another” (John 13:34), Mr. Gill says this: A new commandment I give unto you As parents, when they take their leave of their children, in their dying moments, give them proper instructions and orders, and lay their dying injunctions on them, so Christ taking his leave of his disciples, gives them his; which were, that they love one another: as brethren in the same family, children of the same Father, and fellow disciples with each other; by keeping and agreeing together, praying one for another, bearing one another’s burdens, forbearing and forgiving one another, admonishing each other, and building up one another in faith and holiness: and this he calls “a new commandment”; that is, a very excellent one; as a “new name”, and a “new song”, denote excellent ones; or it is so called, because it is set forth by Christ, in a new edition of it, and newly and more clearly explained, than before; and being enforced with a new argument and pattern, never used before⁸. Can we see the idea here of who Gill thinks to Love?

• Against this saying in Romans “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8), Mr. Gill says But to love one another. This is the only debt never to be wholly discharged; for though it should be always paying, yet ought always to be looked upon as owing. Saints ought to love one another as such; to this they are obliged by the new commandment of Christ, by the love of God, and Christ unto them, by the relations they stand in to one another, as the children of God, brethren, and members of the same body; and which is necessary to keep them and the churches of Christ together, it being the bond of perfectness by which they are knit to one another; and for their comfort and honour, as well as to show the truth and reality of their profession. This debt should be always paying; saints should be continually serving one another in love, praying for each other, bearing one another’s burdens, forbearing each other, and doing all good offices in things temporal and spiritual that lie in their power, and yet always owing; the obligation to it always remains. Christ’s commandment is a new one, always new, and will never be antiquated; his and his Father’s love always continue, and the relations believers stand in to each other are ever the same; and therefore love will be always paying, and always owing in heaven to all eternity⁸. Do we see here the source of much of today’s doctrine which seems to bypass the remainder of Gill’s remarks which say: But what the apostle seems chiefly to respect, is love to one another as men, love to one another, to the neighbour, as the following verses show. Love is a debt we owe to every man, as a man, being all made of one blood, and in the image of God; so that not only such as are of the same family, live in the same neighbourhood, and belong to the same nation, but even all the individuals of mankind, yea, our very enemies are to share in our love; and as we have an opportunity and ability, are to show it by doing them good⁸. Now this is not so clean as we would like it to be but in this are the seeds of the reality of the Master’s teachings. How sorely this last attitude is missing in the world today.

• In relation to this from the Apostle Peter “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently” (1 Peter 1:22) Mr. Gill tells us that [see that ye] love one another with a pure heart fervently: this is Christ’s new commandment, and the evidence of regeneration; a distinguishing badge of Christianity, and without which all profession of religion is a vain and empty thing: this should he mutual and cordial; should proceed from the heart, and from an heart sprinkled from an evil conscience; and should be with warmth and fervency, and not with coldness and indifference; though the word here used, (ektenwv) , may not only design the intenseness of it, but the extensiveness of it also; as that it should reach to all the saints, the poor as well as the rich, and the lesser as well as the greater and more knowing believers; and likewise may denote the continuance of it; it ought to be continually exercised, and to last always; and so the Arabic version renders it, “with a perpetual love”⁸. Here again we revert to the idea of brethren and Christians in place of ALL and while the words of Peter include the Real Love for the brethren, do we presume that he meant to leave others out or is this just a difficulty of language?

• Finally we have our saying above from John’s Gospel. Here Mr. Gill give us some very profound observations on what we see as the reality of this Love for ALL. He says: This is my commandment, that ye love one another Christ had been before speaking of his commandments; and he mentions this as the principal one, and to which all the rest may be reduced; for as the precepts of the second table of the moral law may be briefly comprehended in this one duty, love to our neighbour, so all the duties of Christianity, relative to one another, are reducible to this, by love to serve each other. This was the commandment which lay uppermost on Christ’s heart, and which he knew, if attended to, the rest could not fail of being observed. The argument by which, and the manner in which, he presses it, is as before: as I have loved you; than which nothing can be more strong and forcible; see (John 13:34)⁸. Can we appreciate here the beauty and the force of Mr. Gills words and can we see a glimpse of his own understanding?

We have in this saying, according to our reading and Mr. Gill, the reality of Love for All of Gods Creation. The Master is giving a parting commandment, He is repeating what He had told them once before according to the scriptures and He is saying it with the added force of showing the disciples the DEPTH of this Love. He tells them that there is no Greater Love than to lay down one’s Life for a friend and continues on to tell them that they are His friends. In this is the culmination of His message to them; that He is going to die and they should see this as being done for them. He adds for us that we should understand His friends as we understand His disciples and this in His saying that “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” which we should see in the same Light as “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed“. This is a connection that must be made, that the Master is laying down His Life for to show us a way that we can follow Him; in this is the True depth of His teaching and we should see in this that whenever a man becomes a disciple and forsakes all, that he is giving a way for others to follow on this most difficult road to the strait gate and the narrow way.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, the Day of the Resurrection of the Master and the continuation of His teachings to us who are His disciples and aspirants to discipleship.

Aspect of God	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

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.

Today we post a World Prayer that is also included in the Prayers and Meditation section with some explanation of its source and its use. We are entering a time of the year which we can consider more sacred by way of the newness of Spring which should reflect in our newness of Life. This is the Festival of Easter and a time of rejoicing; not only for the Resurrection of the Lord from the Christian perspective but also for the teaching that is incorporated in the Master’s sacrifice 2000 years ago and in His continued sacrifice. We should remember His parting words: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20)

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

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

• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibeStudyTools.com