Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XCV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live , ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:13-26).

On our way to the next word on our list of words used in our blog, vanity, we got stuck again on the allied ideas of illusion and glamour which are for us the same as depicted in the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us that: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“. In this saying we get the understanding that the creature, man individually and corporately, “was made subject to vanity” as a part of the Plan of God who IS “him who hath subjected the same in hope” or in expectation that “….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). This word translated as vanity in our version is translated using several different ideas in other bible versions and none of them seem True to the common understanding of the word. Vincent tells us that vanity is the right translation here though other translations render the apostles words this way:

• New International Version (NIV) “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope“.
• Bible in Basic English (BBE) “For every living thing was put under the power of change, not by its desire, but by him who made it so, in hope“.
• Good News Translation (GNT) “For creation was condemned to lose its purpose, not of its own will, but because God willed it to be so. Yet there was the hope“.
• New American Standard (NAS) “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope“.
• New Living Translation (NLT) “Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse“.

We can get the idea here that most of these translation have the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden in mind and that this vanity or frustration is the result of the curse of God upon the human family because of the error of Adam. Vincent tells us however of the Greek word mataiotes that: Vanity (mataiothti). Only here, Eph. iv. 17; 2 Pet. ii. 18. Compare the kindred verb became vain (Rom. i. 21 note), and the adjective vain (1 Cor. iii. 20; 1 Pet. i. 18). Vain is also used to render kenov (1 Cor. xv. 14, 58; Eph. v. 6; Jas. ii. 20). Kenov signifies empty; mataiov idle, resultless. Kenov, used of persons, implies not merely the absence of good, but the presence of evil. So Jas. ii. 20. The Greek proverb runs. “The empty think empty things.” Mataiov expresses aimlessness. All which has not God for the true end of its being is mataiov. Pindar describes the vain man as one who hunts bootless things with fruitless hopes. Plato (“Laws,” 735) of labor to no purpose. Ezek. xiii. 6, “prophesying vain things (mataia),” things which God will not bring to pass. Compare Tit. iii. 9. Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends. It is in this vein that we can clearly see the ideas that we ascribe to vanity: illusion and glamour.

Our message in staying on this theme as well as our frequent repetition of it is that when we can come to understand these ideas of illusion and glamour and their play upon the world of men, when we can recognize them for what they are and glimpse the idea that Paul brings us in our subjection to this vanity from the beginning, we can then begin to deal with them as negative forces in our lives. We must, at the same time, remove this sense of a curse from God which is in our view an oxymoron for we KNOW that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The sense of superstition here encroaches upon the doctrines of the churches as it takes literally the pronouncements of the writer,who is assumed to be Moses, although it is written to and for the people about 3500 years ago. As we often say, the writings of scripture do find meaning in most every era and this is not necessarily the same meaning as those uneducated and rather emotional people of the time received. For the man 3500 years ago it is unlikely that he could understand these matters of creation except in the way that they are presented but can this same simplicity suffice for the man of today? The idea that there is a message for everyone in the gospels is a Truth that must be revealed and it is an evolving Truth that should grow with the evolving human family.

Paul puts this in better terms for us when speaking of himself and us; he says: “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come , then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things” (1 Corinthians 13:9-11). Can we see our point in the apostle’s words? This is the growth of revelation on one’s Life and in the march of time as well; as the race advances the ability to “know in part” must expand so that those things that that were understood and thought and spoken of in the in the childish era of the race of men give way to the understanding  and thought and speaking of the this era of the man; a more mature era of thought as compared to the past era of emotional response to the world.

The apostle concludes his saying “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We have discussed these words in past posts but from a different perspective; today we relate his words to illusion and glamour and to vanity, as well. We should try to see that even in his rather advanced spiritual state, Paul is reflecting on his inability to see clearly and if this besets the apostle, can we imagine the effect on the less spiritually oriented man? It is the illusion and the glamour that keep a man from seeing clearly and in this seeing we should understand that it includes one’s thought processes and perceptions and one’s emotional response and feelings; it encompasses ALL that we believe. When we can understand that this seeing is believing as a man in form, we can perhaps recognize the importance and the need for clarity. Speaking from the perspective of the man in form in whom the Light of the Soul is being expressed, Paul tells us that there is yet greater glory for him an this is to be found when he is “ then face to face” with his own Soul and the expression of Light is complete. He continues to tell us that he KNOWS but “in part” and that he will KNOW in full as he comes into full communion with his Christ Within and, realizing the words of the Master, can say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We should here remember one very important fact in this dialogue by the apostle and that is that is comes at the end of his dissertation on Love, on the importance of Love and the spiritual nothingness of Life without Love; he ends these sayings by reminding us that “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13) and we KNOW that this charity is the expression of Love as it is translated in other bible versions.

Can we see here that Paul is lifting up the idea of Love as the gateway to clarity, to seeing “face to face“? We discussed this saying from a more personal perspective sometime back (In the Words of Jesus part 282) and we noted that many get sidetracked in these sayings by the mention of glass; our thoughts on this were: Many get tied up in the ideas of the glass or the mirror here much like they do in the saying on deceiving oneself by the Apostle James that led us here several posts back to these words by Paul. The glass is unimportant except for the analogy that it provides and we should see this in the same Light as knowing in part and knowing in the perfection of discipleship; in the same Light as the child and the adult. As an aspirant we see ourselves dimly; we sense the reality of the Christ Within, the Soul, but we have no clarity. When, however, the full term of discipleship arrives, when we are perfect we will see clearly the Christ Within, our True Self, face to face. This is a reward for the hard work that we do. Similarly the apostle tells us of how one knows in part, as he does above and how, when the fullness of discipleship takes us, we shall know fully as the conscious Soul in form, even as the Soul knows ALL. Our words are necessarily cumbersome here as there are none that will allow us to understand the Truth and the reality of the Soul, the Christ Within, and how He can be fully conscious, pure and unblemished in His own place yet immersed in this world of illusion at the same time. We should see that we say nothing different here today except we approach it from a different perspective.

Paul is giving us the idea of the evolution of his ability to express the Light of the Soul and he does so in these few short statements. He takes us to the idea of being as a child and we can approach this either way; as the understanding of growing up from child to man without any sense of analogy or we can let him take us to the understanding that as we begin to sense the call of the Soul and we heed it, we are as novices, still acting and thinking as men in the world who, as we grow spiritually, are able to put away the ways of duality and focus upon the ways of the Soul, the Christ Within. We should try to see that this talk of children is in explanation of the previous thought of KNOWING in part which we should understand as duality and that this duality will give way to the perfection of discipleship. The ideas of seeing through the glass then are but a continuation of this same thought given to us from different perspectives but ALL saying the same thing; that there is a beginning and an end to our walk on the Path and as we see in the gospel narratives on the Apostle Peter and in Paul’s words here and elsewhere in his writings, there is steady spiritual growth for the man who hears and heeds the call of the Soul.

In these words today we should be able to grasp a bit more of the idea that the apostle tries to convey to us under the word translated as vanity and if we look at this as Vincent gives us meaning saying that the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends ⁴ , we should be able to see the reality if illusion and glamour and we should see the relationship between this and what Paul sees in the glass, as a child and in part. We should remember that it is only those who have reached this point of KNOWING in part and who are sensing the duality, the pull of the Soul against the pull of the world, that can recognize this vanity, this illusion and glamour in their Life. Up to this point these things are certainly at play in the Life of everyman but they go unnoticed because there is no thing to compare what we see in to the world against; there is no opposing force recognized until the reality of the Soul is felt in Life.

As we close today we should be reminded that Paul ties this ALL to Love and from this we should take our cue that it is in Love that we can come to hear the Soul and recognize the Christ Within. We will continue our thoughts in the next post.

We leave our brief words on Thanksgiving and the poem by Emerson and we encourage ALL not to only give thanks for what blessings we do have in Life but to recognize that our brothers are in their essence the same as us albeit at differing points upon the long, long road to “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) and that it is in Love that we should reach out and help them in whatever way we can. Of the best ways are of course our expression of universal GoodWill and understanding.

As we approach Thanksgiving 2012 we are reminded of the True purpose of this day by its very name…..THANKS—GIVING and this should be a day in which we Truly give thanks for all that we do have regardless of how little or how much it may be. And, we should ever realize that as aspirants and disciples of the Lord that we Truly have much in a Life that is filled with spiritual endeavor and the peace and harmony that comes in our realization of some of the more hidden meanings in Life. This realization is for us a large part of our understanding of forsaking ALL as we come to realize that those things of the Earth that we tend to strive towards and for are of no value and carry no True meaning to our True self as the Soul.

From the more Earthly side we should note that while the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday are rather obscure, it is nonetheless an American tradition that dates back to colonial times with declarations of days of thanksgiving to mark the nation’s successes. In the mid-19^th century a movement began to create a Thanksgiving Day in November which was declared as such by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During this time Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these simple words below which, based upon his own beliefs, are not intended to embrace any particular religion.

Thanksgiving

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Wishing you all a very

HAPPY

THANKSGIVING

 

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