Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XCIX
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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In the last post we discussed the reality of illusion and glamour as it effects even the church going of the world of men who believe that by way of the doctrines of the churches that they have achieved the Kingdom; many believe as well that they are disciples of the Lord. This illusion and glamour color the Truth of the Master’s teachings, some of which we discussed in some detail. In His words there is a reality that is missed in doctrine and by those who teach the doctrines to the degree that ALL are blinded by the seemingly harsh reality of those things that Jesus actually tells us and which are confirmed by His apostles in their writings as well. The Apostle James puts this ALL into a succinct saying which he does elaborate on saying: “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way , and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:21-25).
There is a reality in James’ words that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. Unless one is a doer of the word he is being deluded; he is subjecting himself to the illusion and the glamour that the WORD itself is intended to bring one out of. Here we should see that as a part of this Awesome Creation man is already “made subject to vanity“, to this illusion and glamour, and that it is the word that must bring us out of this captivity. And this is not only the words spoken by the Master and the commandments before Him but it is the word of Truth and Love that issues forth from one’s own Soul. This then is a sort of compounded sense of illusion as one believes that the word that he hears frees him while the reality is that it the word that he does that Truly will. This belief then that it is in the hearing, in being a Christian or in believing that one is born again is sufficient to free a man from the captivity of illusion and glamour is in it self a part of that illusion and the man is deceiving himself by his beliefs. This is likely a very difficult thing for the average man to accept yet it is clearly stated for us by James who is amplifying the words of the Master that tell us of the criteria for being accounted worthy of His Kingdom. Much the same is True on the realty of discipleship.
As we approached the 500th edition of this blog we decided to take the time to discuss the meaning of the titles and various subtitles that we have been using as well as some of the words that have been much used and which have been meaningful to our writing. Our next word is focus and this is a word that has come to epitomize the objective of man as well as to describe his behavior and which signifies for us our choice. For us the idea of focus has come to refer to that upon which we spend our time and our attention and we have used it frequently to paint the picture that the Master teaches us of and this is the serving of God or mammon. Who and what we serve is defined by where we spend our time and to what we give our attention; we can focus then upon the things of God or on the things of the world which are for us the True reality of the word mammon. The Master’s Truth is that “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and we should recognize that in this saying is the reality that we cannot focus upon more than one thing at a time and, more important, that we cannot vacillate from pole to pole, that is from the things of God to the things of the world. While we may think that we are, we are Truly not as one of these will have the predominant place in our thoughts and actions. We could say here that at the heart of this idea of focusing upon the things of God would be the requirement that one keep His words and, if we are so doing, then the things of the world have no more meaning to us. This idea of focus can be seen as the steady movement of what is important to a man from the mundane to the divine; this is no easy matter and the Master tells us so in His instruction to us on striving. He tells us that we should “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in , and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) and in this we should see our change of focus as our striving. We should not feel inadequate of have any notion of failure as the Master does tell us of the difficulty and of the reality of the many who “shall not be able“. In Matthew’s Gospel the Master tells us this same thing from a different perspective saying “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Here He is not telling us to strive but He is telling us to choose, choose what it is that we will focus upon and the choice here IS the wide gate of illusion and glamour in the world or the narrow gate of Truth which is the entry to the Kingdom of God. And so this is how we use the word focus, to illuminate our choices in this Life in the world; we can focus upon the things of the world only as do so many, we can vacillate between the two poles of God and mammon which vacillation is in itself an illusion, or we can see, in the duality of the Life of an aspirant, the clear choice and strive toward that single minded focus on the things of God. James helps us here to understand this idea of our inherent inability to focus on both God and mammon which he calls being double minded. He says “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).
Our next word is for us the single most important word in the entirety of the New Testament; it is the key to ALL spiritual achievement and should be seen as singularly responsible for ALL of our progress on the Path to God. This word is of course Love and it is the main subject of virtually every essay that we have posted in this blog. The reality of the importance of Love can be found repeated twice by the Apostle John as he tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and if God is Love, what could be of more importance. The True meaning of Love has been lost in what is called love in the world of men, it has been lost, exchanged for that feeling of fondness and the emotional attachment to other people, places and even things; simply stated, the man in the world loves what gives him pleasure. We must understand that his IS NOT the Love that is spoken about by the Master; the Love that He speaks of is that Love that comes to us from the Old Testament where it is found in the commandments of God on how to treat one’s brother, the stranger and one’s neighbor. It is this Love of God and man that is found among the ‘minor’ commandments given by Moses which are elevated to become the most important of commandments by the Master; in Jesus words “There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31). He tells us in another place that “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40) which should give us the same understanding under which we began this paragraph….it is Love that leads to ALL things.
There is much to say about Love and much that we have already said. It is founded in the Greatest Wonder as Love IS God and from this perspective we can see it pulsating through the visible universe as the Power that holds ALL things in their place; the attractive and cohesive forces of ALL. It is the Unity which we are in Truth; as Souls and as Spirit we are ever ONE and ONE with our God in the ONE Life and from this we can postulate that since God IS Love and, at the same time, God IS Life itself, then Life and Love are essentially the same in God. On the level of God and of Christ Life IS the expression of Love and, at the same time, Love is the expression of Life. If then we believe the words of scripture and we accept the postulate above, then it is our duty and our desire to Love as God Loves and it is in Love that we find that perfection of which the Master says: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We should understand that for our purposes we should not confuse what we call Life here on Earth with the True Life which is of the Spirit and qualifies as part and parcel of the Life of God which we understand as God IS; this Life on the Earth is but a temporary excursion for our Souls which gives Life for a time to the form and the personality. In the same way we should not confuse the Love that IS our True selves, our Souls, with the love that we experience in pleasure here on the Earth which is emotionally driven and selfish in many ways.
We close today with some of our favorite verses from the New Testament so as to remind us of the importance of Love and we will continue with our thoughts on this most important subject in the next post. As we read these words that follow we should ponder on WHY the reality of these words is so lost in the race of men.
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“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 12:30-31).
We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
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.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”
(Matthew 7:12)
The Apostle Paul gives us much on Love; in this that follows he amplifies and elaborates on the Master’s words:
“Owe no man any thing, 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)
James gives us similar instruction and understanding while pointing out for us that the meaning of Love can be seen in the fairness that we express in our dealings with others and in our ability to treat ALL men with the same Love; he tells us that:
“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors“
(James 2:8-9)
Finally we come to some of the most telling words on Love as it affects the Life of the man in form as they set forth for us the importance of Love as a way of Live; Paul tells us:
“But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love“
(1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-3,13; New King James Version)
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
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.:
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
