IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 565

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CLIV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, 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. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:1-15).

Our understanding of being born again is intimately tied to ALL of the other sayings that the Master uses to define the Earth Life of one who has attained the Kingdom of God and His instructions on how to attain the Kingdom, to be accounted worthy of that Kingdom of the Christ by which we should understand the reality of the Christ Within. We should ever remember the difficulties of rightly discerning the intended direction of the words of the Master and His apostles, that is discerning to what part of the Life of a man the they are addressing. In some parts they are speaking to or of the man grounded in the world, in others they are speaking to or of the man on the Path, in others to or of the disciples and in yet others they are speaking of the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within. Perhaps another part of the whole difficulty of right discernment of their words is in the fact that the further a man moves in his spiritual Life, the further a man moves toward God, the more of the writings he can understand as they are intended. Hence different perceptions of the same words.

In our words above from the Gospel of John we KNOW that He is speaking to Nicodemus and we premised yesterday that He is speaking to him as a man in form in the world; that He is speaking to the man who has not the Light of the Soul operating in his Life or else he does not recognize it, he has not yet realized the impulses of the Soul but is caught in the vanity, in the ways of the world. We may not see this because he is a religious man but we should understand that the Master’s derision of the Jew’s religion was because it fell into being a religion of the doctrines of men and not of the things of God. From the perspective of the Master’s words this is a historical fact as much of the Master’s words in the gospels are directed at the erroneous ways of the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious rulers of the Jews in that day. They had ‘perfected’ their religion so as to allow the man to ‘do’ the things of the world and to find comfort in the misplaced ideas of atonement; they had interpreted the whole of the law in a way that was convenient to their Life in the world which became their main focus. They misinterpreted, as does most ALL of the world, the True intent of the words “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and, as a race, went off in search of the comforts and the pleasures of their Life in the world. Of course we should remember and understand from our recent discussion on the Creation of man and our use of the words of the Apostle Paul on vanity, that this is the intent of the Plan of God that the race of men would attend to the things of the world. At the same time we should remember and understand that it is the goal and the objective of everyman to extract himself from the morass of Life in form and to be delivered, redeemed so to speak. We should be able to see these ideas clearly in Paul’s words that we use so often 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. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:20-23).

In the limited free will of the race of men in the Earth there is only the pressure that one puts upon himself, pressure from the True man, the Soul, that can cause the necessary repentance that can bring a man to this deliverance. So it is by the Plan of God that the True man devolves into Life in the world but in full expectation of his return. For the Jew above as for the Christian over the last 2000 years, there has been a disconnect between the reality of scripture and the practical application of scripture through doctrine; the misinterpretation of the Old Testament words above which the Master incorporates into His Great Commandment. To this we add the mistaken reliance on atonement as a cover and the misplaced understanding of the worship of idols and what those idols may be. As a part of the definition of idol from Webster’s 1828 edition we find these words and while we do not KNOW that these are intended as a definition or as an example, they should set our understanding of  the word idol and of its intended use in scripture. We read: An idol is any thing which usurps the place of God in the hearts of his rational creatures ¹. Can we see the deeper reality in these words and how it can apply to ALL that a man does worship in the world of things and this for the Jew and the Christian…..then and now. And what is worship but one’s adoration of a person or a thing or an idea, even a way of Life and although the modern definitions are generally directed toward God and some religious act, worship can be of any thing and any one and this includes those idols that have usurped God in the Life of everyman.

Born again IS the antithesis of ALL of these ideas of the world and of Life in the world; it is the cessation of the ‘perfecting’ of religion by doctrines that are intended to give a man the comfort and the pleasures in Life in the world that he so keenly believes that he deserves and it IS striving headlong towards the here and now reward of the Kingdom of God. This is of course the Master’s instruction and not some spiritual jargon that we are devising and it is in seeing and understanding Life to be of and in this Earth that we find the delusions afforded ALL men by the forces of illusion and glamour, the vanity spoken of by Paul. We started today by equating the idea of born again as the Master states it with the attainment of the Kingdom and of being accounted worthy of it and of the Presence of the Christ in one’s Life in the world which is the activity of the Christ Within and His expression through form. Let us here pursue this theme by looking at the various related sayings of the Master regarding these things:

• “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God“. This is our starting point for our look at the relationships between the Master’s telling us that we can ‘see‘ the Kingdom of God  only by being born again. This creates for us a dynamic where all of these other ideas that we will discuss below are equivalent to being born again as the results of ALL are the same, the Kingdom of God. In mathematics, the only really True and predictable science from our perspective, there is a reality of logic that says that if A is equal to B and B is equal C then A must be equal to C and this would be True in any direction regarding this type equation. Taking this forward we can see that if being born again gives one the Kingdom and any of our other criteria below gives us the Kingdom then the other criteria and being born again must be equal.This is our premise going forward. 
• “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“. This saying is from the same verses from the Apostle John’s Gospel as is the one above except here we have a different set of criteria and one that is much misunderstood. It is here that doctrine relates the ritual of baptism, both by water and the laying on of hands to baptize in the Holy Ghost. As we discussed in the last post the ideas presented here are the realtiy of the birth of man in the world as he is born from the reality of the watery womb of his mother plus the added accomplishment of being born of the Spirit which is the ‘awakening’ of the consciousness in form to the reality of the Life of the Christ Within; in this awakening the Inner Man, the Soul, becomes the expression of the Life in form and this is the essence of being born again. We have said in previous posts that the Soul, the True man, must work out his ‘salvation’ in this world, that this is not something that can be accomplished in the natural state of the Soul. Why and how this IS, we cannot say and we do not understand but the reality of Life for the Souls coming and going in this world is to accomplish this ability to express the divine Life in form as did the Master who expressed the fullness of the Christ Life through the form Life of Jesus. In understanding this we can see the reality of the Master’s words above as it is ONLY to the man born into this world from the watery world of the mother’s womb that the opportunity to be born again is presented. It must be accomplished here as an incarnated Soul in the world. We should see here also an example of what we say at the beginning regarding the intended direction of the words of the Master as here that direction is to Nicodemus and through him all men in form who are desirous of attaining the Kingdom. The message in these words is that the goal must be reached by the man in the world, born into the world and then, while in that Life, to then be born of the Spirit.
• “And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said , Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Here we have a confusing idea as it is presented differently in Matthew’s Gospel saying “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). We have addressed this before early on in our blog (In the Words of Jesus part 10) and we will repeat here a portion of what we said on the the idea of “poor in spirit” we will find that it works well with the version from Luke as well. We said: He is telling them that they are Blessed who give up all for the Kingdom; who sacrifice the pleasures and the treasures of this earthly life to dwell in the Presence of God. He is saying, as He repeats later, That in giving up the things of the world you will gain the things of God. ”For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (Mark 8:35) and “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (Matthew 19:29). The Kingdom of God and of Heaven belongs to those who give up all for it; those who take it by force; this is the simple message of the first of the Beatitudes. We must be willing to give up what the world offers and in that sense and only in that sense be poor with no wants or desires for what the world has for us. 

  Now this is not to make one physically and materially poor for the giving up is in consciousness; the sacrifice is of the desire and wanting those things of the world. Jesus said that to give them up will result in manifold return. Not necessarily in those same things given up for how can get or want a hundred fold return of wives or fathers. As often happens, our ideas here are contrary to much of the doctrinal teachings regarding these sayings.

• “But I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27). This particular saying is not one that will fit into our equation above and likely does not even belong in this particular discussion but it is important insofar as the next point is concerned and it is a saying that we had not heretofore looked at in quite this way. There is a related saying in Matthews Gospel that frames this a bit differently: “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 16:28). While these may seem to be different they are essentially the same and in this we can see another aspect of our equation above; here we can equate the idea of “till they see the kingdom of God” with the idea of “till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom“. When we recognize the parabolic nature of the Master’s teaching we can better tie these two ideas together; not that He said this twice and in two different ways as these differences better reflect the perception of the hearer. Matthew likely hears this directly from the Master and Luke either the same way or from one of the other apostles and neither may be the verbatim repeating of the Master’s words but rather the idea behind the words as perceived by Matthew and Luke. Our point however IS NOT these ideas of equation and source but rather the statement of fact that is generally missed in both these sayings and that is “there be some standing here” that will realize the Kingdom in this Lifetime and there are some that will not and it IS those that ARE accounted worthy that will see the Kingdom and the coming of the Christ Within into their Lives. We should understand that the Master is speaking to His disciples.

We will continue with out thoughts in the next post and cover these remaining points and tie our understanding of being born again and the Master’s other references to attaining His Kingdom together.

• “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
• “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:10).
• “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).
• “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
• “And said , Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted , and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
  • “But Jesus said , Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).

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’s Quote of the day ties into our discussion above from the point of view that these virtues expressed ARE the reality of being born again and that in their expression comes the baptism, the immersion of the consciousness in the things of God.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful (Colossians 3:12-15).

In this Quote of the Day we find the Apostle Paul speaking to the followers and believers at Colosse and instructing them in how it is that they should act and be. These are the virtues which establish the ways of disciples of the Master. We note here that Paul tells us the importance of Love which is translated here as Charity but which we know from previous posts is from the same Greek word as Love. We should see also that it is the same Love that we defined as a combination of our English definitions of both words, Love and Charity:

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. Plus the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).

Paul ends this with what comes naturally when we are in the Presence of the Master and this is to be in His Peace; as we seek and we strive toward Him we should notice the aura of Peace that overcomes us and in that Peace we find all of the virtues enumerated above.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913