Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLII
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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•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“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).
In yesterday’s essay we looked at the relationships between the Master’s words that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” and the doctrinal approaches to this that are common in the churches. As we discussed, there are many that see the realization of this in the accomplishment of the Apostle Paul’s words on salvation as they given to the Romans saying: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10). It is our understanding that one may become born again if they follow these ideas from Paul but that this following cannot be merely in the affirmation and the confession, IT MUST INCLUDE ALSO THE DOING…..a man MUST “believeth unto righteousness“. That is that in his heart, his consciousness in form, he MUST be one that “believeth” from the perspective of keeping His words and that his attitude be such that it conforms to this reality of the Truth of believing in or on the Master as presented to us by Vincent: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4. Of course His precepts are His words and in His words should be seen ALL of the words of God as presented to us by the Master as to how we as men should choose to live, act and think and, we should try to see the next reality, that ALL is resolved in Love as He teaches. In saying these things we should see that if a man makes affirmation and the confession as stated by Paul but DOES NOT DO, he is just deluding himself and this delusion is found in the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world and in this regard we should again refer to the words of the Apostle James who clearly tells us that:
“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 1:22-25).
The KEY words here for us are concerning the fact of deception, the deception of thinking and believing that one is doing what is necessary to salvation but who IS NOT DOING the words of the Master; he is merely skirting along the edges and following the pronouncements of doctrine on faith. While these words may sound disparaging to some that believe this way of doctrine, this is a wrong perception as our intent is to put forth the correct criteria for attaining His Kingdom and we use the words of the Master and His apostles to do so. Much of this reality can be seen by looking at the Kingdom of God from the proper perspective, that it is not an after death reward for being an ordinary good person or for having faith in Jesus and believing that He died on the Cross for us; it is not a reward even for those that may dedicate their lives to their religion or religious pursuits. It is a reward in the HERE and NOW for those that keep His words and who do so wholeheartedly, those whose very consciousness is fixed upon the things of God and we say here again that this ALL begins with Love, with our expression of Love for ALL and to ALL and the essence of this Love is found in our Quote of the Day below.
James, in addition to making us KNOW that we must DO and not just hear or believe, paints for us a deeper picture of this reality and one that we can ALL see in our own lives. The reality of these verses, a reality that may have eluded us before, is found in the simple words “and continueth therein“; this saying brings to mind those words of the Master that we discussed but a few posts back:
“He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22).
“And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19).
“And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard , go forth , and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection” (Luke 8:14).
The above is of course from the Parable of the Sower, a parable of importance for us ALL and one that is published in all three synoptic gospels. There are a number of ideas in these variations and we will look at them here in relation to James’s words that tell us that it is the one that “continueth therein” the word who “shall be blessed in his deed“. As aspirants most ALL of us KNOW the word, KNOW our own hearts or consciousness, and KNOW the right thing according to His words but this is not true of ALL men. In the confusion of doctrine many are trapped by the illusion and the glamour of thinking and believing the convenient instead of the real; it is this confusion that tells a man to pursue worldly ends and that tells a man that if he goes to religious services, tithes, praises God and is a ‘good Christian’ that this is enough. This approach however ignores the reality that is painted by the apostle and by the Master. Looking at the rendition of this by Luke we see the idea of “pleasures of this life” in addition to the “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches” and in Marks version we get also the idea of “the lusts of other things entering in“. In this combination we should see that the rather normal ways of the everyday Life of man is called into question as being those things that distract and that keep a man from being a one who “continueth therein“. In this we can see the purpose of the ascetic Lifestyle of those whose intent it is to please God; they remove themselves from the distractions of the world. We should understand however that this IS NOT the True way to salvation and while one may accomplish the avoidance of distraction the better part of the disciple’s Life is found in his ability to overcome distraction. The Master’s teaching is not in His saying I have avoided the world but rather “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
When we look at the sayings above from the three renditions of the Parable of the Sower we can see the more complete reality that they teach and while most ‘religious’ persons consider themselves the good ground, the self questioning should always exist regarding the question from James that asks: am I a DOER or am I just a hearer and believer? What is the good ground? according to the three synoptic gospels it is:
- “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold , some sixty , some thirty” (Matthew 13:23).
- “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:20).
- “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
Again we see a difference between these renditions of the Master’s words but it is in their common feature that we see the Truly good ground and that feature is that the good ground brings forth fruit. This is the reality of being focused on the things of God and the reality of discipleship. As Luke tells us these have heard the word and keep it which is the same as the message that James is giving us from the perspective of the accomplishment. James says in essence if one believes that he is the good ground but IS NOT keeping the word, he is deceiving himself. And the Master clearly give us the difference if we should take the time to look; if a man allows the distractions of Life in form to take his attention then the result will be that he WILL NOT “bring forth fruit” and this idea takes us back then to the Master’s words on God and mammon. Now the idea of fruit can take on several meanings but in the parlance of the New Testament the only reality is those spiritual fruits that become our expression in the world. The Master speaks much of fruit and by His words we can understand that fruit is that which comes from above or from within, from the Soul, the Christ Within. We read this in the Master’s words saying “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). We KNOW that this is a parabolic saying by is very structure and in this we should try to see that Jesus speaks as the Christ and therefore as the Christ Within also so that we can read this as saying: if our Life and consciousness is focused upon the Soul, the True man and not the form Life then that Soul, the Christ within will express himself through the form and in this expression is the fruit. The Master also tells us this very important fact of discipleship: “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). The Master does not tell us exactly what this fruit is but, by seeing the context of it in the sayings above we should not have any doubts. In the writings of the apostles that we say are intended to amplify and clarify the Master’s words, we find this on fruit from Paul: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) and “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesian 5:9). Then if these ideas from the Master and the apostle are the expression of a man in the world, he can be considered and consider himself as good ground but short of this expression the man is likely thorny ground, distracted by the things of the world.
We have gone a long way to show a point regarding being born again, that this is not the result of an affirmation and a confession unless those result in or rather are the result of keeping His words and being a DOER of the word, both of which are in essence the same thing. Returning to James’ words we should try to understand his sayings in the Light of our discussion over the last few posts as in this we can see a deeper reality to his words. Taking his words to our understanding we can say that a man such as we as aspirants KNOW the word, we hear and we believe it but if we are not DOERS it is as though we are looking into a glass and seeing ourselves as KNOWERS and believers and in this we feel confident in our approach to God. Then we go our way, we go back to our daily lives and the distractions that they provide and we forget or rather we no longer focus upon what we KNOW and believe; we are no longer standing confident in our approach…..we are not even thinking about it in the clamor of daily living. Can we see the relationship between this and the Master’s analogy of the thorny ground? We must understand that there is nothing evil or bad in this, it is just the way of Life in the world for those who are focused on the things of the world, on mammon, or who are tying to serve both. It is here that we must overcome if we are to enter into discipleship and the fullness of His Kingdom. James makes this clear as he closes this part of his writing by telling us that as we KNOW and we believe the word, “the perfect law of liberty” and as we DO it continually that we will find our Truth, the Kingdom and discipleship.
This then is the reality of being born again, that we be DOERS of the word, that we become the good ground as it is in these things that we bring forth much fruit. In our essay today we should be able to understand the mistaken approach of those who believe that by affirmation and confession, without being a DOER and a keeper of His words, one can render himself born again. In yesterday’s post we looked similarly at the ideas of some parts of the church that reckon baptism as the way to be born again and we showed that baptism as the ritual is empty of any redeeming value and that it is only in the True sense of baptism, through the immersion of the consciousness, the heart of man, in the things of God, that baptism can even be considered as applicable to being born again. To these points we add the reality that neither of these ideas, affirmation and confession or baptism, are found in scripture as the way of being born again; these ideas are the creations of the doctrines of men in their effort to understand that spiritual endeavor that the Master calls being born again.
Within the Master’s words at the head of our essay there is sufficient understanding given us that allows for right discernment of His words and His intent and while we may not be able to present the end point in this understanding, we will be able to put forth a greater reality than we find in doctrine and tradition. We will, as we have in previous posts, set forth our understanding of being born again in the next post
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Aspect of God |
Potency |
Expressed as Fire |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Christ |
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GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Electric Fire |
Spirit or Life |
Life |
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Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Solar Fire |
Soul or Christ Within |
Truth |
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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’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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
