Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLXXXVI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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In the last post we finished our brief look at the Sixteenth Chapter of the Gospel of John where we find several things that the Master tells His apostles as He is preparing for His inevitable crucifixion. In our understanding He gives the assembled disciples a direct sense of reality in telling them that the religious rulers in that day may persecute them, imprison them and even put them to death and the important part of this for us in is our recognition that the Master KNOWS that these persecutors ARE doing what they believe is right in the eyes of God. Despite the GOOD works that the Master did, His healing miracles and His teaching on the Good, the Beautiful and the True, the Pharisees scribes, priests and lawyers of the day saw the Master as wrong, not so much as wrong in what He is doing as wrong in what He is doing to them. In the illusion that they are God’s chosen and in the glamour of their ideas of righteousness and their own being right, they set about to eliminate this threat posed by the works and the teachings of the Master. We will of course never KNOW what their deepest feelings were about what they were doing nor will we KNOW which, if any, of them had any doubt that they were Truly right, in these things we can only imagine who or how many were more driven by the anger and the will of the flesh than they were by the thoughts of righteousness that the Lord gives them credit for. And, if we fast forward to today and look around at the world and the manner of discourse between religions and denominations within religions, at the constant rhetoric that flows in place of real conversation, we should wonder about the state of mind of those Pharisees and scribes and lawyers of today and their reaction to the Master should He come among us again. There is much strength in the illusion and the glamour that beset us ALL and this is especially True of those who do not recognize that these exists, that this IS the vanity that the Apostle Paul tells us about saying that: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“. Here we see the reality of Life in form, that the illusion and the glamour, the vanity, is real and that we are subjected to this by the Plan of God in hope or rather 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). We ARE the creature both individually and corporately and we should understand here that this subjection to vanity IS a thing that affects ALL men save perhaps those of whom we have read over the last posts and where we see that the Master and the Baptist both are born in unique fashion, heralded by angels and:
- Of John the Baptist we read: “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15).
- Of Jesus we read: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together , she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:18).
In the one, Jesus, we have the virgin birth and the reality of the angels words to Mary that “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). Here we have the Christ Child born and in this picture we have the reality of Paul’s saying of the Master: “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colosians 2:9); a Son of God fully expressing His divinity through His form on the Earth. In the other, the Baptist, we have the reality of the angel’s words above and the continuation saying that: “many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:16-17). Here we have a Son of God with a specific mission to accomplish and protection against the vanity of the world instilled in him from birth. There may have been many born like John the Baptist around the world that we do not read about in such detail and there are the prophets of the Old Testament that were born with some degree of divinity in form and these are those who have, in their way and their time, achieved acceptance into the Kingdom of God as Souls who have accomplished their objective on the Earth which is their eventual expression of divinity as a man in the world. There are undoubtedly others even to today that come among us for specific purpose and as accomplished Souls and in this reality we should see the ideas behind these words from our Tibetan brother:
“He who faces the light of His Soul and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the Kingdom of God. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, yet loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.
“He faces towards the dark and then the seven points of light within himself transmit the outward streaming light, and lo! the face of those upon the darkened way receives that light. For them, the way is not so dark. Behind the warriors—twixt the light and dark—blazes the light of the Kingdom itself.“*
These words above are about the disciple who is accounted worthy of the Kingdom and who chooses to stand with his brothers who have not yet been so accounted. From our perspective and in the varying degree of discipleship, this is what we speak about above and in the previous essay; this is the Soul who chooses to return to help the Christ in that day over 2500 years and this is the Soul who chooses to return for a specific purpose yet today. We should note there that there is a choice given and, from our own very limited perspective on this, we would believe that ALL such disciples choose to assist as this is the Way of Love.
For the vast majority then this Life in illusion and glamour is our norm; it is what we are placed into by way of our birth in this world. It is the plight of most ALL Souls who pass through Life here on Earth and it is, according to the apostle, the thing that we must be delivered from; this bondage of corruption is our Life in form and our deliverance is to the Kingdom of God which we MUST understand IS NOT a place but a state of being. This state is such that we will, as men in the flesh, KNOW that we are free from the flesh, from its appetites and desires and free from any proclivity with which we came, and in this idea of flesh is incorporated ALL the has to do with the carnal Life of man. This is the state that the Paul calls for us as being Christ’s which we see as placing the entirety of one’s Life into His hands which is accomplished by the reality of the Christ Within being expressed by the Life in form. Here we should remember that the apostle tells us that “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24) or in another place that we should “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). We have spoken before about this word lust and the interpretation of it in the world where it is related mostly to sex, but this IS NOT the reality of this word. Here again we find the reality of illusion entering in as one forms a belief that this lust is, like sin and evil, only restricted to those gross things that a man can do. In sin and evil we have the plain reality of the things of the world as opposed to the things of God and while this does include the gross behavior and thoughts, it IS NOT limited to the gross but they are, by degree, ALL things that ARE of the world and concerned with one’s self and his Life in the world. This should be borne out for us in the saying that “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) which covers many millions of well meaning people who never act in the gross fashion of sin as given in the commandments but who at the same time are consumed in Life with the things of the self.
In the three of these words, sin, evil and lust, man has chosen to think of them as those things that others do and thus their own personal definitions which we likely ALL have. However, the reality of ALL of these is that they are centered on the self and the things of the self in the world and not upon God. Lust is merely desire, some say strong desire, but it is desire nonetheless. There are many in the church who do not see this and many who deride similar teachings in other religions who have more pointed teachings about desire. Here, in the words of the Master and His apostles the tact is more to encourage men to see the reality in the overall teachings than to explicitly give instructions about this general behavior. Sayings by the Master on God and mammon and the treasure of the heart are among His warnings to us on desire:
- “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). Here a man has two choices and the idea here is not so much as one would view the idea of a master but rather where one puts his thoughts and his actions which can be seen as serving and, if we could use the idea here of purpose the Master’s words take on a Truer meaning: what purpose do we serve? the purpose of God or our own selfish ends? There is nothing bad here about either of these choices as they are just that, choices, and, when one realizes that the True purpose of Life is for us to “be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“, he can then make True progress. Conversely, as long as a man believes that his Life and Life’s successes are dependent upon the world and his activities in the world then he remains “subject to vanity” which we KNOW as illusion and as glamour, and can be considered as serving mammon.
- “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is , there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). Here the Master is trying to give us a common sense approach to what we are saying in the previous point; He is telling us that these things of the world that man chases are subject to the ways of the world and we should not think that the subject here is possessions only as these words take us to ALL things for the self, be they actions, thoughts or possessions. The key criteria for us when we are speaking of the “treasures upon earth” is our understanding of the idea of treasure being ALL things that become important to a man that are of the Earth and for the self and this IS the Master’s point although He does not express it as we would….as fleeting and as temporal. Again, conversely, He gives us the choice and we have the alternative which is to accumulate “treasures in heaven” which we do when we make the things of God our focus and make them of importance to us in this Life on Earth. We can of course find these things in the fruit of the Spirit and the Wisdom from above and in ALL things that are of the Good, the Beautiful and the True.
- “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet” (Romans 7:7). Our next point here is from Paul who gives us also the words we used above concerning the ideas of lust and of the flesh which is of course the entirety of the human experience as body and personality. Paul tells us above that if men are believing that they are Christ’s or that the Christ is active in one’s Life then the attitude must be as he states above; free from the carnal things of the world. As we said above however this word lust IS misconstrued as is the idea of sin and evil and lust is considered mainly in relation to sex and most always in relation to that type of desire. In our saying here we should try to see Paul’s mediating words regarding lust as he relates this to covet and here we would see that lust can be one’s desire for the things of another.
- “If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:21-24). Above we try to lay out the Master’s words on desire and what one should desire and we try to show from Paul’s words the ultimate reality of the idea of lust which is any desire for any thing of the flesh, any thing of the world. Here now in this point we pick the a greater breadth of the reality that we are to see; here the apostle is telling us that if we are Truly taught by Christ, by the Christ Within, that we should “put off….the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts“; this is the teaching of the AGES. Paul adds here the reality of Life as well, what we should be thinking and doing as “the new man“, the expression of the divine True man “which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness“. Our eventual expression of the fullness of the Soul through form.
We took another side trip today, one that was sparked by our discussion of the Master’s words to His disciples in the Sixteenth Chapter of John’s Gospel and one that is deserving of a long look by ALL who would be aspirants and disciples, ALL who are trying to focus upon the things of God and strive toward that strait gate that opens into His Kingdom.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
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:
Leaving again the Great Invocation, we encourage ALL to read and reread it and our comments as in these words can be found the keys to our spiritual reality.
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.
This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132
The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.
Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.
The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Hebrew Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- * Discipleship in the New Age – Volume II by Alice A Bailey; © 1955 by Lucis Trust
