Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLXXXVIII
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
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
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren” (James 1:12-16).
In the last post we continued our discussion on desire and lust. The term desire is used in most all world religions as an idea of behavior in one’s Life in the world that is contrary to the ways of God and these same ideas carry forth into Christianity albeit covered in a swell of parables and proverbs that do not use straightforward language but rather couch the reality in thoughts that must be individually discerned as they are not taught by the doctrines that men have created from these parables and proverbs. We discussed the misconceptions of the word used in the New Testament which is rendered in many versions as lust and which carries that certain connotation of a sexual nature even into those other translations that render this Greek word epithumia as desire. The Master’s words however cannot be so misconstrued as He does not use this word in His dissertations on the choice of God or mammon or on the choice of where a man sees his own sense of the treasures that he will pursue and hold dearest. As an aspirant we must ever be diligent and give our fullest interpretation to these ideas and these words offered by the Master and His apostles and see that we give no quarter to carnal thoughts of how we can allow certain desires into our lives. The reality for the aspirant is that there are only two Paths to travel; the one that keeps us intertwined with the ways of the world by our denial that certain things in our lives, certain thoughts for the self, are OK and the other is that one will forsake ALL for the Kingdom and this of course DOES MEAN ALL. In our understanding of the equivalency of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom and discipleship, we see this saying by the Master as the CLEAR instruction of this Truth: “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
We must recognize here that desire IS what keeps a man involved mentally, emotionally and physically in the world of things and which bring him to a perspective where these desires are important and the driving force in his Life. It is exactly the opposite of these thoughts that the gospels and the epistles teach to the man who sees them as they are offered and not as he would like, or desire, them to be. In the Old Testament world and scriptures there were hard and fast rules given to men that they should comply with and in fulfilling these in their totality one could find discipleship and the attainment of the Kingdom; but these things would not nor could they happen to the man who did not do them wholeheartedly, the man who did not do them “with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might“. This is of course the perspective that one MUST HAVE to Truly say that he Loves God and there is no other way to show that Love than by keeping His words and doing so wholeheartedly as we read in the whole thought: “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). This is of course the commandment that the Master raised up from its place in the rambling laws of Moses in Deuteronomy to a status that is above and beyond the Ten Commandments; Jesus calls this commandment the first part of the Greatest Commandments with the other being as important as the first CAN NOT be accomplished without one’s fullest adherence to “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” which we find in the words of Moses in Leviticus. In His teaching, the Master changes the perspective on the keeping of the law but He does not change the reality of the law; His message is that we must have this law in our hearts and, other than saying this in a more direct and complete fashion, the message is essentially the same. Of course we understand the idea of heart as the consciousness of the man in the world, a consciousness that must be changed from its focus upon the world and the fulfillment of desires to focus on the the things of God. The Master’s tone and the ideas underlying His sayings are those of Love and the hidden message is that in Love, as it is stated in these Greatest Commandments, ALL other things will work according to the law and this is made abundantly clear to ALL who do not try to find safe harbor for their worldly desires on this Path to the Kingdom and to His Presence.
The Master tells us “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). From the Old Testament to the New this does not change and the thoughts that should come to one in regard to this first part are the WHOLE of one’s journey in just a very few words and this based solely on human logic and without even going to the spiritual or religious view. If one can Love God with ALL his heart, ALL his Soul and ALL his mind, then there is no room left for anything else and it is in these thoughts above that we can find the reality and the reason that we read in esoteric thought that: We are told by one of the Masters that a whole generation of enquirers may only produce one adept. We should see this as a reflection of the Master’s words as He tells us of the difficulty of finding the Way 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) and again from Luke’s perspective as “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). This is our reality, that this Path is not an easy one to find and not an easy one to enter and hence the only reality that we can see is in His words that we should “Strive to enter” and that we should “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock , and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7).
Coming back then to desire and lust, can we see that the reality in our overcoming these things of the world is in seeing more clearly the intent of the words of the Master, of the Old Testament, and even of the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic ideas we set out in the last post. For us who are aspirants and who would be disciples, there is a grand reality in the teachings of the Master on Love and that is that in accomplishing this we move beyond desire to that place were we can stand and say with the Master: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Again we must also recognize the role of illusion and of glamour, the vanity that the Apostle Paul tells us of, as these forces of Life in the world cloud and prevent our seeing the True intent of the Master and of the apostles; men desire and lust after the things of the world because they believe that these are what is important in their individual lives and they see this as the normal. We see this however in its True Light, which we should add here is Light from above, and even if we can not yet live in this Light, being aware of it and the contrary light of the world is a large part of our struggle. There are many in this world who see those who pursue spiritual ends as we do as strange and there are many who see spiritual men as only those who subscribe to their own view of things spiritual. There are many yet who see the priest and the rabbi and other ‘men of the cloth’ as their spiritual leaders and guides and who are disheartened when men such as these fall prey to carnal temptations. None of this should matter to the aspirant as he goes about his daily life in constant striving toward that High Calling of discipleship while KNOWING that the majority of the words of the Master and of the apostles and of the Buddha and Krishna, as well as Muhammad and most every True revealer of Truth, are intended for the disciple, the aspirant and the devotee who can understand them and better see their intent. And in this intent we KNOW that there can be no quarter given to our worldly inclinations and that we must understand that to allow what we individually see as the most difficult things to forsake to remain in our lives only prolongs the time that we suffer in this world of duality; seeing the goal and putting in our own roadblocks that keep us from it.
And perhaps here is the reality of the idea of suffering that we encountered in the last post where we saw that in our saying: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24) that the word rendered as affections should be seen better as passion according to Vincent and which the lexicon defines as suffering. Can we see this as: being Christ’s that we crucify the flesh and the sense of suffering that we endure as the lower nature continually looks back at the old Life in form and at the same time we crucify those persistent pangs of desire and lust for that worldly Life?
And this IS the intended Life of the disciple, to be free from the suffering and the pangs of lust and desire that plague the human kingdom, we are intended to overcome them and to stand free and apart from the ways and the things of the world and, at the same time, to participate in the world and to stand above it ALL as the Shining Light of the Soul in form. This is the journey that Paul tells us about in his Epistle to the Romans; this is not only our own journey but the very nature of Life for the whole of humanity: “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” (Romans 8:20-21). The only thing missing from this, one of the most complete of sayings in scripture as regards the reality if Life, is the fact of reincarnation which is not discussed in any substantive way in the entire bible. Looking at this saying in our reality we should be able to readily note that this deliverance is scantily possible in a single lifetime. The True bar of discipleship is set quite high as is the setting of the bar for being accounted worthy of the Kingdom as we discussed in a recent series of essays. We do see these as much the same thing but since there is no True scale, we cannot say with certainty that the one is inclusive of the other. However, lacking a clear scale, we will continue to speak of these, discipleship and attaining the Kingdom, as being the same as there is one clear point made for both and much that crosses over when one tries to see the Master’s intent. The clear point is found in keeping His words which, although the Master does not frame these in the same way, we should KNOW are the same.
- On attaining the Kingdom: “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).
- On being a disciples: “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (Jonh 8:31).
When we view these sayings while looking for the True intent of the Master and not that which may be convenient to believe, we should be able to discern the Truth that they are saying the same thing. And, if we look at these ideas in the mathematical equation that we used to equate the various sayings on attaining the Kingdom, we can see here again that they come to be the same thing saying; that if keeping His words equals the Kingdom and keeping his words equals discipleship then attaining the Kingdom and discipleship are also then equal. There are not clear lines in the words of the Master and His apostles; much is left to us as Souls expressing Life through form to rightly discern and to accomplish. There may be in fact an intentional clouding of the realities of Life as the mysteries and the secrets that the Master keeps from us ALL in His parables and proverbs and in the directing of the writings of the apostles to those who should understand the deeper meanings of their words. For us the dividing line is discipleship and in discipleship we see those same ideas that we see in relation to the Kingdom of God which we recently enumerated and discussed; in this list we find keeping His words or doing the Will of the father, True righteousness which we should see as His righteousness and which we seek as we seek the Kingdom, perfection, His perfection which the Master admonishes us to be in and the ability to accept the Kingdom as a little child which, while being an unclear saying, can have deep meaning for us ALL as we contemplate His intent. To this we must add that idea of being poor for as He says “Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20) and, while this is alternately worded in Matthew’s Gospel as “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3) we do see them as the same and as relating to the forsaking of ALL for the Kingdom. Paul tells us that the Master “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7); this IS our example and we should understand that this word rendered as reputation is defined in Strong’s as to empty, deprive; (pass)to be hollow, empties, of no value 3. Can we see in this the ideas or being poor and forsaking?
We close today with the Master’s words on being His disciple and alternately on being worthy of Him and we will pick up with these thoughts in the next post.
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).
- “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33).
- “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31).
- “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
- “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38).
We left a saying from James at the top of this essay with intentions of working it into our discussion on desire and lust but we never did do so. We will address this from the perspective of temptation as we proceed through the Master’s requirements for discipleship and for being accounted worthy.
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 Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
