Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLXXXIX
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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“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).
Today is the six hundredth edition of In the Words of Jesus which marks for us yet another milestone but one that fades in importance against the realizations and revelation that have come into my waking consciousness in this Life on this Earth. Paul Simon, an American song writer and musician, wrote many years ago in his song ‘The Boxer’ some simple lines that I never forget and that have True meaning: After changes upon changes We are more or less the same; After changes we are more or less the same. I have ofttimes reflected on these simple words that express a simple Truth and see Life as we are born based upon the acquired proficiency of our True self to build his incarnating form and personality and work through them in any particular Earth Life. Except perhaps for accident, disease or acute trauma, the equipment that we build, the proclivity of one’s life and the attitudes expressed are, for the most part, the same throughout one’s adult Life having been the product of the nature and the nurture of the man. Many things may change in one’s Life as we move through it year after year and, in my experience, even when one is lost in the illusion and the glamour or the ways of the world, the basic proclivities and attitudes remain….we are more or less the same. Similar has this experience of writing been as we now write our six hundredth essay and do so as if this daily exercise is but a part of the overall tenor of Life; as though I have been preparing for this for many years, and this thought I have expressed in this blog before. So day by day and year by year we build UPON that which we have been able to establish as Souls and as this time passes we realize that while we may be better at expressing our inner reality, that inner reality remains much the same. Of course I speak here of myself but I can project this onto any who have made themselves aware of an inner reality, any who are not totally identified with the Life in form; of us in whom there is that beating impulse from within that moves us toward a goal that we cannot see and do not understand but which at the same time remains relatively unchanged…..After changes upon changes We are more or less the same.
We ended the last essay with a list of sayings by the Master on discipleship and His spoken requirements that allow one to Truly be one. We added to this His like words from another gospel that tell us that these same requirements are established for one to be Truly worthy of Him. It is in this basic similarity that we tie these sayings together and it is in the Master’s saying in another place that we tie these both to the reality of attaining the Kingdom of God. Speaking of the glory of heaven, that same Kingdom that He tells us is within, He says: “But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry , nor are given in marriage: Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:25-36). In this saying there is much hidden truth from our perspective on His teachings and the reality of Life. We should understand that the word rendered as world is in reality a term that signifies time and would be better understood as those accounted worthy to attain this eternal Life which can be seen then as that Life that no longer includes our incursions into Life in form on this Earth. And we should try to see this idea of resurrection as it is used here in the same way; that it refers to that eternal Life apart from this ‘death’ which incarnated Life represents in the experience of the Soul. Hence we have adopted this idea of being accounted worthy as our understanding of fulfilling the requirements for attaining the Kingdom where we take on a Truer nature of being “equal unto the angels; and are the children of God” which we see as well as our goal and our objective. This is also as we often write from the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us in that revealing saying of our devolvement into Life in form and our eventual liberation from it; he tells us that as we are accounted worthy we: “also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
Our ongoing point regarding the Kingdom and discipleship is that these ARE NOT the simple human affair that is perceived in the world and taught by much of the church but that these require ardent effort and must fulfill the reality and the intent of the Master’s words and instructions. His criteria for attaining the Kingdom of God we have discussed in recent posts and as we reminded in the last essay these include first and foremost that we DO the Will of God which we ever interpret as to keep His words and commandments and these do for us include the words of the Master. In addition to DOING the Will of the Father we have discussed in some detail the other terms that the Master gives us that are the equivalent to keeping His words and are both the cause and the result of doing so. As we expressed these in the last post, we repeat them here: 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. We should add here in regard to this idea of forsaking that in His words to the rich young man the Master makes the same point for us in saying: “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21). Here, in our understanding of our equation which makes ALL Ways to the Kingdom equal and inclusive of each other, we find the instructions on being perfect and on forsaking and this brings us to Jesus words on discipleship:
- “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). As we have discussed in previous essays, this idea forwarded here of hate is not a realistic look at the intent of the Master but is rather another language and translation issue with which we must deal. The companion saying below from Matthews Gospel uses the idea of Loving less rather than hate and we should understand that the Master would NOT ask a man to hate….especially his mother and father. An idea of this meaning can be found in the Master’s words on God and mammon where we read: “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” (Matthew 6:24). Here we see that the choice is between God and mammon and, in reality, the choice in our saying about mother and father is the same….it IS about a choice between God and mammon. This may seem a harsh interpretation but from the perspective of the aspirant and the disciple, there can be no other way as NO THING can stand in one’s Life before God. So here, while the word may be translated only in the context of hate, the nature of its uses requires it be seen as we premise; that for the one who seeks spiritual advancement, NO THING of this world can be before one’s sense of God and the God Within. Similar, as we saw in the last post regarding the Great Commandment and the logic of it which IS that when one Loves God with ALL, there can be no room for any alternatives. Of course we are to hate no man, we are to Love ALL from the perspective of that Love that the Master teaches in the Great Commandment and in the Golden Rule. In framing this in this way we can see that this saying according to Luke captures the Master’s intent better even than does the version below from Matthew which would seemingly allow Love for both. In the end, we must see this as our Truth if we are Truly desirous of discipleship and this Truth is that NO THING can have any more importance than our quest….it must become for each of us ALL consuming and thereby in full compliance with the Great Commandment. We will discuss the reality of the cross in the saying below as these are virtually the same.
- “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). In this we find a great key our success as aspirants moving toward discipleship and likely one that keeps many from achieving the goal. As we read yesterday in the words from the Tibetan’s books and in the words of caution from the Master, it is exceedingly difficult to achieve this High Calling of discipleship; not discipleship as the world perceives it but discipleship as the Master elucidates here in these sayings. Faced with the prospect of giving up ALL is perhaps the most difficult part of one’s journey and this difficulty is of course based in doubt and in fear which are in turn based in illusion and in glamour. Now it is not the intention of the Lord to make of His disciples beggars and vagrants but it is rather that He wants His disciples to want for nothing; not because they have ALL but because they realize that they do not need it and here again we come back to the Master’s admonition that we “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25). The attitude of the disciple must be that He has overcome the world as did the Master and ALL Sons of God who have moved this way before him. The world can have no attraction to the man that calls himself a disciple and he must live in the reality of the Master’s words that tell us this Truth: “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). We must stay the course and be able to say with Paul “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).This is our goal and our destiny as we have said many times before and it matters not that a man KNOW or understand this. Just as we must see the inevitable nature of the first part of Paul’s saying to the Romans: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” that part that puts humanity on this stage we call the world, so the second part inevitable as well which is to “be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). What we do not see as men in the world is the method of this deliverance and it is for this that we search the scriptures of every religion and always in hope that what we believe that we have found is the True answer. However, as a man progresses, as he begins to hear the call of his own Soul and to heed that call, focusing more and more on the divine than on the world, he begins to sense the reality of the Master’s words. the reality that had been covered and hidden in the doctrines that many times dilute and change their intent. Many times this causes the aspirant to search elsewhere, in other religions and religious theory, but since there is but ONE TRUTH, all of his True pursuits will lead to the same result which is clearly given to us by the Master in these two points above. As we say above the Master is not looking to have beggars and vagrants as His disciples and in saying this we should note also that the ideas of an ascetic lifestyle are equally unwarranted. From our perspective it is necessary to accomplish our goal while engaged in the world, expressing the Love and the Power of the Soul, the Christ Within, as a Son of God and as an example for ALL who are desirous of this High Calling. Hence the reality of the Master’s teachings as well as those of the Old Testament and most every True religion is that they are concerned with one’s interaction with other men in the world. There is a strong tie between the idea of this saying on forsaking ALL and our recent discussion on desire and lust and perhaps the key to forsaking is in our proper understanding of these ideas. If we can see in this idea of forsaking the reality of not wanting, desiring or lusting after the things of the world be they wealth or possessions or affections or thoughts of grandeur or personal status, we can likely have a workable understanding of how we should conduct our lives.
These are hard ideas for the average man in the world to accept as he only KNOWS the world and the things of the world; these are likely difficult things for the aspirant to accept for he is attached to the world and the things of the world in many ways. However, from the perspective of the Master’s words, there is no other way, no other Path that one can take than to ‘hate’ family and friends as we discuss above and to detach himself from the desires and lusts for things and any attachment to them.
We will continue with these final points in the next post.
- “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).
| 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!
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
