Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CLXXXIV
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
We began the last post intending to continue our discussion of the ways that the Master tells us we can attain of the Kingdom of God, how we can be accounted worthy of the Kingdom and we had finished our part on those sayings of Jesus that directly refer to man’s criteria, the requirements if you will, for achieving this High Calling. While the next part was to be our view of discipleship and how this IS the same High Calling, we did get sidetracked; first by the new column in our chart below and second in the discussion of the Sixteenth Chapter of the Gospel of John that our discussion of the chart led us to. Today we will continue with our thoughts from yesterday on the Sixteenth Chapter of John as we did leave this in the middle of a series of thoughts on how the Master delivers several Life changing messages to His disciples as He approaches the end of His time with them. Before we begin however we should note that it does not matter what part of the gospels or the epistles we turn to day by day, we can find in most every one deeper and more dynamic meanings than those that are generally expounded from the religious perspective; we can and do find ideas and thoughts that expand our understanding and this is what we mean when we say that there is always a newness in the words of the Master and His apostles or, perhaps this is better said as: we can always find, we can always realize, a newer and deeper message than we had seen before.
In yesterday’s essay we discussed the realities of the Sixteenth Chapter and noted the final word to the apostles regarding the Holy Ghost, called in the King James Version and others as the Comforter and in still other translations the Paraclete which is the English rendition of the Greek word. Vincent tells us of this word Parakletos that From para, to the side of, and kalew, to summon. Hence, originally, one who is called to another’s side to aid him, as an advocate in a court of justice. The later, Hellenistic use of parakalein and paraklhsiv, to denote the act of consoling and consolation, gave rise to the rendering Comforter, which is given in every instance in the Gospel, but is changed to advocate in 1 John ii. 1, agreeably to its uniform signification in classical Greek. The argument in favor of this rendering throughout is conclusive. It is urged that the rendering Comforter is justified by the fact that, in its original sense, it means more than a mere consoler, being derived from the Latin confortare, to strengthen, and that the Comforter is therefore one who strengthens the cause and the courage of his client at the bar: but, as Bishop Lightfoot observes, the history of this interpretation shows that it is not reached by this process, but grew out of a grammatical error, and that therefore this account can only be accepted as an apology after the fact, and not as an explanation of the fact. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, by the word paraklhtov, of which Paraclete is a transcription, represented as our Advocate or Counsel, “who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world, of wrong, and pleads our cause before God our Father.”4. There is a certain amount of confusion in the common understanding of this word though our understanding of the idea of Comforter can and does work in our larger understanding of the Holy Spirit as this Power works out in our lives. And, while there is much doctrine in Vincent’s words, there is also much from our perspective as well; we understand the Paraclete as the Holy Spirit because this is what the Master tells us in another place saying: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). In this, aside from the understanding that this is the Holy Spirit, we should get the Master’s intent in telling us of the action, the activity of the Paraclete which is the activity of the Christ Within in form. None of this is clearly expressed and as we noted yesterday this is intentional on the Master’s part as He is bringing His apostles to the knowledge of these mysteries and secrets slowly and methodically so that when He is gone they will have this Paraclete, this activity of the God within, to help and to comfort them. From Vincent’s words we can see similar ideas as the Paraclete is seen as one who strengthens the cause and the courage of his client and who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world 4. Can we see here the reality of the Christ Within acting on one’s Life to strengthen and give courage and to provide to the consciousness the True course of action from the perspective of the Kingdom?
Again, we must note that the apostles are being made to realize that these things are True and that they do not, even at this point in time, Truly understand what the Master is saying and this is where we left off in the last post. This realization will eventually become their own and will become at the same time their expression to the world and, the same is also True for us who by these same realizations will become the eventual expression of divinity in the world of men. Doctrinally many believe that the Holy Spirit is just that, the Spirit of God that can come into one’s Life at some arbitrary point and that this is not so much a personal thing as it is the use of this Spirit of God by the privileged individual. While there is Truth to this idea of the Holy Spirit IS the Spirit of God, the doctrinal understanding of the working of this is the world is misplaced and the reality of the Spirit’s True nature as the activity of God in the world or in manifestation IS NOT seen. These ideas are expressed in the chart below and in our many words on this subject on our previous essays. In short, there is but ONE GOD who is realized in Three Aspects and these Aspects are the same in God and in man; we should see this in the reality of the need to break down this Awesome Reality of God into expressible parts much the same as was done and is still done in some world religions…..to the Potencies of God we apply the Aspects of God and here below we have the Son or the Christ as the manifest Love of God and the Holy Spirit as the activity of that Love. In this explanation we can perhaps see the difficulty of the apostles in Jesus day to understand and comprehend and perhaps we can see as well the method of the Master’s teaching them in words and ways that they could understand and could use until the realization was theirs.
We should note that even in the Master’s words that lead up to His telling them of His way of teaching them, there is a lack of clarity in His rather colorful way of explaining the reality that He is leaving and returning to them and that while they had relied upon Him that they would now have to rely upon the Father. We should try to grasp the Master’s words here as we have suggested above, that they are colored in such a way as to slowly build upon previous teachings and we should try to understand as well that there IS a hidden reality to the Master’s words here about the Father. Building upon earlier words where the Master tells them “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23) and where we can glimpse the idea of the God Within, the Master is telling them that they will have what they ask from the Father; of course we must ever understand that the man in this mode of discipleship only asks for Wisdom from above and the fruit of the Spirit as he has NO other needs and this understanding is sorely missed in the churches today. As we covered the reality of the Life changing events in this chapter we came across the Master’s words that tell the apostles that when He is gone that there will be chaos and that they will be persecuted by those same that sought to persecute Him and in this the Master gives reason:
- In the Master’s saying that “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service” (John 16:2)” we should be able to see His sense of understanding of the humanity of the Pharisee and other religious rulers who do what they do because they “think that he doeth God service“. We find this same ‘thinking’ at play yet today and it goes beyond Christianity, it goes across ALL religions and, even through the Crusades and the Reformation Wars, there is little or no understanding of this basic human failing that is founded in the glamour and the illusion of Life on this Earth. This point we covered in the last post but thought it wise to add this insight today as this IS a fundamental problem in our relationships, interdenominational, between sects, and between the various religious approaches to God and while these may not result in violence, they are nonetheless harmful and warned against.
- This second point we covered yesterday as well and this is the realization by the apostles of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Here we made the point of the use of the word that we translate send and suggested that we look at this in the same way that we would look at the idea of the Christ being sent by the Father and this while recognizing that they ARE ONE. We should see that there IS a deeper meaning here than just the mystical works Master, we should see that in His words: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7) there IS the message that as the Master leaves, he will be replaced by the apostles’ realization of the Christ Within, the God Within as this would be seen in that day, and this because they will no longer be able to rely upon Him and His Presence.
- We continued with the Master’s words that remind the apostles that He will return to them and our comments that they DO NOT understand. We also note that the Master makes no real effort to tell them these things clearly as we may understand them because in that day and in the emotionally based mental state of the men in that day, the Master’s words are clouded by the illusion of what they had KNOWN to be True. We should understand here a thing that we have discussed before and that is that NONE of these close associates of the Master are such by accident but rather these men were born at this time and in this place to aid and assist Him as Souls of some advancement who nonetheless must come through the same Life trials that ALL men must and who must achieve the Kingdom and discipleship as must any of us today who are so advanced as to have this as a possibility for any particular incarnation. The Master comes to us in a unique birth and as one who IS born a Son of God on this Earth and of whom the Apostle Paul tells us “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). John the Baptist, of whom the Master tells us “Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist” is also the subject of a unique birth, heralded by the angel who says “he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke 1:15) and we used this same saying in the last post to show that the Holy Ghost is not a new thing that is only available when the Master leaves. In John we should see a Soul that comes with full KNOWLEDGE of his mission while with the apostles we find Souls that must achieve this KNOWLEDGE much the same as we do. We should note here also the meaning of His words about the Kingdom of God and the reality of the High Calling that it IS as the Master concludes His comment above about the Baptist saying: “notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:11).
- The Master then tells His assembled disciples that He has been intentionally unclear although, as we have found, there are many things that He says that are said with perfect clarity but which are seen as though they are clouded. Jesus tells them “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). We should see in this statement that there is yet the continual teaching in proverb and we should say again here that this word is a kindred word to parable; it is hard to distinguish a difference except that in most of what John reveals about the Master, little is True parable in the form of a story. In John’s Gospel we find unclear words spoken in a straightforward way and, while this is true of the synoptic gospels as well, it is especially True in John and perhaps this is the intended dividing line between the proverb and the parable. The Master tells them that “the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs” and this is not defined in time and perhaps we can glean from this that in His absence and in the Light of the Soul, the God Within, that flows into their lives as the Paraclete, that there is then that clarity of revelation, that realization, that we ALL seek.
- Shortly after telling the apostles that His sayings are as proverbs or parabolic in nature, the Master goes on to say “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28). There is only mystical thought available from this saying as none of the mystery is explained and this is an apparent fact in most ALL of the Master’s teachings as well as those of the apostles, we must as men in form discern the Truth as it impacts our consciousness in form and as the reality and the revelation and the realization comes from the Soul, the Christ Within, or, as John tells us, from the anointing which we have. Of course this reality and revelation and realization are ONLY possible to those who are rightly focused upon the things of God as are the apostles in that day. There is a saying in the books of our Tibetan brother that tells us that: A paradoxical situation is brought about from the fact that the disciple is told to enquire the Way and yet there is none to tell him. Those who know the Way may not speak, knowing that the Path is constructed by the aspirant as the spinner spins its web out of the centre of his own being. Thus only those souls flower forth into adepts in any specific generation who have “trodden the winepress of the wrath of God alone” or who (in other words) have worked out their karma alone and who have intelligently taken up the task of treading the Path.** Can we see this reality in the parabolic and proverbial sayings of the Master and His apostles and can we understand why none that they say is absolutely clear? This of couse only applies to those things that have as their subject a realization and revelation of the mysteries and the secrets as there is much in the words of the Master and His apostles that do instruct us in Right Living. In one’s approach from this perspective of Right Living there IS Right Focus and it IS in this that the realizations and the revelations of the God Within flow through one’s Life and this flowing IS the Paraclete, this IS the Holy Spirit.
- The last verse in this series of sayings by the Master contains one of our favorite sayings and one that should encourage us as we KNOW that we can be like Him. In the trials and our tribulations that are a part of our Life in form it is our sincere intent that we can overcome the pull of the world and the things of the world and find that peace in which we can stand. Speaking of His words above and perhaps referencing ALL of His words to His disciples the Master says: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
This concludes our look at the words of the Master in the Sixteenth Chapter of John’s Gospel. There is much here in His words that has fit well with our understanding of Life and our spiritual pursuits and there is likely yet more revelation and realization in these words that we have missed.
We did not get back to our discussion on the chart below and we will pick up with this 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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
