IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 632

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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In the last post we took our attention off of Easter and put it back onto what we see as the greater reality to spiritual enlightenment, to the awakening of the man in form to the Truth of Life and the Christ or the God within. Our discussion was in regard to our own ability to fight off the forces of the world, the forces of illusion and glamour as they affect our mental and emotional attraction to the things of the world and the things of and for the self. We also centered upon the tendency that we see that allows a man, a culture and an entire society to take the relatively clear words of the Master and turn them into benefits for the man in form; benefits from a worldly perspective which are opposed to the Truth of His words. This tendency creates whole sections of society that find safe harbor in the revisionist doctrines of many parts of the church as scripture is interpreted according to the ways of man. Scattered throughout our many essays are examples of these type of dilutions and changes to the Master’s words, many along with the words of this or that commentator an interpreter and often with the definitions of words that are themselves based in the doctrines that they are designed to support. It is our premise that the common daily part of most every religion, denomination, sect and cult, their doctrines if you will, are by their very design intended to appeal to the man in form and not to carry forth the reality of man’s journey to the Kingdom of God.

As we discussed in the last post, the Master cites the effects of our premise in His accusations against the scribes and the Pharisees and the other rulers of the Jews in His day and by doing so predicting if you will the ways of the religions bodies and their rulers going forward. In citing the words of the Prophet Isaiah, the Master sets forth the reality of both Isaiah’s time and His own and if we look closely enough we will find that much of this it the reality of our time as well. Of course we do not look closely enough as a society and we likely take objection to any words spoken against our own beliefs but, if we look would closely we would likely see as well that the scribe and the Pharisee saw his own religion in much the same way; as established doctrine and as tradition and as their self-defined way to God. Much of the New Testament that is not the direct teachings of the Master in plain speak or in parable and proverb IS His denouncements of the Pharisees and the other religious rulers of the Jews in that day and we should try to see the greater reality in His denouncements which for us is that He is speaking out against what they teach and the way they teach and even believe; it as a warning to them and a warning to ALL successive generations in the Judeo-Christian world that they should not follow in these same ways.

A similar scene to that one we used from Matthew’s Gospel in the last post appears in the Gospel of Luke and while it is not addressed here in relation to the words of the Prophet, it is nonetheless a critical indictment of the state of religion in that day; this encounter goes thus: “And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you. But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone” (Luke 11:37-42). Here in the frankness of His words to the Pharisee who invited Him, we find the Master doing several things, one of which is ignoring the established traditions which He knows and was likely raised in….the Master DOES NOT wash His hands. Now this is not to say that to wash one’s hands before dining is wrong, it is likely a good habit but it IS NOT a commandment and here and in the citation from yesterday from Matthew’s Gospel we see that the Pharisees consider these traditions as that they are such. Here again we can look at words of the prophet who says: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7).

In the last post the Master uses the Commandment saying “Honour thy father and thy mother” (Exodus 20:12) as His example of the ways of men and tradition as they change the commandments to laws that are more palatable while here above we see the Master is telling them that they are hiding behind their tithing and their alms and using these to define their righteousness over the precepts of the Law. Now much commentary does not see this as we do:

• Vincent tells us that: Such things as ye have (ta enonta). Only here in New Testament. Commentators differ as to the meaning, but generally reject that of the A.V. Rev., those things which are within. The meaning is, give alms of the contents of the cups and platters ⁴. and he does not consider the next part.
• John Gill seemingly agrees with Vincent here saying first that: The phrase (ta enonta) , is variously rendered, and so furnishes out various senses: the Syriac version renders it, “give that which is”, which is yours; or “which is given to you”, as the Persic version, and agrees with ours, “such things as ye have”; and which carries in it but a very odd sense; for none can give of that which they have not. The Vulgate Latin version reads, “that which is over and above”; superfluous substance, and which may be easily spared without hurting a man, or his family: others, “as much as you can”: according to a man’s ability, and as God has prospered him in the world. The Ethiopic version renders it, “that which is necessary”; which the necessities of the poor call for, and is right and proper to give them: and the Arabic version, very foreign from the sense of the phrase, reads, “before every thing”; above all things give alms. But the true sense of it is contained in the literal version of it, “things that are within”; that is, that are within the cup and the platter; give meat and drink to the poor, your platters and cups are full of, gotten by injustice and oppression. Some read it not imperatively, “give”, but indicatively, “ye do give”: you oppress and defraud men, devour widows’ houses, and fill your own with the spoils of others; and then give out of your cups and platters drink to the thirsty, and meat to the hungry, to make atonement for your avarice and extortion ⁸. We should note here only that there is no consensus on the rendering as the translators and the commentators try to relate these words to the Master’s sense of what is within and without the cup and the bowl. The latter sense here which Mr. Gill calls indicatively seems for us a more realistic approach in the context of the translated words of the Master as the words do not for us imply within; they are more in line with our version which is clarified in Young’s Literal Translation for us saying “But what ye have give ye [as] alms, and, lo, all things are clean to you“. We should try to see the woe attitude of the Master here as He begins His ‘tirade’ against the powers that be in the Jew’s religion, that He is saying, after showing them that the tradition does not matter, and then moving on to His similar point that we had yesterday, that they should not regard the traditions, which are the commandments of men which are used in place of the commandments of God to show oneself righteous. So then assuming that the Jewish leaders DID give to the poor, the Master is saying facetiously that this act of giving, being what you do while thinking that it can be True that because you give that “behold, all things are clean unto you“. On this next part Mr. Gill agrees with our understanding saying that: and behold all things are clean unto you; that is, according to their own opinion, who fancied that alms deeds justified them in the sight of God, cleansed them from their sins, delivered them from hell, and gave them a title to eternal life ⁸.

Our reality here is still found in the right discernment of the ideas of sin and of evil and we introduce here our further premise which is that there IS only one way to be cleansed and this IS  NOT in forgiveness as offered by the church nor by any understanding of the atoning quality of death and resurrection of the Christ; the only way to be cleansed is through True Repentance, that decision to change that puts a man onto the Path to God as he turns away from the ways of the world which IS the reality of his sin. In the scripture above and our understanding of it we should see that men in Isaiah’s day as well as in Jesus’ day were cleverly trying to change the emphasis of righteousness from the actual performance of those things that are required by the word to the convenient things that are used as a cover and which the Master cites above in regard to alms and, in our last essay, in regard to the abolition of honoring father and mother as they replaced it with ‘Corban’. Vincent helps us with this word Corban saying:  It is a gift (dwron). Rev., given to God. The picture is that of a churlish son evading the duty of assisting his needy parents by uttering the formula, Corban, it is a gift to God. “Whatever that me be by which you might be helped by me, is not mine to give. It is vowed to God.” The man, however, was not bound in that case to give his gift to the temple-treasury, while he was bound not to help his parent; because the phrase did not necessarily dedicate the gift to the temple. By a quibble it was regarded as something like Corban, as if it were laid on the altar and put entirely out of reach. It was expressly stated that such a vow was binding, even if what was vowed involved a breach on the law ⁴. Can we see the hypocrisy that the Master is railing against here and the cover that the Jew in that day would use to shield himself against having to actually give?

Our point here in discussing these things that were done by men to seemingly circumvent the Truth of God’s laws is so that we can bring this forward to our present time and to the realization that the objective of some has not changed, that men will still look to circumvent the reality of the Master’s words by cleverly diluting or changing the way that His word is understood, or better, the way that it is interpreted and in this idea of clever we have a specific meaning and a specific actual result:

• The Master tells us “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke 16:8)
• The Apostle Paul tells us “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written , He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19) and again as a question to the Corinthians “hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” (1 Corinthians 1:20)
• Paul also tells us that “Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8)

The nature of these sayings should emphasize our point above where we use the idea of clever to highlight the wisdom of this world as Paul puts it or perhaps exemplify what the Master means in His commendation of the unjust steward who had done ‘wisely‘ according to the ways of the world as he cleverly constructed things to his own benefit. And this is our point as it works out with the steward or those that believe that they are religious or spiritual when that belief is based upon those ideas of men that become their doctrines. And we should understand here that while the steward may have purposely done what he did, he did so not out of malice but out of necessity….for his own survival, and so it is with the religious who have created ways to circumvent the word of the Lord by clever dilutions and changes to the word. The unfortunate part of this is found with the succeeding generations who are taught this doctrine as it were the word of God and hence this whole topic, as it is motivated by the words of the prophet who tells us, speaking for God, that “in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). There is a functional difference in the way that the word doctrine is used by the translators here as we should see this saying as concerning the teaching as if the word of God, the commandments of men. In our own writing we call these commandments of men the doctrines of the churches save those that are actually stated in scripture. The message however should be clear and it is these commandments of men, the doctrines as we call them, that dilute and change the word that we take issue with today as we see in the ideas of Corban and the doctrine of the tradition of the washing of hands; these are not from the word of God yet they are presented as such.

And this same is True of ALL things taught by the established churches since the inception of Christianity as they have established voluminous doctrines to cover their actions and their desire over the actions of others who would seek to participate in any particular denomination or sect of the church. It is not our intent here to get into what teachings by what denominations fall into this idea of the presentation of the doctrines of men as the word of God or even an extrapolation of those words, It is only our intent to reinforce our own words that say that the Way to the Kingdom is found in His words and these words must be discerned by each of us individually as they are but words until they are embraced in our lives and made a part of our expression to the world. This does not mean that we should not have teachers, these are necessary; what we mean is that the teachers should come to recognize the Truth of the Master’s words and the amplification and the clarification of those words by the apostles. We close here with these words from the Apostle James who tells us clearly “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and in this we should see the self deception of those to whom the Master is speaking above.

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 see them as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit albeit on a much smaller, microcosmic, scale.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com