Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCCVIII
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•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•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31).
We ask ourselves WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).
We have left the above sayings from the Master, the ONE who we call by the Name of Lord and the ONE who asks us rhetorically the simple, straightforward question “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). In these words we find a large part of our own understanding of the importance of this Love that the Master teaches and which we say is both the beginning and the end of our journey to the Kingdom of God. It IS the beginning because without this Love, or at least the willingness to express it, there CAN NOT be any True Repentance. To understand this rational we must look again at the words above where Jesus tells us rather clearly that “There is none other commandment greater than these” and in another place, tells us with equal force that: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40). These ARE things that He says and it IS according to His own words these are among the most important things that He says especially in regard to our interactions with each other in the Earth. And, as if in premonition, the Master tells us that we ARE calling Him Lord yet today, and relying on His Lordship, yet we DO NOT do this Love which He says IS the most important thing of ALL. That there is “There is none other commandment greater than these” and that “all the law and the prophets” are encapsulated in these words on Love should move ALL men to seize upon this but it has not.
In Matthew’s Gospel we find a similar idea in the Master’s words “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). Here we should see that much of the Will of the Father IS found in the words of Jehovah as recorded and announced by Moses as the Ten Commandments and as the many subsidiary commandments that we find in Moses’ writings and we should note that both of the Master’s greatest commandments above ARE from these subsidiary writings. We should understand as well that IT IS the ONE whom we call Lord, Lord, who has elevated these from this subsidiary status to the understanding that there IS NONE greater and that upon THESE WORDS rests ALL “the law and the prophets“. Now there are some in the churches of Christ who try to detract away from these Truths but their arguments are specious at best and, from our perspective can more aptly be called spurious as they ARE NOT the intent of the Master whose message IS clearly Love. The further point here is that the Master is clearly telling those that may believe that ALL that they need to do is to believe, not in our understanding of doing but it that rather nebulous way as understood from doctrine. The Way to the Kingdom IS rather clear here as Jesus tells us that it IS “he that doeth the will of my Father” who WILL find it. And, of course, we must understand that the “will of my Father” and the words of the Master ARE to be seen equally and as the same.
Hence our reality on Repentance, that at a minimum a man MUST be willing to accept Love in the way that the Master offers it which is reflected for us in the words of Moses that the Master raises to the highest office and, in reading these words in their context in Moses writings combined with the teachings of the Master, we will see that this Love IS to be expressed for ALL. And, from the writings of the Master and His apostles, we should see that this Love is to be expressed equally as well. This willingness need not however be based in Christian reading or knowledge of the words of Moses as the impetus to this Love streams forth from a man’s own Soul and is likely the paramount part of the prompting that we experience as our inner drive toward the Good, the Beautiful and the True. This Love IS as well that motivator of our conscience, which is the worldly effect of the prompting of the Soul, that allows us to consider the plight of others even as the personality tries to shut out our own part to play. Repentance then IS within the grasp of ALL men who are at least willing to express this Love of God to ALL and who can decide to change the focus of their lives from the self and the self in the world to God and the True Inner Man. It IS in the process of Transformation that each man has the opportunity to grow in his ability to express this Love in the world of men and to perfect his ability to keep His words which growth IS the result of that decision to change. We posited in a recent post that in this arena of Repentance, that the Repentant man can and sometimes does retract his decision to change as the presumed pressures of Life in the world overwhelm him and he finds that staying in his place is the world is the easier option or the more pleasurable or possibly both, and we derive this from both experience, common sense, and the Master’s words on Repentance and forgiveness. We noted that the act of Repentance itself has spiritual consequences of its own in this regard as the next approach to Repentance will offer an easier and more familiar time for the man who again decides to change and there is likely no limit to the number of times that a man can decide and then change his mind. This moving forward spiritually in fits and starts may well be the way of most ALL men as the illusion and glamour in which we live are powerful forces that can and do hold most men in their grasp and this regardless of their place religiously or socially. It IS the constant prompting of the Soul that moves us forward and it IS the delusions of Life in form that pulls us back.
Again we must emphasize that this idea of True Repentance IS a Truly personal thing as NO man can be Truly privy to another man’s heart so as to KNOW his True state of being and this regardless of what one may say. And it is likely for this reason that the Master tells us clearly that it IS by a man actions in this world that we may KNOW somewhat about him spiritually; these actions ARE every man’s fruits and, as the Master tells us “Ye shall know them by their fruits” and then again that “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:16, 20) and while some may believe that these words are only in regard to the false prophet or the false teacher, they are followed immediately by that saying we use above, that it IS ONLY those “that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” that “shall enter into the kingdom of heaven“. The connection here IS to the man who calls Him Lord, Lord as compared to the man who actually keeps His words as the latter IS evidence of that fruit by which we can KNOW something about a man’s True heart. In the Master’s example He makes this clear as He says “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23). Here then IS the difference between calling on the Lord and doing this or that but at the same time NOT keeping His words nor doing “the will of my Father“. Here again we should visit the words of the Apostle James in regard to those who hear or believe that they ARE doing, but are not DOING as the Master tells us in keeping ALL His words: “”be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22)” The Master goes on to speak to us by parable as He offers the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders whose point IS the same as what we are saying here; this parable goes thus:
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27).
And this IS the result of Repentance, that a man changes from the foolish to the wise, and this IS made possible by that decision to change the focus of one’s Life to the things of God and it IS in the next process of Transformation that a man learns to express, ever more day by day, the fruits made possible through keeping His words. And we should KNOW what these fruits ARE; it IS in keeping His words that we come to express the Good, the Beautiful and the True. In the Parable of the Sower we read this about the good ground and the fruit produced in the three versions as presented in the three synoptic gospels:
- “But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (Matthew 13:23).
- “And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:20).
- “But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
Now ALL of these do say the same thing when read in the openness of reading the Master’s words in the broadest sense; in the first we have hearing and understanding, in the second we have hearing and receiving and in the last, from Luke, we have hearing and keeping. We should understand ALL of these in the same way as to keep His word IS to understand it and to receive it when viewed in the broad sense of the Greek words. Vincent tells us this regarding these versions: Understandeth (συνιείς) See on Matthew 11:25, prudent. The three evangelists give three characteristics of the good hearer. Matthew, he understandeth the word; Mark, he receiveth it; Luke, he keepeth it 4 and we should see here the completion of the Master’s thought as Vincent does. Looking at the types of ground that ARE given in this parable, we should see that it IS the last one, the good ground that IS the Repentant man and the man that has at least begun his work of Transforming and in this we can see the variability of fruit and understand here the growth or rather the progressions of Transformation through which we must go. We should try to view this from the perspective that at the moment a man Repents, from the moment that he makes that decision to change, that he has begun the process of Transformation. We should note here that in the immediacy of the starting of one’s Transformation upon his decision to change, that there is like withdrawal when a man should retract that decision and fall back into the ways of the world and here we would posit that this degree of Transformation that one achieves IS NOT forgotten in the retraction and likely serves to help the man to get back again to Repentance; this IS to say that NO spiritual effort is ever wasted.
Having established then that it IS in this process of Transformation that the fruits of a man’s Life begin to be expressed in the world and that, as the Master tells us above, this fruit is expressed by degree, we should take note of just what this fruit may be. Throughout the Master’s words we can find examples of this fruit as He instructs us in the Way of the disciple but we go to the Apostle Paul for our much referenced list of what he tells us that this fruit IS: Paul tells us that: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). It IS then by our own expression of these ideals that we can be KNOWN by others in accordance with the Master’s words saying “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them“. The apostle tells us again in another place that “…the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesian 5:9) and we should see here that this is likely the end point in our expression; at that ALL point where a man can say that he IS Transformed. We should note here as well that this Transformation IS from within, from the Soul and the Christ Within and it IS accomplished by revelation and realization which words should NOT be seen only as informative but rather as the KNOWING that the Soul imparts to the consciousness in form, the KNOWING that Transforms one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions in the world. And we should see as well that this revelation and this realization come to us in what James calls for us that Wisdom from above which we discuss often and of which we have noted the straightforward relationship to the fruits that we must express as we grow, as we Transform from the aspirant to the disciple. James tells us: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:17-18).
This last part of these words from James IS difficult to rightly discern as it IS unclear that the fruit IS sown by, for, to or of “them that make peace” as this is rendered in different translations of the bible. The Young’s Literal Translation tells us that this should be rendered as “and the fruit of the righteousness in peace is sown to those making peace” and unfortunately Vincent is silent on this verse. This word that is rendered as Peace here has a multiplicity of meanings according to Strong’s where we read that the Greek word eirene can be defined as: peace, harmony, tranquility, safety, welfare, health; often with a emphasis on lack of strife or reconciliation in a relation, as when one has “peace with God.” Often used as a verbal and written greeting. this word generally follows the meanings and usage of the Hebrew word 8934 3. According to Strong’s this Greek word is rendered in our King James Version as: peace, quietness, and rest 3. We should note here that the Hebrew reference is an apparent typo as there is no 8934 in the Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary; it likely refers to 7965 which is the Hebrew word shalowm which carries much the same meanings as eirene above. Our point here is that this reference by James is not necessarily that Peace as we understand it in the world today as Peace between nations or the lack of hostility. It is more likely that this idea of Peace IS related to the similar word in the previous verse which is rendered as peaceable from the Greek word eirenikos of which Strong’s tells us: peace-loving, peaceable, peaceful, with a focus of having freedom from emotional worry and frustration. 3 We can see here many different understandings of this verse based on the meanings above and if we connect ALL of this together we will likely get a picture of the man who IS receiving this Wisdom from above. And, using the rendering from Young’s we can also see the intent; if a man IS receiving this Wisdom from above which IS revelation and realizations from the Soul, it IS because this is where his focus IS and here we should see the man at some stage of Transformation. Then, as we see above, the degree of Transformation can be seen related to the degree of fruits that this man will express, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred” in the Master’s words, and it IS this expression of fruit which we can see here in James’ words as righteousness. Here then using any of the ideas regarding this word rendered as Peace we can see the same effect; that the man focused in the things of God is by degree righteous and is expressing this righteousness as the fruit in his actions and again, by degree. It IS in so doing and so acting in Peace and in harmony and in tranquility as the expression of the fruit of the Spirit as it flows through the man’s consciousness in that Wisdom from above that ever more Peace and harmony and tranquility is able to flow and here again we have the growth of the Kingdom in the man in the world.
In closing we add this one point that we realized again in writing these words and which IS an important understanding that we have been stating but perhaps not enough; that IS that ALL things spiritual come to us by degree and it IS by degree that we realize and that we grow.
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.
We reprise this Quote of the Day from previous posts along with our comments at each use of this. In these words we should be able to see the way of the disciple and not in that day only but in this day as well and we should understand that the Love and the Power to accomplish these things that are spoken of by the Master are within our grasp as well as these ARE the Power of the True disciple.
And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat. (Matthew 10:7-10)
From our original use of this as our Quote of the Day we have: These are words that we saw in a recent post as the Master’s words sending off the twelve to preach and to heal among the people. It is said that He gave them the power to do so and in this we can see that He gave them the confidence to accomplish what they did. Through the purity of one’s Life in form does the power of the Soul, the Power of God, flow through his very being and it is in this flow that also comes the Faith and the KNOWING. Is there a lesson here in this saying for those who desire to walk in the footsteps of the Apostles of the Master; as Disciples of the Christ?
In our subsequent use of these words we said: Today’s Quote of the Day is from the Master’s instructions to His disciples as he sent them forth and in this we should see our own instructions which are that we do the works of God, that we teach the Truth of the Kingdom and that we serve our fellow man. What it is that we receive from the Christ Within, what is revealed to us is FREE, we must give again FREELY and it is of great importance that we must be in a attitude of forsaking, leaving ALL the things of the world behind, bringing with us only the humble nature of a True Son of God.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
- 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
