Monthly Archives: July 2013

ON LOVE; PART CCCXXXVIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

We discussed some of the commentators doctrinal pronouncements regarding the Master’s saying “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold , the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21) again over the last several posts and in the last one we looked at a saying that has for us a confirming message to this idea of the Kingdom Within as the Master tells the scribe who answered discreetly that “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). We noted that the commentary does not even reckon that the True subject IS the Kingdom in this latter saying but say that the idea is the gospel dispensation, much like the commentary on the two parables that we presented over the last two essays, those that we see as regarding the importance of the Kingdom to the  man who finds it or, as we say, glimpses the Truth of the Kingdom. Here we see that the man will sell ALL that he has to possess the field in which the treasure, representing the Kingdom of God lies, and, that the man will sell ALL that he has to purchase the Great Pearl which also represents the Kingdom and its Truth as this man had been searching for Truth which the parable shows us as his “seeking goodly pearls“. We noted that this doctrinal confusion stems from the disbelief of the church; disbelief that the Master actually means that ‘the kingdom of God is within you” but that the Kingdom is among or in the midst of as the progenitors of these doctrines would rather believe, as too many still do today. Much harm is done in those ideas that the Kingdom is a place and that man attains at death if he so deserves it by his faith and his belief and by the grace of God as opposed to that realization of the Kingdom and discipleship here and now. We noted as well that it is in the purview of each man who seriously seeks and asks to find the Truth to these questions which we pose against doctrine and we ever remind ourselves that the Truth IS NOT found in the various doctrines of the churches but the Truth IS found in the Wisdom from above as spoken of by the Apostle James; that Wisdom that comes through asking and which is shown as Wisdom by the quality of the revelation. We find in James’ many words that this Wisdom IS NOT ever for the self in the world but it is rather for the advancement of spiritual ideals and that in his words we can see the Apostle Paul’s thoughts which tell us what IS the fruit of the Spirit as well.

While we did speak about the Master’s words to the scribe, we did not discuss the logical realty of what He did say save to say these things which we repeat because of the importance of understanding His ideas: the Master is speaking to one much like the Pharisees, not about his way of Life nor about the doctrine that he teaches but about his inner understanding of the reality of Life and True religion; the philosophy of it if you will. Here, regardless of this man’s behavior and despite his doctrine, the Master reacts to his vision and sense of Truth and this causes him to say: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God“. We should see here that the Kingdom IS NOT in what one does, this is changeable; the Kingdom IS NOT in what one has learned previous, this too is changeable; the Kingdom IS in that inner realization of Truth as this scribe visioned it at that moment….ALL is is fixed in Reptentance. We can see the reality of the scribes vision from the saying of the Master which tells us that the scribe answered discreetly and we noted that in this Greek word there is much depth; we noted Vincent’s idea that nounechos means:  Having his mind in possession: “having his wits about him.”⁴; and we noted that the lexicon tells us that this means wisely, and prudently ² in addition to discreetly which of course it does not really mean in modern language but rather how the King James translators saw this in their English in their day. Now we should see here that there IS a reason that the King James translators did not choose to use the more common understanding for this Greek word as do other versions that give wisely and other understandings of worldly wisdom as thoughtfully, intelligently and sensibly; no doubt these ideas were available for their use. They however chose discreetly to render nounechos and a look at our older dictionaries may give us some clue as to their reasoning; the 1913 version of Webster’s offers this definition of discreet: 1. Possessed of discernment, especially in avoiding error or evil, and in the adaptation of means to ends; prudent; sagacious; judicious; not rash or heedless; cautious. 2. Differing; distinct. [Obs.] Spenser. — Dis*creet”ly, adv. — Dis*creet”ness, n.¹. We should see that this is not at all similar to the common use and understanding of this word and, while we would like to see this word to be more with the idea of revelation, this IS as close as we are going to get but in the totality of the ideas from Vincent, the lexicon and our dictionary, we should be able to see this idea of revelation or realization in the Master’s use of nounechos, especially when one considers that the Master IS placing the scribe at heaven’s door if you will.

It was in this light that we presented Paul’s words to the Corinthians saying: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Here and in Vincent’s commentary on the idea of the natural man, we should be able to see some idea of what we mean in relation to these words from the Master; that this scribe has such revelation of Truth that the Master tells him that by his understanding of these divine ideas, that he IS “not far from the kingdom of God“. We should try to understand here that this compliment, if we can call it that, which the Master bestows upon this scribe in the presence of ALL the others, must be of some greater importance as by His words He places this man above the other scribes and Pharisees, above the chief priest and the elders, that he continually tells how far they ARE from the Kingdom going so far as to say to these self-righteous men that: “the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31). Noting here the importance of these words as we have constructed this in our essays, we have still not arrived at our main point which is the confirming quality of these words to the Master’s saying that we speak of above; that one that doctrine to this day does not believe as it is presented and which we see as a great KEY to the right understanding of the Master’s message of the Kingdom: “the kingdom of God is within you“.

The main point here for us today is that these words from the Master must be taken as they are offered; Jesus IS NOT saying that this man is not far from death, nor IS He saying that this scribe ‘will go to heaven’ as the saying does not approach these ideas at all. How do we understand this then? In the Light of the Kingdom Within and in the understanding that the Kingdom is a state of being and not a place of being, we can understand that this scribe has had such revelation and such realization that he can see and sense the Kingdom and then, if he so chooses, he can be like the men of the parables above, he can give up ALL else to possess this Kingdom, this state of being where the man in the world is expressing the qualities of his True divinity. This IS the realization and the revelation that Jesus’ own apostles and disciples have and which they express by their actions and deeds although, as we see in the story of Peter, not at ALL times. This IS what this scribe is approaching as he was able to hear the Truth, the Wisdom from above, from his own Soul and express those Truths before ALL his peers who outwardly disagreed with the teachings of the Master. In these ideas we should understand and remember that it matters not how we are living our lives nor what our doctrinal beliefs if any might be; it only matters that we stop our attention to the clamor of Life in this world long enough to hear the prompting of our own Soul, a promoting that is ever there, and heed it. It is in this heeding of the call that one can sense the Kingdom Within and thereby go the way of the men in our parables above, the way that secures the Kingdom here and now.

We did not get to our saying at the top again and we should remember here and reread the words of Paul on spiritual discernment versus the ideas of the world: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14) and we should reread Vincent’s words on the natural man from the last post to understand his Truths.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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 repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

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