Monthly Archives: July 2013

ON LOVE; PART CCCXXXVII

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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).

In the last post we completed our look at the Master’s teaching on the Kingdom and on discipleship and we noted that He gives us an understanding of His teaching from several perspectives. He tells us of the importance of the Kingdom to those who sense it and glimpse it through the prompting of their own Souls which part we add as this IS the source of the realizations and revelations that impinge upon the personality, the mind and the emotions, of the man in the world. In one pespective that we had not covered prior the these last few posts, the Master tells us by parable that when a man finds that treasure or discovers that pearl of great value which represents the Kingdom, that he will go and sell all that he has in order to possess it. In the one parable the man buys the whole field which we see as the consciousness and it IS but the greater point IS that the man sell ALL that he has to do so. In the other we have the discovery of this very valuable pearl that also represents the Kingdom of God and here again the man sells ALL that he has to possess that pearl. The overriding message in both of these is the importance that the man places upon the treasure and the great pearl, the Kingdom, once he finds it and realizes its presence. It is interesting to us that in the clarity of the Master’s words, that some commentators do not see what we see. By example, the Master’s words are “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth , and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field” (Mathew 13:44) and in this He is speaking about the Kingdom and nothing else yet John Gill interprets this saying: Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure; By which is meant, not eternal life, the incorruptible inheritance, riches of glory, treasure in heaven; nor Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and all the riches of grace and glory; but the Gospel, which is a treasure consisting of rich truths, comparable to gold, silver, and precious stones; of the most valuable blessings, and of exceeding great, and precious promises; and reveals the riches of God, of Christ, and of the other world; and is a treasure unsearchable, solid, satisfying, and lasting: this is said to be…..and he goes on similarly through the rest of the Master’s saying ⁸.

In the other, the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, we see the idea of a man searching for pearls which we would equate to a man searching for Truth, greater Truth than he presently has, and this under the Master’s admonition saying “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). We understand the reference of the pearls as this seeking of greater Truths and we see the finding of the great pearl as the culmination of that search and, since the parable IS about the Kingdom, we see that this man has found the Kingdom, that he has realized the greater Truth and then gives up ALL else to have it. For us this is rather clear in His words saying: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 14:45-46). Here our commentator tells us: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man; This parable may be understood of Christ’s seeking, finding, and purchasing his elect: for, certain it is, that he has sought after them; which implies, that they were lost and going astray; expresses his great love to them, value for them, and desire after them; in doing which, he took much pains, and used much diligence: and certain it also is, that he finds them in redemption, and in effectual calling; and that they are to him a pearl of great price; as very precious to God, so highly esteemed of by Christ, as his portion, his inheritance, and his jewels. He has also parted with all he had for the sake of these persons; he became poor, emptied himself of everything ⁸. Mr Gill goes on here in like manner and in his mind is able to see the merchant as Christ rather than the life of the man seeking and finding.

We can likely understand the aversion to seeing this in our reality based in Mr. Gill’s and other’s belief that the Kingdom is some place that we go at death if we are so deserving, rather than our view that the Kingdom IS and it IS here and it IS now as the Master tells us and we as understand in the words that He uses and our interpretation of them. The Kingdom IS within; yet doctrines fail to understand this yet today as they still have that same idea that the Master’s words 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” has some different meaning. This saying is the answer that the Master offers in response to the Pharisee’s questioning which is, as Luke tells us: “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come” (Luke 17:20-21). Here, as we have previously discussed, there IS a doctrinal attempt to change this idea into one that the progenitors are more comfortable with, that he Kingdom waits for our death if we so deserve it. Here many change the words which Strong’s simply defines as inside, within ³, as the understanding of the Greek word entos, to be rendered as among and in the midst of so that the Kingdom does not in their minds reside within. We should note here that many who believe this way see the kingdom within as it should mean in one’s heart which IS NOT what the Master says. Here, many make claim that the Kingdom COULD NOT be within the heart of the Pharisee to whom these words are addressed and we can see this in these words from Vincnet: Within; Better, in the midst of. Meyer acutely remarks that “you refers to the Pharisees, in whose hearts nothing certainly found a place less than did the ethical kingdom of God.” Moreover, Jesus is not speaking of the inwardness of the kingdom, but of its presence. “The whole language of the kingdom of heaven being within men, rather than men being within the kingdom, is modern” (Trench, after Meyer)⁴. Here we should see the doctrinal approach being offered by Vincent who, being an authority in the Greek language of the time, deviates from the interpretation of Strong’s, an equal authority, which defines the word as inside, within, and he does so in favor of the doctrinal approach and his disbelief that Jesus could possibly be saying that the Kingdom could be within the Pharisee. We can better see the doctrinal bent of the words of the commentators in Vine’s definition of the word which IS NOT really a definition but clearly an opinion; Vine’s says: * Note: This is a translation of (a) entos: see INSIDE, No. 1; in Luke 17:21 the RV marg., “in the midst of,” is to be preferred; the kingdom of God was not in the hearts of the Pharisees ⁶.

Clearly most who follow doctrine DO NOT see the same Kingdom that we see; nor do they see the same Kingdom as the Master portrays here and elsewhere in His words; in the simplicity of misunderstanding the Truth of this saying lies much of the confusion of the Master’s Truths as they are presented in doctrine. Many fail to understand that while there is a parabolic nature to His teachings, that a part of the mystery is hidden in plain sight but clouded in sayings that do not agree with the preconceived ideas of the existing doctrine in Jesus time and, instead of creating new based in His word, attempts are made to adjust the old understandings; and Christianity still suffers from this yet today. There are many such sayings in the gospels and the epistles, sayings that are clear on the surface once one has glimpsed reality and Truth; one such example concerning the Kingdom can be seen in Jesus words which we read just after His telling those gathered about the Great Commandments on Love:

“And one of the scribes came , and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question” (Mark 12:28-34)

We post the whole of the encounter here because this does contain those other greatly misunderstood words from the Master on Love; words that we often cite and which we see as a KEY to our attaining the Kingdom and, one that can show us that we should not be looking at any of His words in any way that involves any self-serving idea. Today however we focus on His words saying: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” and the reality of this to that scribe and to us. Here is these words we find another reality as 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 he 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. Mr. Gill treats these words much like he treats those above and while he is not the only commentator, he is representative of the common thought; he says: he said unto him, thou art not far from the kingdom of God: not meaning from heaven, and eternal happiness; for right and distinct notions of the above commandments, and even the performance of the in by a sinful and imperfect creature, can neither give a man a title to, or bring him near, or introduce him into the heavenly glory, which is a pure gift of God’s grace; but our Lord’s sense is, that he was not far off from the Gospel dispensation, and was in a fair way of entering into it; his sentiments were very near to such, who became followers of Christ, and embraced the doctrines, and submitted to the ordinances of the Gospel state: since he preferred those things, which related to the knowledge of the being and perfections of God, to the love and worship of God, and to the good of his neighbour; before the ceremonies of the law; which were quickly to be abolished, and make way for the setting up of the kingdom of God ⁸. Mr. Gill goes on to say much more here of the same nature and his view is readily seen in these words, that there IS no Kingdom for this man; there is only the Gospel dispensation.

There is of course no similarity in our view verses the doctrinal. Vincent comments only on the word rendered as discreetly in our saying and tells us that this should be seen as Discreetly (νουνεχως) From νους , mind, and ἔχω ,to have. Having his mind in possession: “having his wits about him.” The word occurs only here in the New Testament ⁴. We can get the sense here that this scribe answered in a more correct way than the way of the reigning doctrine which is in accord with what we ourselves say above but the greater point is that the Master reacts to this man’s words in this positive fashion. The lexicon defines this Greek word, nounechos, as wisely, discreetly, prudently ², definitions which also go to separate what the scribe says from the common jargon of the day.

It is True here as well that those who see differently than we do will likely see our words as wrong interpretations of the Master’s words and intent and to this we give our rather standard answer that the Truth of these things, the Truth of divine and spiritual ideas, must rest with the individual who is hearing them and not in the authoritative way that they may be spoken as much doctrine is; that the Catholic believe the teachings of the Catholic Church and the various Protestant denominations believe the teachings as they are enunciated in their various doctrines. Our point ever is that these are spiritual ideas and thoughts about them should emanate from the spiritual side of Life, the Soul, and that these thoughts and ideas can and should be tested according to the words of the Apostle James who speaks to us on the Wisdom from above and tells us, in our understanding, that if there is aught for the self in our thoughts and ideas, then these are from the world and NOT from above. In this we are saying that these spiritual contemplations are not the thoughts of the personality in the world but are rather the thoughts of the Inner man, the Soul, the Christ Within who can touch the spiritual side of Life and here we should repeat the Apostle Paul’s words on these matters as he tells us “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). Unfortunately these are but words as well and subject to the interpretation of who is the natural man in regard to thoughts such as those we have been discussing? of course they will say it is us and we will claim, that insofar as these interpretations go, it is those who rely on doctrine and NOT on the completeness of the words of the Master.

We end here with Vincent’s words on the meaning of the Greek word psuchikos which is rendered as the “natural man“; he says that: The natural man (ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος) See on Romans 11:4, on the distinction between ψυχή soul life, and πνεῦμα spirit. The contrast is between a man governed by the divine Spirit and one from whom that Spirit is absent. But ψυχικὸς naturalis not equivalent to σαρκικός fleshy. Paul is speaking of natural as contrasted with spiritual cognition applied to spiritual truth, and therefore of the ψυχή soul as the organ of human cognition, contrasted with the πνεῦμα spiritas the organ of spiritual cognition. The man, therefore, whose cognition of truth depends solely upon his natural insight is ψυχικός naturalas contrasted with the spiritual man (πνευματικός) to whom divine insight is imparted. In other words, the organ employed in the apprehension of spiritual truth characterizes the man. Paul therefore characterizes the man who is not yet capable of understanding divine wisdom as ψυχικός , i.e., as one who possesses in his ψυχή soul simply the organ of purely human cognition, but has not yet the organ of religious cognition in the πνεῦμα spirit” (Dickson). It is perhaps impossible to find an English word which will accurately render ψυχικός . Psychic is simply the Greek transcribed. We can do no better than hold by the A.V. natural ⁴.

We did not get to finish with our sayings from Paul at the top of our essay and we will try to get back to this tomorrow.

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 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!

• 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
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com