ON LOVE; PART CCCXLIII
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
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 essay we were led to the Apostle James words from our discussion regarding the misconceptions of men regarding the Kingdom of God and discipleship and how the disillusionment of some lead them to seek Truth elsewhere, in other religions, other philosophies or even here in our blog. This has likely ever been True and is ever more so now in these times where the world continually gets smaller and smaller as regards communication and the availability of virtually every religious document ever printed which is there for most ALL at the touch of a button. Man today has a smorgasbord of doctrines and philosophies and religions to choose from but for many there is naught but confusion and hence we have an increasingly secular society forming across the globe and this especially in the West where much of the religious doctrines have been around for centuries. In many ways, the secular lifestyle can be seen as an easier one through which to find the Truth as there are no firm doctrinal beliefs that ofttimes lead men astray. The lessons of the Master on Love ARE NOT restricted to the religious as most ALL men do have at least a faint conception of the Truths inherent in the ability of man to get along with man; this is of course an innate sense that comes to the carnal mind from the Soul and is, and is ever a part of, the constant prompting by the Soul. In this we should try to see the reality that the Soul, the True man and the Christ Within, is not only constantly trying to orient the carnal thoughts of the man in form to the Good, the Beautiful and the True through conscience but that the Soul is an active part of the consciousness and is providing the Life in form with those innate qualities that guide most men to be civil in society and Loving to family and close friends. This civility and Loving is but an example of the innate conscience and we should understand here that this too can be ‘turned off’ by one’s ardent focus upon the self and the self in the world. As we have been saying throughout our posts on this blog, it is in the shifting of our focus that we can move closer to or further from our Truths and it IS in this process of changing focus that we find the reality of Repentance. When a man discovers his disillusionment, we he realizes that there IS NO True satisfaction found through his Life in the world of things, when he understands the futility of that cycle of wanting and having which leads to wanting ever more; this IS when, through these thoughts and feelings, that a man will begin to look inward and outward for solace.
Solace however is hard coming for the man who looks outward as all that he can see is the greater part of what he has already seen and experienced in Life; it is when the man looks inward and realizes that his conscience, the prompting of his own Soul, has been trying to lead him out of the doldrums of Life in the world. Here he begins to understand what he could not yet realize was his state of being, nor that the pangs of conscience were to his benefit and reward. And this is the greater hardship to overcome, that men do not realize their state nor understand the pangs of conscience and either continue in Life under that sense of illusion and glamour that holds them bound or they look outward only to find different illusions and glamours with which to color their worlds. It IS in the realization gained by looking inward that a man’s focus will begin to change and it IS in this change that he will realize the greater Truths and come to that point where he sees enough Truth and Love as these flow through his personality; it is at this time that man can begin to consciously sense the duality of Life as the self and the not-self and can take that next great step, his decision to change his focus away from the self and the world and to the things of God, and this perhaps without ever realizing the God part of the equation. This decision IS Repentance. In our understanding, this IS the beginning of that necessary Transformation into the reality of being a disciple and, as we have said in previous essays, this IS NOT necessarily a firm position for the man in the world who, even after his Repentance, still sees enough of the illusion and the glamour of Life to draw him back and it IS likely that the strength of the personality here is dependent upon its previous strength and the relative strength of that decision to change; we should remember that ALL of this IS controlled in the personality which can express the divine or the carnal to his personal satisfaction. Here then we have come full circle; starting with the disillusionment and the dissatisfaction with his Life in the world, the conscious personality looks for change and perhaps finds this change by looking inward and realizing those greater Truths that draw him further inward where, sensing the duality, he chooses Repentance and comes to a place where the personality is alternating his focus from the world to the Soul and yet looking for satisfaction. Can he find it in the way of Truth is ever a personal question and his opportunity is likely greatly increased if he can find some better understanding as a personality in the world of just what it IS that he IS experiencing. Eventually, if he can forbear the pull of the world to draw back, he will come to understand that he KNOWS ALL that he needs to KNOW and that he has access to the Greatest Storehouse of Wisdom and Love through his own Soul.
And it is to men such as these that James is writing, to disciples and to aspirants that are working out their own sense of righteousness and who are Transforming themselves toward the ultimate goal of being Transformed and in this great range of Transformation we have the making of the disciple by degree; from the aspirant at the beginning to the fullness of discipleship at the end, a man who, as we can read below and in James’s other writings, may still be susceptible to the pull of the carnal Life of the man in the world. Continuing from where we left off in the last post, we repeat our verses for clarity:
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded” (James 4:1-8).
In the last post we made it up to this saying which is of uncertain meaning but which we will explore nonetheless: Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? Before we go here however let us put an ending on our excursion yesterday from these words from James to the Master’s words that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13) and that we should “take no thought” (Luke 12: 22). We noted that in Apostles Matthew’s Gospel these two sayings are together and in a single sentence we could read this as; “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life” (Matthew 6:24-25). While we have looked at these together before (In the Words of Jesus part 439), we did not look at them as connected but rather as two distinct sayings and here, in the view of a single thought, we should be able to see a greater depth to each and the Truth of their combination. Can we see in the Master’s words that He is telling us that we cannot serve both the world and God and, if our intent is to serve God that we should take no thought for the things of the world or even our Life in it. Of course we do understand that both of these sayings are not seen in their True light by doctrine as we showed through some of the doctrinal understanding in the last essay from the words of John Gill and Marvin Vincent. When we can begin to see reality of mammon as the entirety of our thoughts, our attitudes and out actions in the world for the self and when we can understand somewhat the totality of what can be seen under the reality of His words “Take no thought for your life“, we will have arrived at the threshold of our own divinity. And this IS the message of James as well as he tells us that when we are in friendship with the world, when we are in agreement with and are attracted to the things that the world provides, we CAN NOT be in agreement with God at the same time and this IS the way of the man who is striving toward discipleship….sometimes he sees clearly the things of God and this becomes his ONLY attraction while at other times he sees more clearly the thoughts, the attitudes and the actions as a man in the world.
The next saying is as we say above, unclear and to see this we can look at Mr. Gill’s words that tell us: Some think that the apostle refers to a particular passage of Scripture in the Old Testament, and that he took it from ( Genesis 6:3 ) as some; or from ( Exodus 20:5 ) , as others; or from ( Deuteronomy 7:2 Deuteronomy 7:5 ) or from ( Job 5:6 ) or from ( Proverbs 21:10 ) others think he had in view some text in the New Testament; either ( Romans 12:2 ) or ( Galatians 5:17 ) and some have imagined that he refers to a passage in the apocryphal book: “For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.” (Wisdom 1:4) 8. While we do see any relationship to the cited bible quotes we can, with Mr. Gill, see some affinity with the words he cites from the Book of Wisdom, one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament that is thought by some to have been written by Solomon. Regardless of its source, this saying does somewhat agree with James’ presentation as both give us this same idea that there IS NO agreement between God and mammon. In the quote from Wisdom we should note the possible confusion regarding word rendered as Soul which in this verse could well be referencing mind; but we do not KNOW as we do not have the same tools for these apocryphal books. From our sense however we are right in interpreting this as when there is a malicious mind, one focused in the world and in the self, there is no Wisdom as we understand that as from above; the things of God will not be found in the man devoted to sin. Now this IS a black and white assessment of the nature of man and we should remember that if this IS from Solomon, that it is from a millennium before the Master and the Truth of His teachings.
Our greater point in stopping here is that there is yet much mystery in the words of the bible and much that is not yet understood by any. This is owed in part to the failures of languages to properly express the ideas of other languages with different ways of thought and even a lack of suitable words. Here in this epistle we have these factors as well as much uncertainty as to what language it was originally written in and how it became a Greek manuscript. Not much IS KNOWN about the writing nor about the author as we discussed several posts back but there is a reality to this work and a straightforwardness that sets it apart as a work intended for the aspirant and the disciple who may be struggling through some of the points that the apostle raises and if this is its only merit, it IS a great one in our opinion. And so here in this verse we can try to see ideas of lust and envy and how they can work in the Soul, the “spirit that dwelleth in us“; these ideas are for us incompatible with the very nature of the Soul. Perhaps we are seeing this ALL wrong and the subject IS NOT the Spirit or the Soul but if this is the case we are ever more confused. Other translations give us a variety of ideas but we are hard pressed to find one that is as suitable as that suggested by Mr. Gill except perhaps the sentiment expressed in the New Century Version (NCV).
We close today with a sampling of how this verse is treated in some translations:
- King James Version: “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?” (this is our current version).
- New International Version: “Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?“
- Bible in Basic English: “Or does it seem to you that it is for nothing that the holy Writings say, The spirit which God put into our hearts has a strong desire for us?“
- Douay-Rheims: “Or do you think that the scripture saith in vain: To envy doth the spirit covet which dwelleth in you?“
- English Standard Version: “Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?“
- New Century Version: “Do you think the Scripture means nothing that says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone?”“
- The Message: “And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.”“
- New American Standard: “Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose : “He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us”?“
There is great variety in these words which are at best difficult to discern and in contrast to Mr. Gills own suggested source as well as the New Century Version that we cite here ourselves, John Gill goes on to say: the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? that is, the depraved spirit of man, the spirit of an unregenerate man; that as it is prone to every lust, and prompts to every sin, the imagination of the thought of man’s heart being evil, and that continually, so it instigates to envy the happiness of others; see ( Genesis 6:5 ) ( 8:21 ) or this may be put as a distinct question from the other, “does the spirit that dwelleth in us lust to envy?” that is, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of his people, as in his temple: the Ethiopic version reads, “the Holy Spirit”: and then the sense is, does he lust to envy? no; he lusts against the flesh and the works of it, and envy among the rest; see ( Galatians 5:17 Galatians 5:21 ) but he does not lust to it, or provoke to it, or put persons upon it; nor does he, as the Arabic version renders it, “desire that we should envy”; he is a spirit of grace; he bestows grace and favours upon men; and is so far from envying, or putting others upon envying any benefit enjoyed by men, that he increases them, adds to them, and enlarges them, as follows.
Confusion abounds!
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!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
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8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
