Monthly Archives: August 2013

ON LOVE; PART CCCXLIV

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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 post we began with some words on the scenario of man’s movement from the ways of the world to the ways of God and onward then to discipleship and the Kingdom. We premised that this starts with our disillusionment and our dissatisfaction with Life as we KNOW it as men and this is a dynamic that few realize is happening until and unless they can sense the prompting of their own Souls. Many millions of people sense this disillusionment and this dissatisfaction and deal with it in worldly ways rather than to see the reality of the prompting of the Soul which is generally felt as conscience. Here we should try to see that the pangs of conscience are to the Good, the Beautiful and the True and that these Life ideas are likely alien to the man in the world who, as we said in the last essay, may only seek to find different illusions and glamours with which to color his world. And men do so in a rather unconscious way and go through change after change never realizing the Truth and this can be seen here as expressed for us by the songwriter Paul Simon who says in his iconic song The Boxer that:

Now the years are rolling by me
They are rockin’ evenly
I am older than I once was
And younger than I’ll be and that’s not unusual.
No it isn’t strange
After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are more or less the same

While these words are not part of all versions of this song, they are appropriate to our subject here as Mr. Simon sees the Life of a man moving forward, getting older and changing and perhaps then finally realizing that through all of the changes that we are more or less the same. It is the man who can break out of this mold that Truly changes, it is the man who can realize his True self as the Soul, a realization that comes through the prompting and the answer by the personality within the form who accedes to the call of his own Soul as expressed though conscience. For this man the realization turns to focus and focus to Repentance and then onward to and through the Transformation of the aspirant into the disciple of the Lord.

From this we continued in our discussion of these words from the Apostle James where we spent our time on the right discernment of the ideas that the apostle had in mind saying: “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?“. The entirety of the text for clarity is:

“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).

On this subject saying we must admit that we have no sure ideas as to what he meant and as we reviewed the rendering of this in several translations as well as in John Gill’s comments, we conclude that none of these writers KNOW James’ intent either. However we did come to two separate ideas that can help us to get a glimpse of this:

• From the apocryphal Book of Wisdom we read this that is referenced for us by Mr. Gill: “For into a malicious soul wisdom shall not enter; nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin.” (Wisdom 1:4)
  
• From the New Century Version translation of the New Testament we find this rendering of our saying: “Do you think the Scripture means nothing that says, “The Spirit that God made to live in us wants us for himself alone?”“.

While the sentiment expressed in the latter quote does agree with our basic philosophy when the doctrinal tone is removed, we are not sure how to get this out of James’ words that are rendered from the more literal version of the saying; from Young’s Literal Translation we find: “Do ye think that emptily the Writing saith, `To envy earnestly desireth the spirit that did dwell in us’ “. That some how these words are meant to reflect the saying from the Book of Wisdom is just as difficult to actually see although, again, those words also do reflect a reality.

Our only other thought here is that if we take the perspective that the apostle is speaking of the man as the Soul trying to express himself through form (which is the Way of the disciple to whom James’ words are addressed) and if we see then the personality in the world as instead expressing the carnal nature (as it is that most men do until they can overcome this propensity by the Love and the Power of the Soul), we can then perhaps see the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us that man IS “made subject to vanity, not willingly” (Romans 8:20). In this view, if we can understand the vanity as the spirit of the worldly nature, we have the place then for envy and lust. Here we should try to see the vast array of meanings that can be attributed to the Greek word pnuema which is here rendered as spirit and which is assumed to reference Spirit. This word pneuma can refer to the Spirit that IS God which we can see in the Master’s saying that “God is a spirit” (John 4:24) or to the idea of Satan or the evil one as we read in this from the Apostle Matthew: “When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick” (Matthew 8:16), where the same word pneuma is rendered as spirits and is referring to devils. There is also the Apostle Luke’s reference that says “there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years” (Luke 13:11) which renders the same pneuma as this “spirit of infirmity” and in a related way Luke tells us also of “a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination ” (Acts 16:16). Finally we have this from Paul which speaks of the spirit as the life the the man in the world; using the same pneuma Paul tells us: “For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such” (1 Corinthians 16:18).

This is of course not the extent of the uses of this word pneuma which goes much further and even overlaps with psuche which is generally rendered as Soul. The lexicon alone gives us this long list of its uses and although much here is doctrinally oriented, we can still take from this the understanding of the variety of uses. The lexicon says of pneuma: 1) the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son a) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit) b) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”) c) never referred to as a depersonalised force; 2) the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated a) the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides b) the soul; 3) a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting a) a life giving spirit b) a human soul that has left the body c) a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel; 1) used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men 2) the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ; 4) the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one a) the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.; 5) a movement of air (a gentle blast) a) of the wind, hence the wind itself b) breath of nostrils or mouth ².

In ALL of this can we see our premise as it could work out in James’ words merely by changing the perspective; by changing the apostles view of the men to whom he is speaking and addressing them as disciples, as Souls who are struggling to NOT express the former worldly ways of lust and envy as found in that vanity to which they are subjected by the Plan of God?

We did not intend to stay on this idea for our entire post but these ideas that we present as a premise came to us as we were closing our our thoughts after repeating the words from the Book of Wisdom and here we can see a reality in James words. A reality that is saying that: the apostle is speaking of the man as the Soul trying to express himself through form (which is the Way of the disciple to whom James’ words are addressed) and if we can see then the caution against the personality in the world instead expressing the carnal nature (as it is that most men do until they can overcome this by the Love and the Power of the Soul), we can then perhaps see the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us that man IS “made subject to vanity, not willingly“. In this view, if we can understand the vanity as the spirit of the worldly nature, we have the place then for envy and lust.

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

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition

• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com