IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 934

ON LOVE; PART DXXIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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” (Mark 12:29-31).

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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

In the last essay we again looked at the Life of King Solomon. We should note that the king began in the house of his father David who was sought out by the Prophet Samuel to be the second king of the Jewish nation and while King David had his shortcomings, he was True to his purpose as King and as an example to his son Solomon. Here we should see that the young King Solomon started out in the right way, True to his purpose as King and True to the Lord and that he is gifted with the Wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world and, as we saw two posts back, he was gifted with unspeakable riches as well. As the story goes the king steadily devolves into worldly ways and while much of this is considered as spiritual by many yet today, he concentrated his doings on things of the world in which we should include the building of the Temple. We should understand that then, as now, there ARE men who purport to hear from God and the general understanding of the God Within IS NOT a part of the thinking of many who believe that the ONE God of ALL is speaking directly to them. We understand that this phenomenon is in reality a man who is  hearing from his own Soul, his own God Within and that the veracity of what he may be hearing IS directly dependent upon the fullness of his own focus and whether this hearing IS centered on himself or Truly on the things of God. We should note here that there are also those for who this hearing from God IS a pretense and these ARE among those that the Master speaks against as “false Christs” and “false prophets” and about whom He says that they “shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24); it is these of whom the Master tells us also that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).

In a recent essay we held out the idea that this deception, this idea of false, can come from one’s own personality which can convince a man that what he IS doing is according to the Will of God and in this the lower side of the duality of the man who IS approaching God holds sway. Here, while the man may think and believe that he is doing the Will of God, he IS actually acceding to the “works of the flesh” and this IS what we see in the Life of Solomon as he chose the way of mammon over the way of God. He deluded himself by thinking that the things that he was doing were God’s Will. From our perspective this includes the building of the Temple and the tremendous slaughter of animals at the dedication. Solomon believed that these things were for God because he was not seeing clearly the simplicity of the Lord and His commandments. We KNOW as well that the king steadily devolved into a Life apart from his God in most every respect and while religion may hold Solomon up as a mostly good King who did great things like the building of the Temple, we see him as being deceived by his own self and his own sense of power and wisdom in the world. The prophets and the Master and His apostles have set this right in their teachings on what it IS that pleases God and what is the nature of the wisdom of the world but few put Solomon into the midst of this nor do many see his Temple as more for him than for the Lord.

Solomon’s Life can be an example to us yet today; an example of the natural result of worldly wisdom and riches even when they are in the presence of some degree of that Wisdom from above. For Solomon the temptations to use his wealth and his power to personal gain overwhelmed his sense of God and the things of God and we should understand that this idea of personal gain need not be in increasing wealth and power alone but in the feeling and the sense of superiority, the pride, and the focus upon this ALL. It IS in this light that we should try to understand the deeper aspects of the Master’s teaching on forsaking from the perspective of the man who is seeking the Kingdom of God and discipleship and it IS here that we should also see that this idea of forsaking extends far beyond just the wealth and the possessions and into the more subtle ideas of power and of attachments and attractions. King Solomon was at the strait gate but he did not enter and while we DO NOT Truly understand the dynamics of this entry, we can likely see that he was on the Path but that he chose another road that led him back into the clutches of the ways of the world. Solomon’s journey is not really different than ours and although we may think that we DO NOT have the Wisdom of God as Solomon does, we DO have access to it by the strength of our focus upon the things of God.

The rich young man in the parabolic story of his encounter with the Master can be seen in a similar light to how we are seeing Solomon; that he is a religious man and in tune with the law and the things of God but who IS at the same time is encumbered by his focus upon his own self and his wealth and possessions. This man has Jesus to lead him to the Truth, and he becomes our example in the more modern times of the Master’s presence with us; Solomon had only his own Inner Light to guide him and while there may have been examples for him to follow as in the Life of the first King Saul and the falling back of his own father, Solomon DID NOT see these clearly enough for them to make a difference. We today have both of these examples and likely many more; we have the Life of Solomon and we have the Master’s encounter with the rich young man and both of these tell us of the perils of Life in the world for the man who would be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. And we should note here as well that although these examples center around wealth and power, the reality of the message is found in attachment and attraction…it is found in focus; the Truth is found in ALL those things that take our attention away from the “treasures in heaven” which are ALL things that can be our own “treasures upon earth“. The great Truth of this ALL is found in the Master’s words saying: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

This IS the greater reality of forsaking and we must remember that this IS tied to the reality of attaining the Kingdom, the reality of discipleship and, in an odd but True way, to the True meaning of the Great Commandments. And unlike the example that we see in the Life of King Solomon which IS rather obscured by apparent good that he does, these ideas ARE NOT hidden, they are presented with relative clarity in His words and the only thing that keeps a man from understanding them is his own pretense that they are intended for another. This IS especially True in the story of the rich young ruler which is presented in the three synoptic gospels. The thoughts of most are directed at the young man who refuses to give up his wealth and possessions and there is many a sermon about him; similarly the thoughts of many go to the idea of the eye of the needle and seek to find some way to rationalize this that does not require the True thought that riches and the Kingdom are not compatible. In the reality of the Kingdom of God as that state of being that one achieves here in this Life, the idea of riches take on a different tone as we should see in the example of Solomon and this IS that to have this wealth and power, one will attend to them or, as the Master paints this for us, one will serve them instead of God. The reality that should be first seen in this story IS not the refusal of the man nor the idea of the camel and the eye of the needle; the first consideration should be to the Master’s ever clear saying that:

• “Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).
• “If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me” (Matthew 19:21).
• “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me” (Mark 10:21).

In the combination of these three versions of this incident we find a variety of ideas that are ALL rather clearly stated; in Luke and in Mark we find the idea of something lacking and that doing this lacking thing makes one accounted worthy of the Kingdom and we should understand that the reality here does include following the Master or rather, keeping His words. We should note here that this young man is already doing this, keeping His words according to the interview, and that this one thing was found lacking; it is in this that we find the whole of the idea that the Master IS offering; give up ALL that one has, keep His words, and follow him and one shall attain the Kingdom of God which IS its own treasure. Matthew introduces the idea of perfect in place of the idea that one lacks some thing and here we can take the view that it IS the perfect that attain the Kingdom…it is the man who keeps His words as this IS the perfection. In both of these idea we should see the reality of keeping his words includes this idea of forsaking, of having no thing in one’s Life that can divert his attention from the things of God and it IS in this light that the Master admonishes us to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:28). Mark also includes the idea of that one must “take up the cross” which idea is found in our other examples of Jesus clarity on forsaking below.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we have another series of sayings that are related in their intent and are reflective of the same ideas from the Master but which are offered in slightly different contexts. Again, the ideas are clear and this especially so in the sayings from Luke’s Gospel as there the topic is discipleship; Matthew frames this however as the Master’s saying how that one can be “worthy of me“. While this is a bit more obscure than discipleship, the idea should be easily seen as worthy of Him is to be worthy of His Kingdom and the idea of discipleship combined. There is also a difference in approach to the criteria as Matthew tells that we CAN NOT Love another more that Him, and we should of course see this in relationship to Him as the representation of God, while Luke tells us that we must hate others which we have mediated to the idea that we should Love them less and this because this word rendered as hate likely has a gentler idea attached that IS NOT readily translatable. We can see this in the word of God regarding Jacob and Esau which IS repeated in Greek by the Apostle Paul using this same Greek word miseo; Paul tells us “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” (Romans 9:13). Here we should understand that our God who IS Love DOES NOT hate but perhaps He Loves Esau less. Our verses read:

• “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38).
• “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).

In these words from the Master we should see the totality of forsaking; not just in the final words from Luke’s version but in the reality of looking past ALL relationships and seeing first and foremost the things of God. Nothing IS more important and nothing can take one’s attention and the clarity of the final words from Luke serve to make this abundantly clear. Here again we find the idea of the cross which IS NOT offered in anticipation of His crucifixion but IS offered to us to say that we must accept our own burdens of change and as we have seen in Vincent’s words on this, it is a very individual and personal enterprise. Vincent tells us in part that: His cross: his own. All are not alike. There are different crosses for different disciples. The English proverb runs: “Every cross hath its inscription” – the name of him for whom it is shaped ⁴. We should understand here the reality of those things that must be done in the Life of a man to prepare him for the Kingdom and for discipleship and, in a word, this would be to complete the work of keeping His words.

In the Gospel of Thomas which we spent much time on recently there is a similar saying to these which reads “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple of mine. And whoever does not hate his brothers and his sisters (and) will not take up his cross as I do, will not be worthy of me” (Thomas 55). Here we find a combination of thoughts, part on discipleship and part on being worthy, and an added idea that can help one to understand the reality of the cross; here we read the idea of “take up his cross as I do“; this is not to say as I will in the crucifixion but as I DO here and now. Here we should see the idea of the Master’s total disregard for the things of the world and any benefit to His own self in favor of His total attention upon the things of God. Here we should note that other saying on perfection that IS offered by the Master and can be seen in this relationship of focus as He IS focused: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).

The clarity here is evident to ALL who can look at the Master’s words without pretense of cover; that is ALL who will look at the intent even as it is opposed one’s own lifestyle. This IS the reality of forsaking in the words of the Master; we will leave the correspondence to these ideas from the Great Commandments for the next essay.

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 a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.

• My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
• My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
• I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
• My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888