ON LOVE; PART DXLIV
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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 had some more to say on the idea of perfect as this is presented by the Master and which we see as the end point in our long journey home to the Kingdom of God. Of course there IS NO place that we must travel to on this journey as it IS one of consciousness and here we should try to separate the consciousness from the mind and the emotions. The consciousness is provided, along with Life itself, by the Soul to the human form in the world while the mind and the emotions are component parts of the human form’s developed personality; the consciousness uses these personality components as its mode of expression in the world and these in turn use the attributes of the body itself to move a man through Life. This IS a difficult idea as the mind and the emotions are what we actually experience in Life here in this world but they ARE nonetheless parts of the form and NOT of the Soul. We can try to see this from the perspective of the Soul; ALL Souls are equally the same, sparks of the Divine Flame that we call God. As such, there is no way to explain the diversity that we find in the world of men in regards to emotional and mental equipment and then how this equipment IS used. In this we must consider the reality of reincarnation as this is the method by which the Soul is able to build and use ever more suitable forms and personalities. If we CAN NOT believe that ALL Souls are equal then we may as well not believe in God as the haphazard appearance of the billions of lives in this Earth would NOT be His work in this highly organized Universe that we are but a fragment of.
Here then we come to this idea of perfect which we should see from the perspective of Life in this Earth; this IS ALL that we currently KNOW even as Souls and this Life IS what we must make perfect. As Souls, or Spirits which IS the better word, each is a spark of that Divine Flame that we call God and here we should see that IF we consider God as perfect, and certainly this is what the Master tells us, then we must consider that these divine sparks are perfect as well because they ARE of His very Nature. Here we must also consider however that this perfection IS living through these forms and personalities in the world and these ARE NOT perfect as the Master and His apostles tell us. And this IS the sense of the Master’s words saying “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Here the Master IS speaking to men in the world, men who are trying to express the Love and the Power of the Soul through these forms and this IS so because this IS who and what we ARE in this world. From this perspective, Souls living through form, is the nature of most ALL of the teachings given with the objective that it IS this perfect Soul that becomes the expression of the imperfect form; here then we should see that Perfect God, of whom we ARE part and parcel as Souls, moving His creation forward toward that expression of perfection.
We should note here that the instructions given thus far in this Sermon are intended to allow for that perfection to be expressed as they take the attention of the man away from his self and those things which ARE only important to him and places his focus upon the things that are important to God. Can we understand that killing and anger are the functions of a imperfect personality; that adultery and fornication are the results of the desires of that emotional presence that we present to the world; that divorce is a calculated way of freeing these same emotions to satisfy the desires of the personality? These ARE NOT functions of the divine man, these are functions of the imperfect form which the Apostle Paul tells us is corrupt, a word that the Master uses as well in similar context and which we will discuss as we come to that part of His sermon. Paul tells us these same things saying to the Ephesians and to ALL who read his words: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). This IS the reality of salvation; that a man understand this duality of form Life, that “the old man” which IS striving to live to the satisfaction of the personality, MUST be set aside and that the Life be “renewed in the spirit of your mind“, in which word, Spirit, we should see that idea of consciousness. This then becomes “the new man” as the expression of the consciousness which IS the Spirit and which “after God is created in righteousness and true holiness“. The wording here is a bit clumsy but this IS more a function of translation than it IS of the intent of the apostle; these ideas ARE by their very nature cumbersome things to express as there IS but one Life to speak of but there are many motivations to that Life. While some doctrine will disagree, Vincent gives us a more proper picture of this idea of Spirit and mind:
In the spirit of your mind (τω πνεύματι του νοὸς υμων); The spirit is the human spirit, having its seat in and directing the mind. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is never designated so as that man appears as the subject of the Spirit. We have Spirit of adoption, of holiness, of God, but never Holy Spirit of man. Furthermore, the apostle’s object is to set forth the moral self-activity of the christian life. Hence πνευμα spiritis here the higher life-principle in man by which the human reason, viewed on its moral side – the organ of moral thinking and knowing is informed. The renewal takes place, not in the mind, but in the spirit of it. “The change is not in mind psychologically, either in its essence or in its operation; and neither is it in the mind as if it were a superficial change of opinion either on points of doctrine or practice: but it is in the spirit of the mind; in that which gives mind both its bent and its materials of thought. It is not simply in the spirit as if it lay there in dim and mystic quietude; but it is in the spirit of the mind; in the power which, when changed itself, radically alters the entire sphere and business of the inner mechanism” (Eadie) 4.
Vincent does not separate the human form from the human spirit, he sees man as that single entity of the form Life with a Spirit rather than a Spirit living through form but, at the same time he does manage to see that it IS the mind that IS controlled by what IS its bent and its materials of thought which we consider as a man’s focus. The focus of the Life in the world which is either the things of the “old man” or of the “new man“. Aside from any issues in translation as sentence structure, we should see as well the parabolic way that these things are presented as these ARE counted among the mysteries and ARE subject to the interpretation of the minds of men which by the very definition of “righteousness and true holiness” leaves us with the idea of the minds of the “old man“. Again, ALL things spiritual work out in Life by degree and there ARE degrees of the “old man” which can likely range from the most carnally focused ALL the way up to the reality of being a “new man” and in this idea of the “old man” we see ourselves and ALL that have not come to that state of “righteousness and true holiness” which is likely the same as perfection.
Our point here IS that we ARE Souls living through form and that this idea of perfection IS that state of “righteousness and true holiness” which IS the expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul through his form Life in the world. And we should see here the change that Repentance brings as it puts a man upon the Path, and the long journey of Transformation which moves a man from the old to the new. This IS the message of the Sermon on the Mount; that a man adopt these precepts of Life; that the decision to adopt them IS Repentance, the Truth of this adoption of His precepts is the reality of believing in Him, and the continuing in these words ARE the qualities of the aspirant and the disciple and the Way to the Kingdom of God. And so it IS with the rest of those idea that we discussed in the first third of the Sermon; it IS in the control of one’s sense of emotion and desire and in the actual ideas of Truth and Love for ALL men equally and in giving ALL, which Truly does not matter to the spiritual man, freely to ALL, that one approaches this idea of perfection, the perfection that IS the Father. In a word, this perfection IS keeping His words.
In the last essay we also began our discussion on the second part of the Sermon on the Mount and the first part of this which is concerned with giving. The Master’s words here are sharp and follow upon the ideas from the previous sayings, that a man should give to ALL who ask as He tells us saying: “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew 5:42). And, when we combine this saying with the like words from Luke’s Gospel, we note that the ideas of giving and lending are basically the same as we should lend without expecting a return and, we also note that this idea of giving also reaches out to those who would take without asking. These realities are difficult to comprehend until one can come to that final conclusion, that these things of the world do nothing for one’s spiritual Life and can actually detract from it. Luke tells us of the Master’s words saying: “Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again” and then of His saying that we should “lend , hoping for nothing again” (Luke 6:30, 35) which He offers in combination with His words on Love for even those who may be our enemies. There IS a depth of giving in these words which IS NOT expanded upon in our current saying but which IS further explained from the perspective that we must do so without any fanfare or any desire for acknowledgement. And NOT this giving only but ALL giving whether solicited or not and it IS the idea of the unsolicited that we discussed in the last post. ALL giving should be done in secret and the strength of the Master’s words should be seen in the simplicity of “let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth“. In this as well as those words from the last chapter, we should see His words, His commandments, and those things that we MUST do to be accounted worthy.
None of these is idle words; ALL of these have meaning and intent and repercussions when we DO NOT heed them. Not repercussion as in punishment of any kind but rather in remaining apart from the Truth of His words and the reality here in this idea of giving in secret IS intimately tied to the sense of self, of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion. This IS of course a part of that other idea that the Master presents regarding the Kingdom of God as He tells us about being humble; we read: “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:2-4). And this IS not unlike the ideas presented by the Master through His parables and other direct sayings like: “whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased ; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12). The Master then moves on to prayer and, while not defining what prayer IS, He does tell us how it IS that we should act when doing so; He says:
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:5-8).
Again we have the idea of secrecy, that whatsoever we do in prayer, in our supposed communication with the Lord, we should do alone and here the graphic example IS that “when thou prayest, enter into thy closet“. Again we should see the ideas of self-aggrandizement and self-promotion and understand that this particular commandment is directed specifically at the religious, the man who would pray, while the last can be seen as True for a wider spectrum of humanity. Here we also have the idea of hypocrisy presented by the Master and in this we should see that in His view much of the loud and public praying is but a pretense and that the objective is “that they may be seen of men” and appear to be religious. The Apostle James speaks on this idea as well as he tells us “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain” (James 1:26); here we should see a yet deeper meaning to James’ words than we may have heretofore thought. Our instruction IS clear but again, as in giving, the idea is ignored by the organized church that generally prays en masse while some encourage the verbal praying of individual members. Perhaps the Master has a different idea here; perhaps He means that we should pray in secret when the prayers are personal; however this IS not clear and as we follow along in His words, the ONLY vision of prayer that He gives us IS what we call today the Lord’s Prayer. This being said, it would appear that He does mean ALL prayer.
And what IS prayer? It is a solicitation to the Lord for some thing or some intervention and for the most part these are of a personal nature. We should note that the idea here of “vain repetitions” is better rendered as babble; the vanity here is attached by the translators. Vincent tells us that: Use vain repetitions (βατταλογήσητε); A word formed in imitation of the sound, battalogein properly, to stammer; then to babble or prate, to repeat the same formula many times, as the worshippers of Baal and of Diana of Ephesus (1 Kings 18:26; Acts 19:34) and the Romanists with their paternosters and aves 4. Other than the defining words, Vincent’s ideas are but supposition as the Master does not tell us any more about babbling and here we should see the idea that this IS what the hypocrites DO. In the last verse here we can actually take away the idea that this whole sense of prayer is misplaced as we are told “Be not ye therefore like unto them” which does not mean the babbling only but the entirety of what Jesus IS speaking against. The Master’s message here can easily be seen to say that we should not even pray for things for ourselves because “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him“. There IS a meaning to prayer as the Master uses this word and from His words this meaning IS NOT in asking for things for the self nor IS it in the hypocritical way of those he speaks about in these sayings. What then is left? We read on as the Master says:
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen” (Matthew 6:9-13).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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.
Staying on the theme of Love we repeat again the sayings of the Apostle Paul that puts this Love into perspective.
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-3,13 (New King James Version)Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. As in the ideas above from Sermon on the Mount and our comments on the affirmation that had been our Quote of the Day, these words from Paul impart a better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, through a True understanding of the power and the purpose of Love and we should note here as well that this expression of Love IS the Will of God and this we should see clearly in the Truth that “God IS love” (1 John 4:8).
We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post: Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. This
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
