ON LOVE; PART DXCV
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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).
Today IS Palm Sunday; a day that represents the observation by most Christian denominations of the Master’s entry into Jerusalem as it is recorded in the gospels; this year both the Eastern and the Western Churches are observing this and Easter on the same day. The dates for these observations vary among churches based upon the timing of the first full moon of Spring and the way that the date for Easter is calculated and Palm Sunday is understood as the beginning of the Holy Week by most. The full moon this year occurs on the fifteenth and the Festival of the Risen Christ or Easter IS observed esoterically on the fourteenth as a day of meditation and on the following Sunday by the organized churches. That Jesus was put to death is a Truth and that He was resurrected is also a Truth, the only differences both among the churches and against the reality IS the meaning of these events and as we proceed through this ‘holy week’ we will post various ideas regarding Easter and its meaning. Today we should try to see that the Master’s entry into Jerusalem marks the culmination of His work; in many ways it IS for this purpose that He came among us: to show us the Way of the disciple, the reality of the Path and the True nature of Life and death in this world. Two thousand years later these lessons have NOT been learned by most and the teachings of the churches that center around the age old ideas of His death as atonement for the sins of the world still permeate most of Christianity. These ideas are based in the churches’ interpretation of the words of the apostles who write of these things in words and a frame of reference that was likely better understood in those days than it IS today. It IS in the lack of understanding of the realities of Life itself that the doctrinal interpretations are made as well as in the way that these ideas were able to deflect men’s thoughts away from the Truth of the Master’s words and the reality of the apostles’ message which ARE difficult to bear for the man whose focus IS in the world and the self.
In a way we can see the entirety of the Master’s ordeal at the hands of the Jews, His crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, His resurrection and the stories of His appearance to those who knew Him but did not recognize Him, plus the comments of the apostles regarding His ability to come and go unseen, as a living parable; a series of events that hides the Truth except for the man who can see and can hear. Jesus predicts His crucifixion and His resurrection several times as the gospels DO note, however His disciples DO NOT understand this because of the parabolic nature of the whole of it as there IS NO precedence for this in history so far as they KNOW; they could NOT imagine the reality of His words and this continues even as the events were unfolding. In ALL of the words and the miracles that these apostles witnessed, they could not see the reality of what IS predicted by the Master and by the prophets before Him and the reality of it ALL is still misunderstood today. Christians are still stuck on the Apostle John’s words saying “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). These ARE words that we have discussed before and which are not nearly understood in the reality that the apostle offers and which show forth the reality that Jesus IS a direct incarnation of the Love of God, the Christ, as a person in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) from His birth….every man can become a fully functional Son of God in this world but it IS only the Master who IS born as one. As we close this segment on the Truth of the death and resurrection of the Master we leave this predictive saying by the Master: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father” (John 10:17-18).
“Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:11-17).
Returning to our words from the Epistle of James where we are discussing the attributes of what IS Wisdom from above, we return also to the words that from the Apostle Paul which we left off with in the last post: “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). This saying as well as another that we used in the last post from the Master who says to His apostles “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27) are likely a cause for Strong’s ideas in defining this word that IS rendered as peaceable to include: with a focus of having freedom from emotional worry and frustration 3. The implication of both of these can give this idea of freedom from worry but this IS NOT the intent in our view as we are speaking here of thoughts and attitudes that come to a man for which the idea of peaceable can help him to determine that such thoughts ARE from above; we are speaking about revelation from the perspective of the aspirant and the disciple and we are speaking about what others who are yet tied to the world and the self may believe ARE revelation. In the previous word from this saying on what IS Wisdom from above, pure, we find the overall nature of what IS from above….it IS from God and therefore Godly which IS here given by James in a Greek word that is of the same origin as holy and for which we see as that pure IS the effect in the world of the holy things of God. We DO NOT KNOW another way to see this idea as the apostle IS telling us that such Wisdom from above IS pure and that pure IS the paramount attribute as this is framed “first pure” by James.
For us then this idea of the purity of that which comes from the holy shows that there IS NO thing in such thoughts and attitudes that would be of the world as the world IS NOT holy but, according to our understanding of the Masters and His apostles’ words, corrupt and in this corruption we should see clearly the lack of the attributes of holy and pure. The Master tells us of this idea of corruption as we recently read in the Sermon on the Mount and, in His use of this idea in regard to one’s treasure, we should be able to understand the intent that the one, “treasures upon earth“, ARE corrupt while the other, “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20), CAN NOT be corrupted. These treasures ARE ALL things that are of importance to a man and ARE NOT limited to physical things only but the psychic as well. Jesus offers us an additional idea on this corruption by showing us the nature of the man who bears good fruit versus the man who DOES NOT; that the latter is compared to the corrupt tree as we read: “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” (Matthew 7:17-18). This IS what should be seen in the idea of pure from James, the opposite of the corruptible worldly thoughts, attitudes, actions and things. We can see this relationship in Paul’s words as well as he speaks much of corruption and he tells us: “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8) which should help us to see this division of the holy and pure from the corrupt. Paul also relates this to the nature of the man in the world as he tells us that we should “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” which IS the converse of the heavenly man who “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24).
It IS in these ideas that we are able to build our own premise that James’ use of the word pure IS intended to show these same realities; that pure IS NOT of the world, nor of the self, and that any seeming revelation that has as its objective the self in the world IS NOT pure and IS NOT from above. Similarly we see this second word which IS rendered as peaceable and is an modified form of the Greek word that is rendered as Peace. In the Master’s words above we see that this Peace IS a gift of sorts according to the way that the apostle phrases Jesus words but, if we can extend this to see that this Peace IS the natural result of what IS holy and what comes from God, we can see the greater reality of this use of the word as it offers to the disciple that sense of KNOWING that he IS ONE with the Master and this IS the overriding meaning of this entire chapter from John’s Gospel along with Jesus teaching on the Holy Ghost. Here we can read into these words many things that ARE missed in doctrine; first the Christ Within and then the reality of the Holy Spirit as both of these ideas are offered in most obscure language in which we find:
“Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:19-21).
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:26-27).
In these ideas we can see that it IS the Holy Spirit that IS the Peace as this IS the activity of the Christ Within in the Life of the man in the world and this IS that sense of Peace that will “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid“. And, in this idea of heart IS the consciousness and awareness of the disciple and NOT the ordinary psyche of the man in the world. As we have discussed before, the Master teaches by parable and that this style applies to His apostles and disciples as well; we have discussed as well the reality that there is much confusion among the apostles even after the resurrection. While John chooses a different Greek word which IS rendered as proverb here in the King James Version we should understand that while He tells His disciples of the parabolic nature of His teaching to the ordinary man, He also tells them that their teaching was of a similar albeit ‘more advanced’ nature; we read: “These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh , when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father” (John 16:25). Finally, in relation to Peace we have the words from Paul at the end of the last essay and repeated above. Here we see the “peace of God, which passeth all understanding” and while this IS considered as opposed to anxiety or worry, the greater understanding IS that this IS of God and it IS beyond ALL things human; it IS that sense of KNOWING the Truth and while this KNOWING and this Truth come to a man by degree, it IS,at each stage, beyond the KNOWING of the man in the world.
It IS this sense of Peace, this working of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the aspirant and the disciple, which IS the activity of the Christ Within, the activity of the Love and Power of the Soul by degree, that “shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus“. In this idea of keep is the reality of guard and it IS this Peace, this KNOWING that comes with the activity of the Christ Within, that accomplishes this. And it IS this similar idea that James brings to those things that come from above; that they ARE peaceable, that they bring this sense of KNOWING the that they are Truth but….first they are pure. If we take then these ideas of Peace as we have assembled them above we should be able to understand the import of James’ words; that the very nature of the revelation IS beyond ALL understanding and it brings with it that sense of KNOWING that such realization IS Truly from above. That this idea that one perceives as Wisdom from above would be Peaceful in the common understanding IS a redundant thought as we ARE speaking about Wisdom from above; in this view any thoughts or attitudes of hostility of any kind are most assuredly NOT from above nor could they be as such Wisdom IS “first pure“.
These ideas here today and in the last few posts on pure and peaceable ARE far beyond our thoughts on these words from earlier in our blog and these older ideas can be read in IN the Words of Jesus parts 325-328. Our next word IS gentle and this IS yet another word that should NOT be seen in the common understanding as we ARE speaking about the nature of the revelation from above.
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.
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:18-20)
This is called by some of the church the Great Commission and so it is. It is however hardly understood and at times grossly misapplied. Somewhere in the centuries that have passed since the Master left us we have come to think that the meaning of this is just to preach the word through any particular doctrine and baptize according to any particular belief. Vincent tells us that the word translated as teach here should be seen as make disciples of 4 and the lexicon bears this out. There is nowhere in scripture an actual defining understanding of the concept of baptism and we generally think of it as the immersion into or the pouring on of water and that somehow this clears us of sin. This is but an outward sign however of real spiritual undertaking by the conscious man and it is only when a man is ready to commit to the Master that a baptism can be considered real. We will leave this as the Quote of the Day for a few days and try to find in it some true meaning. Keeping in mind our four points, we should ponder on this.
The Master is speaking to disciples and not the multitudes and these are those that do believe on Him and follow Him and keep His words. Hard sayings for man in the world but claimed by many nonetheless. There IS a reality in the idea that the disciple should be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” which IS His words that ARE to be kept and in this light we add these ideas from the Buddha: “Love yourself and watch – today, tomorrow, always. First establish yourself in the way, Then teach, and so defeat sorrow. To straighten the crooked you must first do a harder thing – straighten yourself” (Dhammapada; on Yourself)5.
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
