ON LOVE; PART DCIV
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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 added a bit more to our thoughts about the death and resurrection of the Master and there are many who would think that our understanding IS wrong as we see the idea of the body of the man Jesus separate from the Soul whom we call the Christ. Their view however IS based solely upon the idea that the man IS the man in the world who has a Soul; thus Jesus IS the Son of God and His Life continues sans the body after His death. Our perspective IS that the body of Jesus dies upon the cross and that the Soul that IS the Christ continues on without regard to that body that He had used and that this IS much the same as everyman who IS born into the world; they he IS a Soul using a body in the Earth for a time. The difference IS in the ability of the Soul to control the form Life of the body and the created personality and, in the case of Jesus, the Soul that IS the Christ IS born with this ability as we read in the Apostle Paul’s words that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9); and this from the miracle of His virgin birth. It IS in this light that we should see the idea expressed by the Apostle John; that Jesus the Christ IS “the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). There IS some controversy regarding this verse and the remainder of the third chapter; some see this ALL as the Master’s words while others see this as the apostle’s words and that the Master’s discussion with Nicodemus ended at the fifteenth verse. While this DOES NOT Truly matter, we should note that all other places where this particular thought is expressed, it IS offered by an apostle.
We have then the special circumstances of the Master’s birth and the uniqueness expressed in the idea that He IS “the only begotten Son of God“; we should see then that this naturally carries over into Paul’s words that show this uniqueness in His Life, that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily“. We should note there that the words of the apostle, or the Master if this is what one chooses to believe, are that Jesus the Christ IS “the only begotten Son of God” and NOT the ONLY “Son of God” and it IS this idea of sonship that IS expressed by the Master Himself as He teaches us of the Fatherhood of God. Here, while doctrine wrangles with the meaning and breaks this down into children and sons for the benefit of the doctrines themselves, we see NO difference in these terms except in the reality of realization. As Souls, ALL men are sons of God in the context that this IS presented by the Master; ALL are children as Souls living through forms in this world. However, it IS only when this IS realized in one’s Life, it IS only when this reality IS the expression of the man in the world, that the man can be seen as a True “Son of God” and this idea IS scattered through the teaching of the Master and His apostles. It IS in this light that we read in Paul’s words to the Romans of the state of the disciples at Rome and of Paul himself who: “groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).
While it may seem that we are off the track that we began above, we ARE NOT; we ARE trying to clearly show that the nature of the Master and the nature of everyman are essentially the same and this IS True except for the idea of His being “the only begotten Son of God” by reason of His birth and that by way of this miraculous birth “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily“. Aside from these realities we are essentially the same, Souls living Life through forms in the world; in Him we have a fully realized Son of God from birth and for us we have to realize this Truth through Life and this objective is the goal of ALL men whether the can see it or not. It is the very nature of the teachings from the Master and His apostles that helps us to understand these things and to do them. John tells us that “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17) and if we take nothing else from these words, we should take that we ARE “as he is“, we ARE Souls expressing through form and as disciples we ARE Souls expressing divinity through form.
We should understand again that the words of the Master are intended to make men see the Truth and to allow the disciple to see it more clearly while the words of the epistles are intended to amplify and to clarify the Master’s words as ALL of these ideas from the apostles’ writings ARE in the Master’s words as well. We should understand as well that as the Master speaks in parables that the average man DOES NOT understand and which are ofttimes difficult even for His disciples as we read throughout the gospels; the words of the epistles are equally vague and most ALL are intended for disciples and aspirants who have some inkling of the realities of which they speak. In these ideas is another reason for the variance of doctrines, how that there are many interpretations made by men who, while they believe that they KNOW and understand the words, DO NOT Truly understand their spiritual significance. This IS NOT a knock against doctrine nor any who participated in the writing of the doctrines, this IS merely an observation that IS based in the Master’s own words as well as the Truth of who IS a disciple of the Lord as He presents this. And this IS the point that James IS making in his epistle as he cautions the reader of the reality of discipleship and that the teacher should beware of those things that he says; that he should teach the Truth of the word of God and NOT the convenient ideas that he can understand from his carnal mind and from the prevailing doctrinal ideas.
It IS in a similar way that Paul offers us His ideas on the treasure of the man in the world; not the treasures that the Master speaks of which we understand as those things that take a man’s attention, but the treasure which IS the Soul of a man, the True man. Paul, speaking to the disciples at Corinth as men who are disciples, says: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). These words ARE NOT understood by the man who IS not focused upon the things of God; that man CAN NOT see the idea of the Christ Within and the God Within as a spark of that Divine Flame which IS shining in the heart of the man, in the consciousness of the man whose focus IS right. It IS the man so focused upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True that understands his Soul as that divine aspect of the man, the True man, that will “give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God“; it IS this aspect that the apostle calls the “treasure in earthen vessels“….this IS the Soul in the Earthly body of the man. It IS in this Light that the disciple and the aspirant KNOW that whatsoever Power he may seem to have IS NOT the Power of a man but the Power of the Soul who IS ever part and parcel of God.
These ideas CAN NOT be understood by the man whose focus is carnal and while they can be glimpsed by the aspirant, that are Truly understood by the disciple. In these words we can see also James’ point on Wisdom as it IS this same man who can receive and understand the impulses of the Soul which ARE that Power and which come as the thoughts and the attitudes and “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God“: “the wisdom that is from above“. Paul’s words that we cite here are intentionally obscure as ARE so many of his sayings and, while this may not be so with the same intent as the Master tells us of for His parabolic style, this IS so by the nature of who it IS that he Truly addresses. Perhaps he would not have written so if he had foreseen how it IS that some of his words are understood and how that they supplant the Master’s own words for many people. Returning to James’ words, we were last discussing the attributes of Wisdom from above as a part of our discussion on the last part of the third chapter of his epistle; our subject sayings are:
“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).
In the first part here the apostle IS speaking about the expression of the man in the world, how that the disciple will not express duality but the single-mindedness of his focus upon the things of God. This IS a carryover from the previous words that James writes about the tongue and which we see as the totality of the expression of the man in the world. Here in these ideas we can see that point of Transformation where the aspirant becomes the disciple and his Life in the realm of duality IS NO more; we can see as well James’ caution to the man who IS but deceiving himself by thinking that he IS a disciple…that if he IS double-minded, he IS NOT. In this same context the apostle goes on to say that the man who believes that he is a Wise man “endued with knowledge“, that he will not act as the man that IS proud or boastful but will act in meekness. Here we should see that the proud or boastful man IS NOT Wise and we can see as well Paul’s point above as he says that the man who realizes he IS that “treasure in earthen vessels” will KNOW and understand that reality of the words “the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us“. The man of True Wisdom is meek and reserved as a personality in the world; his Wisdom shows forth in his “good works” which ARE done for the sake of DOING and not for any fame or popular opinion.
And James continues in rather obscure language which IS misunderstood as jealousy and strife but which IS in reality the greater ideas of emulation and faction and which we have related to the self-absorbed man who promotes himself and his own ideas or the ideas of his sense of group over the Truth of the words of the Master and His apostles. Here we can see the relation to James’ caution for the man who chooses to teach; that he should beware of teaching doctrine over Truth and this IS the overall tenor of these ideas: Wisdom that IS from above IS Truth and that such Wisdom has the listed ideas as its attributes or it IS NOT Wisdom from above at ALL. Beware then that one DOES NOT mistake worldly wisdom in the thoughts and attitudes of the self and of doctrines for this Wisdom from above; beware that what one expresses to the world IS this single-minded Wisdom and that it IS NOT dual in nature, beware that whatsoever one may think IS such Wisdom DOES NOT cause one to be proud and boastful; in ALL of these ideas is the man whose focus IS yet on the self and the self in the world or the man who yet lives in the duality of the aspirant. And we should not be fooled by the apostle’s use of the ideas of “earthly, sensual, devilish” as this reference is not of things bad or evil in this context but rather these are thoughts and attitudes of the self and the self in the world which a man may believe to be that Wisdom from above.
What IS then Wisdom from above and why do we spend so much time on this? We spend the time because of the importance of KNOWING the source of the thoughts and the attitudes that come into one’s mind and emotions in order that we can KNOW how that we should react to them. Paul offers us a similar idea in his words that the man who would be a disciple should be ever “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” (2 Corinthians 10:5). While Paul’s ideas on what this means are spread over many words and are understood in the context of discipleship, James’s approach is the more direct as he tells us specifically what IS and what IS not Wisdom from God. Unfortunately his choice of words DOES NOT allow for easy recognition of the spiritual Truths and many of these words are interpreted in carnal tones. Perhaps this IS intentional; perhaps this IS framed so that the disciple will Truly understand the intent and that the ideas ARE NOT wasted on the man whose focus is on the self or IS dual in nature. There are many approaches to these thoughts that James offers us in this list of the attributes of the Wisdom from above and we will close out our essay for today by repeating our understanding of the first several which we read as: “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy”
We see that “first pure” means Godlike as God IS pure and we see the idea of first as does Vincent, that this is the paramount attribute, the most important and that the others can ALL be found within this; that if a thought or a revelation IS Truly pure, ALL of the other attributes will be fulfilled as well. We noted the relationship between the Greek word rendered as pure and the Greek word that is rendered as holy and in this relationship we see that holy IS from God and pure IS the effect of holy in the Life of the man. In this view it IS the holy thought that IS the pure thought; that which IS from God, from above, is pure in the heart of the man in the world. The man to whom flow the pure thoughts and revelations is the man who will act upon them and there IS NO separation of these pure and holy thoughts from very word of God because these thoughts and revelations ARE from God. The nature of the pure and holy Wisdom from above must then be peaceable or it IS NOT truly pure and while many see this as Peace between men, they fail to see the context of Wisdom in their view. In our view this word must be seen as an attribute of the Wisdom from above, that it will bring with it Peace for the man to whom the thought or revelation comes. And this Peace IS the sense of KNOWING and the confidence that the man can have in this thought, in this Wisdom, which confirms to him that this IS Truth. This IS the “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7); this IS the Peace that the Master offers His disciples which allows them to KNOW that His word IS True; and this IS that same word that comes to a man from his Soul and which will bring him such Peace. And this Wisdom IS epiekes which is rendered as gentle by our King James version and in a variety of different ideas by others as we previously discussed. In our own study of this Greek word we have concluded that forbearance IS the better rendering and this from the perspective that Wisdom from above will allow the man to see and use it in Loving understanding, that it will NOT cause the man to see himself above others but he will see himself as others in the same spirit in which Paul says: “we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). ALL men who realize the Truth of the words of the Master and of God have come out of the world of men and it IS this idea of forbearance that IS the expression of the spiritual man towards his brothers who ARE yet entranced by the world of men; this forbearance IS an attribute of his thoughts and his attitudes.
Next we have the idea of “easy to be intreated” which IS yet another confounding thought from the apostle who IS the only writer to use the Greek word rendered thus; here again we have a variety of different ideas that are used across the various translations and denominations. None of the available ideas seem viable to us in the context of this Wisdom from above and while we had previously tried to see this as the importunity which we found in Webster’s definition, we have realized that, while this IS better than the more common ideas, it IS not suitable in James’ context. Looking further we explored the components of the Greek word and in the combination of ‘something that is well and good’ from the Greek eu, and the idea of ‘persuaded to believe or persuaded to have faith’ from the Greek peitho, we discovered the idea of “easily believed” or even “well believed”. These ideas can be applied to that Wisdom from above and tell us that these pure thoughts from God are easily understood and believed by the man whose focus IS right and likely seen carnally by the man who IS focused in the world.
In “mercy and good fruits” we see the idea of mercy being better understood as the outward expression of Universal Love than it is the idea of compassion and pity for the poor and downtrodden which is the generally accepted idea for this Greek word eleos. Our thought IS that mercy IS one’s expression of lovingkindness, which IS an effective expression of Love and GoodWill; there would be NO thing coming from the Soul, from the Christ Within, nor from God, that would be contrary to this. In this we should see that True Wisdom from above will incorporate these ideas of lovingkindness, which word comes from the Old Testament usage of the same idea of mercy, and that the very thought will be the expression of the Love that IS God; that NO thought from God can be contrary to this reality of Love. Finally, in the idea of “good fruits” we can see clearly the list presented by Paul of what IS the “fruit of the spirit” and while there IS redundancy between this list and James’ list, this redundancy IS in terms of Love. In this we are saying that Wisdom from above IS full of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) and in the reality of James’ point, this MUST be True.
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.
