ON LOVE; PART DCXCIV
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
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
FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “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).
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is 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.
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ
PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
In the last essay we continued our discussion of the relationship between our view of grace, as that this IS the revelations and the realizations of divinity that flow from the Soul of the man who strives to toward the Kingdom of God. These realizations and revelations ARE the reward if you will for such striving, the reward for one’s degree of focus upon the things of God; and the degree of this grace IS proportionate to the degree of focus. We should remember here that we ARE taking this relationship of reward and grace from the words of the Master as they are reported to us by the apostles Matthew and Luke in their versions of the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew the idea of a man’s expression of Love, that if it IS reciprocal and worldly which the apostle frames as “if ye love them which love you” (Matthew 5:46), there will be NO reward while this same thought IS offered by Luke as “if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye?” (Luke 6:32). Here in Luke’s report of the Master’s words we have the Greek word charis which IS rendered as grace in most ALL other appearances save for this and similar ideas from Jesus words. The point here IS that the word that IS used IS charis or grace in Luke and misthos which means: wages, hire; reward 2 in Matthew and it IS in these relationships that we should see the idea that IS intended….that the right expression of Love, the reality of keeping His words, results in this idea of grace which IS then the reward or the wages earned by the man who IS striving.
This more definite idea of grace has a much Truer meaning to the man in the world than DOES the nebulous understanding of grace as a “free gift” that is gleaned from the misinterpretation of the words of the Apostle Paul who IS relating a deeper Truth than doctrines DO see. Paul IS relating the concept of the sin of Adam to the reality of the realizations and the revelations that come to us by Christ, His Presence and His teaching. In the reality of Paul’s words we should see that the idea which he IS presenting IS NOT the atoning quality of the Master’s Life and death but the reality that He brought to bear on the lives of men. We read Paul’s words as:
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:12-19).
It IS in the idea of ‘original sin‘ and the concept of the ‘fall of man‘, which IS based in a most literal reading of the Book of Genesis, that the ideas in Paul’s words are misconstrued by doctrines that teach such ideas. In the reality of the Genesis story as the story of the incursion of the divine Souls of men into the their presence as the Life and the consciousness of the human animal body, that Paul’s words and ideas can Truly be discerned. And Paul gives us this reality in a capsule form in a later part of this same Epistle to the Romans as he tells us that: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). Again we must understand that we are speaking of the mysteries of Life, the mysteries that are hidden in the words of the Master and His apostles and here, in these ideas, one of the greater mysteries IS at play, a mystery that the apostle also tells us of saying: “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Most ALL of these words are manipulated by men to somewhat comply with the preconceived ideas of their own doctrines and traditions but we should try to see the Truths that ARE rather clearly enunciated through the apostle’s words.
When we can understand that the ‘fall of man‘ IS NOT the fault of Adam and Eve but rather their destiny as they ARE among the first to experience this subjection “to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“, their immersion into the illusions and the glamours of Life in this world by the very Plan of God, we can come closer to understanding the apostle’s earlier words to the Romans. And when we can come to understand the idea of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” we can begin to see the role of the Christ in these same sayings and come to realize the greater idea of grace as the gift, the ‘free gift‘, of God. In the right view of the ‘fall of man‘ and the resultant concept of ‘original sin‘, we can see more clearly the reality that Paul IS offering; that from Adam to Moses it IS sin that reigned and that this sin IS the spiritual death of man insofar as the history of the Jews IS concerned. That sin IS death should be an apparent reality from the perspective of the True man, the Soul; and this perspective IS seen by those to whom Paul IS addressing his ideas: disciples who will understand his theme for sure and aspirants who will see the Truth to some degree. These ideas however ARE occluded by the doctrines of men. In the scriptural idea of sin we have the idea of this vanity that Paul tells us that men ARE subjected to; it IS in this vanity that they have been seeking ALL things in the ways of the world which IS believed to be the Truth of the Life of man in form. As we read above however this subjection to vanity IS according to the Plan of God and we should try to see here that in the evolution of the human psyche in the world that mankind moves forward from the barbarous and superstitious ways of which we read in the Old Testament where the True Light of the Soul IS seen by very few who stand as biblical examples for others to follow in their day.
We should understand here that ALL that we KNOW from the Old Testament and the Jewish traditions pertains ONLY to that part of the human experience in those days and in those places and that at the same time, and even before, there are divine revelations given to other cultures. Here, in the Jewish world, we have what we see in the Old Testament; and of the time from Adam to Moses very little IS KNOWN save for the lives of some of those who had achieved some degree in divine realization by their own focus upon the Truth of God that flows from the Souls of ALL men; Truth which is obnubilated by a man’s focus upon the carnal and the unreal. It IS this focus upon the things of the world that IS the death that Paul speaks of above as he tells us that it IS in the giving of the law by Moses that the ability of some to better understand the Truths previously presented against the greater Truths of the reality of God and of man’s approach to Him in keeping the law are enhanced. Here we should see that this sense of death without the law IS ended by the presentation of the law and we should see that in the idea that this “death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” IS the reality of this vanity which Vincent helps us to understand saying that in this usage it IS: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. The law then allows men to approach closer to God and gives him a set of concise instructions that will lead him to his own realization of Truth and there ARE likely many who ARE so led. We should understand as well that in keeping the law there IS the reality that the Master later presents regarding attainment of the Kingdom of God as He tells us “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
The greater reality here regarding the giving of the law by Moses is captured for us in the apostle’s earlier words saying “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20). This concept IS easy to understand and while sin through vanity may have reigned before the law, a greater reality of sin IS now apparent even in the carnal minds of men who KNOW of the law. And this IS the reality until the Advent of the Christ, that men KNOW the law and the constraints of the law but choose the ways of the world which ARE contrary to the law. Here we have the more conscious reality of sin and here we have the doctrines of men interceding and creating safe harbor in religion for men, safe harbor that IS railed against by the Master in His speaking against the ways of the Pharisees and the scribes and other rulers of the Jews. Now there ARE Jews who keep the law in Truth and not merely in the doctrinal sense and to these come their reward, their wages of grace, which come to them in the same degree with with they keep the law. Here we should remember the Apostle James words on keeping the law as he tells us “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).
So men have the law and they have the more specific realizations of sin based in their own ability and desire to keep the law and in this sense the law IS a gift, it comes form the Lord; it comes through those who lead the divine evolution of men in this world. But this gift IS NOT accepted by ALL…in fact it IS accepted by relatively few. This IS much the same as the gift of grace given to the man before Moses as while he may not have sinned in an intentional way as we read in the story of Adam and Eve, he does sin by his own inclusion in the ways of the world, by his being subjected to the vanity, the perishable and decaying condition, separate from God; here the gift of grace can be seen in the idea that “sin is not imputed when there is no law“. The Master brings us the next generation of Truth, the new dispensation where the law and keeping the law IS NOT abolished as He says “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). Here in the word rendered as destroy we should see the idea of dissolve or to bring to naught as the lexicon tells us 2 and in the idea of fulfill we should see related ideas like: to make complete in every particular, to render perfect; to carry through to the end, to accomplish, carry out, (some undertaking); to carry into effect, bring to realisation 2 which are a part of the lexicon’s definitions of the Greek word pleroo.
This next generation of Truth IS also a ‘free gift‘ from God and from those who guide the race of men; whose own Master IS the Christ whose own realization of Truth and whose ability to bring that Truth to us gives us the reality of the Life of Jesus in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The Master’s teaching IS beyond the law and supersedes the law from the perspective that it IS NO longer the man in the world who should fulfill the law by doing but it IS the Inner man, the Soul and the Christ Within, who expresses his own divine Love and the Power through his Life in the world after the example of Christ Jesus. And it IS this expression that IS the result of grace, it IS the realization and the revelation that comes to the man who sees the Truth of Christ as this Truth is awakened through His teaching on the Love and the GoodWill that IS God. Here we should see that the ‘do this for the reward’ attitude of the pronouncements of the law give way to the ‘do this because it IS the right thing’ according to His words on Love. It IS in the word of Love ALL things are considered….no man will act against the law of Moses if his heart is “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17). This IS the greater reality of the words of Paul to the Romans which we can summarize as that in Adam the Souls of men make their incursion into Life in the world, a Life in vanity which IS the reality of the illusion and the glamour that keep him bound. In Moses we have the law, the concrete instructions to the man living in the vanity, living in the illusion and the glamour that IS life in this world, and which is the reality of sin; here, while the law can free the man from his bondage to the corruption that IS Life in the world, it first gives him the realization of the Way of return, of deliverance, the Way of approach to God. In Adam we have death in sin, death in the ways of the world that are glimpsed by the few who lead but go unnoticed by the many who are lost in the world of form; in Moses we have the realization of the Power of God and of the Power of the Law to release a man from his bondage and here there ARE yet few who DO achieve deliverance.
Then, with the Advent of the Master, we have the fuller realization of the divinity of man in the teaching and the example of the Life of Christ Jesus; while there IS some measure of grace to the men in the previous dispensations, the degree of grace IS increased to those who can see the Truth of the Christ, the Love of God in the world of men. We should see here that age by age the degree of grace, the degree of the ability to realize the Truth, IS increased by the intervention of men of God who show a yet better way to approach divinity, a better way that IS in tune with the advancements in the mental and emotional condition of the world of men which, in combination with the divine teachings, can enable more and more men to glimpse the Truth in the Light of their own Souls and to stand at the threshold of the Kingdom of God. This IS the greater reality of grace and the better understanding of the ‘free gift‘ that this IS represented as; there IS NO substance to this gift of grace unless this IS the further realization and revelation of Truth in the Life of the man in the world.
It was NOT our intention go into these ideas generated by the apostle’s teaching on grace to the Romans but there are many hidden Truths in these words of which we have exposed by a few. And this grace IS the reality as well to Jesus words in the Gospel of John which we have been discussing and which we repeat here again. Here in Jesus words we should see the idea of “the works that I do” as the result of that grace that comes to the man “that believeth on me” which IS the man who keeps His words and IS the man whose focus IS upon the things of God.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 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” (John 14:12-20).
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.
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, 1888
