IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1111

ON LOVE; PART DCC

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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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).

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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.

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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).

“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).

In the last essay we continued our discussion on grace as this IS presented by the Apostle Paul to the Romans in his words above; we addressed again the idea of sin and how that this IS misunderstood and misrepresented by doctrines that DO NOT show sin in the True light; that this IS essentially the opposite of righteousness and that it IS the result of man’s existence on this Earth where he IS “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20) as the apostle later tells us. Young’s Literal Translation renders Paul’s words as “for to vanity was the creation made subject — not of its will, but because of Him who did subject [it]” which can offer a bit more clarity regarding the idea that the whole of our existence IS a part of the Plan of God; that this IS NOT the result of “Adam’s transgression“. For us “Adam’s transgression” IS simply his focus upon himself, it IS in his own quest to KNOW the greater Truths of Life that he and Eve eat of “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9) and this too IS according to His Plan which puts man onto this Earth. Here, while we DO NOT understand the purpose, Adam IS a Soul who IS beginning a new experience for Souls as the Life and the consciousness of the human animals of the Earth, animals whose evolution has developed bodies that ARE suitable for the task of hosting these self-aware and conscious lives.

While this IS NOT the common understanding of the reality of Life in this world, our view IS NO more mysterious than any other and CAN offer some semblance of a sensible approach to Life which IS missing in the scientific and the religious view. We ARE here, we ARE Life, and this body that we use IS the human animal body. We can see this as an ever evolving body able to DO what we are capable of DOING and growing into based in the scientific ideas of Life; we can see this religiously as creations of new men in the world in accordance with some form of evolution that provides for the changes in the bodies and the personalities, the mind and the emotions, over the millennia that men have been on this Earth; or we can see this as we portray above; that the Souls, the divine Souls that ARE part and parcel of God, take on the forms of the human animals and express Life and consciousnesses through the ever evolving bodies and personalities. No matter how that we try to view Life, there IS no idea of purpose nor IS there any explanation of its True working; there IS NO idea of why nor of how. If however we follow Paul’s ideas and give a bit more force to the idea of Souls apart from form, Souls that take form in this world of illusion and glamour, we can see how that it IS the Soul, the True man, that IS so subjected and how that being in form IS the subjection itself.

In our view we can see the Genesis story as it IS, as a story that IS designed to appeal to the barbarous and superstitious man of the times and which at the same time can convey some sense of Truth as we can see it in the idea “the tree of knowledge of good and evil“. Here we should try to see the sense of right and wrong or, better, the sense of righteousness and sin, as this would develop in the world based in the temptations offered by the world. In this we should try to see the deeper idea that the Souls KNOW of the Good and, by their incursion into this world of form, they will come to see the evil which should be understood as simply the opposite of the good…their focus upon the things of the world rather that on the things of God. We should note that men devolve into this state in some strange way and that from this point of Adam and Eve men are then born into this world. It matters little that Adam and Eve are single Souls who take on forms or if they are representative of a group of Souls in this same undertaking, what matters IS that they ARE in the Earth, conscious, living Souls, they become overwhelmed by the temptation to the pleasures and the comforts of Life and that it IS in this sense that the vanity that Paul speaks of takes hold. This idea of vanity IS best understood away from the common understanding of the word; we should view this as the separation of man from his own sense of God as he is immersed in the world of things; and then the continuation of this plight as men are born into the world and nurtured in the ways of the world.

It IS in this light, in the light of the idea that greater Souls are speaking as the we in the following verses from Genesis, that we should try to understand the injunction that “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). We KNOW that this death IS the same as the death that Paul speaks about above, this IS “death by sin“; this death IS the absence of the spiritual consciousness that IS lost in the vanity of Life in form and, again, this vanity should be seen in Vincent’s terms as he tells us that in this verse vanity IS: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends ⁴. For Adam and Eve however the temptation has more strength than does the injunction and they DO partake of the apple, a symbol of the pleasures in the world toward which their carnal personalities drive them; this combination of the animal drives with the emotional and mental attractions IS too much for them to resist and we should be able to see here the link between this and the vanity; and that this IS ALL a result of the divine plan. And we should note as well the response by God in Genesis, that “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (Genesis 3:22); here we should at least wonder at the idea of us and we should marvel that the man had become more complete and that his next goal would be “take also of the tree of life“. There IS much mystery in ALL of this which IS missed by the literal ideas taken from this story and it IS this mystery that shows us the reality of sin, that it IS the expected outcome of man’s subjection to this vanity. There IS also much mystery that IS to be found in the idea of the “tree of life“; if death IS found in the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and this death is one’s spiritual separation from the Lord, this being “made subject to vanity, not willingly” which IS the cause of sin, then the Life taken from the “tree of life” IS the end of this spiritual separation, the return to righteousness which now comes as part of one’s Life in form and this IS, as Paul frames this for us, man’s deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

And this IS what Paul tells us in his words “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“. This idea was the same in the understanding of the day as it IS today, that Adam was the first man; this IS how this idea IS likely reckoned. However, the Genesis ideas end in this as Paul’s ideas on sin ARE much the same as those  expressed by the Master. In the New Testament sin IS corrected in Repentance which IS that change of the focus of one’s Life. In Repentance IS the realization of the Truth of sin, that it IS the ways of the world which ARE against the Truth of God, and we should see this realization as a measure of that grace, that “free gift” that flows into the Life of the man in the world from God….from the God and the Christ Within. In Genesis terms we should try to see that this IS the end of man’s “death by sin“, the end of the continuous temptations that the carnal Life imposes on the personality. We should see as well the reality of the “tree of life“, not in the idea that one will live forever as we understand this, but in the reality that we have been able to overcome the death that IS brought to the spiritual man by Life focused in the world and apart from God. We should try to see here that the Genesis story of Adam’s being driven out of the Garden of Eden in the picture of reality that we are trying to paint above; that by his subjection to the ways of the world man IS removed from the Presence of God which IS represented by the “tree of life“. In this man IS left to his own devices in the world; he has access to the Truth but DOES NOT see it through the clouds of illusion and of glamour; he only sees his Life in the world. We should see here the mysterious cherubim and the flaming swords as they are intended for us to see and not in the literal tone intended for the man in those days; we should understand this as our own personality which keeps us away from the Truth of the “tree of life“.

There was surely NO easy way to explain these ideas to that barbarous and superstition man of the past, to the succeeding generations after the Christ, and then to us who can see some sense of reality in the words, and it IS for this reason that we must look past the preconceptions and the doctrines that paint this in the common understanding of the ‘fall of man‘. This IS a fall but it IS an intentional one from the perspective of the Souls who come to Life in this world as part of the Plan of God and who perform a service that we can not yet see nor understand; a service that Paul hints at as he tells us of our “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). There are great mysteries attached to this ALL but these ARE mysteries that can be resolved by our own measure of grace, our own realizations and revelations of Truth and it IS in this work that we wait as the husbandman; waiting for the fruit of the harvest. And so we work and we wait.

We did not intend to go this far into these ideas and leave our sayings from the Gospel of John which we repeat below yet again; it IS however important to understand the deeper significance of the idea of sin as this IS presented to us by the Master and His apostles. It IS in understanding the nature of sin that we can begin to free ourselves from it.

“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.

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