ON LOVE; PART DCCVII
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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).
In the last essay we continued our look at the concept of grace from the perspective of the Master’s words on attaining the Kingdom of God as He offers them in His Sermon on the Mount. The reality here in our selection of sayings IS found in the idea of attaining the Kingdom, which IS here and now, as the realization and the revelation of divinity in one’s Life and in the steady flow of this realization, this grace for the man who strives toward that final realization of Truth, we should see the growth of the Kingdom Within by degree. This degree of accomplishment corresponds to one’s degree of ability to express the divine nature of the Soul, the Christ Within, through his Life in the world of men; this expression IS the fruit of one’s Life and this expression IS the operation of the Holy Spirit.
We began by repeating our view that the many miracles of Jesus, the miraculous works of Moses and the similar abilities to express divinity that we see in the lives of the Apostles Peter and Paul, are the evidence of grace, the fruit if you will, and ARE the operation of the Holy Spirit in the world of men. These miracles are accomplished by the activity of the God Within consciously working through the subordinated body and personality. The Master tells us this saying that “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10); In the Pentateuch the author tells us that it IS the Lord who speaks to Moses and we should try to see this in the same dynamic as we read here of Jesus; that in the words “the LORD said unto Moses” (Exodus 6-1), which IS ofttimes repeated in several different ways, there IS this same Father, this same God Within, expressing His divine nature through the Prophet. Similarly with Peter and Paul; here, while the reality of the God Within IS the same, their interpretation and expression of this IS that it IS the Christ Within, the Christ who provides the Power and the Love for their divine actions.
We should remember that in ALL cases the reality of the expression of God in the world IS by the the hand of a most Holy man who has garnered the grace, the ability to perform such miracles by way of the great Truth that the Master shows us saying “I have overcome the world” (John 10:30). This IS the fullness of grace and this IS the fullness with which the Master came among us; Paul tells us that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and John tells us that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14) and in this saying we should be able to understand that this IS His fullness from birth. For Moses this fullness IS a revelation that comes to him in the call of God which IS symbolized for us in the burning bush at Mount Horeb, a revelation that is preceded by the realization of the Truth of his birth many years before. This too IS the grace that comes into the Life of the man whose focus turns to God; here, in Moses, his new found reality, his revelation of his Truth, causes him to forsake ALL that is of the world in an act of Love and compassion as measured by the barbaric and superstitious times in which he lived.
In Peter we have the model of the growth of the Kingdom Within which IS the growth of grace in the apostle’s Life. We see the picture of a disciple of the Lord who IS called by the Master and suddenly leaves ALL to follow the Lord; this IS his revelation and we should try to see that this IS most likely preceded by some degree of focus upon the things of God and the corresponding realizations that culminate in the divine revelation that he sees as the Master calls. We have premised that Peter and ALL of the Twelve were Souls of some accomplishment, that they had brought into this incarnation some degree of spiritual collateral which allowed them the needed vision to see the Truth; these were a part of Jesus ready help and were necessary for the completion of His mission and the dissemination of His word. But even with this premise aside, we should be able to see the reality of grace, the reality of Peter’s realization of his own divinity as he begins his way as a disciple who IS NOT yet complete which we see in the many rebukes and trials that are noted for us in the gospels. And, in the Book of Acts, we see the fullness of Peter’s revelation, the fullness of his measure of grace which allows him to do those things that we should see as his fruit , as his expression of his divine nature to the world. In the stories of the apostle we read that he breaks chains and opens prison doors and while doctrine attributes his ability to the hand of God, we see this as the hand of the God Within which becomes his expression in the world. Most importantly however IS the reality of His healing and while we DO NOT read much of this, we DO read about the miracle “at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful” where the “man lame from his mother’s womb” is healed. And we do read about the fullness of the apostle’s Power in Love, the fullness of his grace, in Luke’s depiction of Peter’s healing ability:
“And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5:14-16).
We should perhaps see here that this reference to believers IS NOT the same as our reference from John below where we understand this as keeping His words; in the reference above we have “multitudes both of men and women” who see the miracles and believe that they too can be healed and in this idea there IS likely much power. Our main point here however IS that Peter heals remotely, by his presence, and in this we should recall the healing Power of the Master of whom we read similar things as “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all” (Matthew 12:14-15). While some commentators may see this as that ALL of the apostles have this power and that: Peter is only mentioned because he was most known 8 according to John Gill, we see this view as expressed denominational disagreement; we see this as that it IS Peter and that this IS the final installment of the story of his discipleship that we are offered in the New Testament.
As we have often discussed, in the Life of the Apostle Paul we have a very different dynamic; while this IS for us another example of Jesus ready help in accomplishing His mission, Paul IS never in the Master’s company. Paul tells us “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee” and that “My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6, 26:4-5). Here we see a doctrinal religious Life and one that IS NOT readily conducive to the Truth of grace and divinity; the reality of the Love that IS very Nature of God IS absent in his Life. And Paul admits to this behavior, which he comes to see as deviant, in his audience with King Agrippa which we read as:
“I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests” (Acts 26:9-11).
Perhaps the KEY to Paul’s way’s can be seen in this admission of his thoughts and actions, that he IS sensing the pull of the words of Jesus and IS revolting against them because of his nurturing as “the son of a Pharisee” and his experience as a Pharisee. Can we see the idea here of the revolt against the words of Jesus that IS felt by most ALL religious Jews in those days? Can we see the intensity of this in the Life of Paul and how this continues until the revelation of the Master’s voice to him on the road to Damascus. We can not say how that this sense of vision happens in Paul’s Life but we DO KNOW that it does and, in the reality of Life as we understand it, this was the call of the Christ Within bringing the grace of realization and revelation and breaking down the walls of illusion and glamour in which he had lived. Paul has no audience with the Master, he is NOT among the apostles who learn His Way over the course of time; Paul’s IS a sudden indoctrination from which he emerges in the fullness of discipleship with much the same ability as we see in the Life of Peter. And we should see the idea of the Christ Within as the same as the God Within; this we see as the Power of Love in the Life of the Paul; Luke tells us: “And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:11-12).
And it IS this reality of grace and this IS operation of the Holy Spirit as we see in Peter and in Paul, as we see in the Life of Moses and which we see in the Master’s works and in His promise to His disciples that “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” as we read in our selection below. This IS the same as we find in the Life of the Stephen and in the ability of Philip the Evangelist; we read that “Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people” (Acts 6:8). And of Phillip we read that “And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did“; and later, after the baptism of the eunuch, we read: “when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more” (Acts 8:6, 39). This IS the same “greater works” that the Master speaks of and this IS the promise of that grace which should be clearly seen in Jesus words: “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). And this IS the Truth that the Master expresses in this fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John and this selection that has been our center of discussion:
“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).
It IS in the reality of “He that believeth on me“, which IS the reality of the man who will “keep my commandments“, that the grace to accomplish these “greater works” is released and it IS to this man that the reality of the Comforter can be seen in his Life. Here we should remember the reality of degree and of the growth of the Kingdom which the Master teaches us of separately; here we should see that Jesus IS speaking to disciples and telling them that those that ARE in His word fully can DO these “greater works” and in this we can see Peter and Paul as well as Stephen and Philip the Evangelist; here we should see that whosoever can keep His words in their fullness can reach this same plateau of “greater works“. While this IS NOT the doctrinal view, this IS the reality of the Master’s words and the examples set forth for our view; the common denominator in ALL IS the reality of keeping His words which, as we discussed, IS the same reality as “he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21)….it IS this that we should apply to the Master in His Life and to Moses.
As we have discussed there IS great confusion over the idea of the Holy Spirit and the rendering here of Comforter DOES NOT help us to understand the complexity that the Master IS showing us; here again we should understand that some of the Eleven DO NOT understand and it IS unlikely that any Truly DO at this point. The Greek word parakletos which is rendered as Comforter is rendered as Advocate elsewhere by the King James Bible and in a variety of ways by other translations. Helper, Companion, Counselor, Friend and even Paraclete are among the various ways that this idea IS presented but the reality IS that this IS the Holy Spirit. While we see the Holy Spirit as the operation of the Godhead in the world globally and the operation of the God Within, the operation of grace by measure in the Life of a man whose focus IS on the things of God, doctrine sees this in a much more nebulous fashion. In part the lexicon tells us that this word parakletos means: in the widest sense, a helper, succourer, aider, assistant of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom 2. This offers us little by way of understanding and detracts from the Master’s own words that the parakletos IS “Even the Spirit of truth” and of which He later tells us that “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost” (John 14:26). This IS rendered in Young’s Literal Translation simply as “the Comforter, the Holy Spirit” and it IS in this context that we should understand Him rather than in the role that He serves for the apostles. We close today with this from Vincent regarding the parakletos:
Comforter (παράκλητον): Only in John’s Gospel and First Epistle (John 14:16, John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:7; 1 John 2:13. From παρά , to the side of, and καλέω , to summon. Hence, originally, one who is called to another’s side to aid him, as an advocate in a court of justice. The later, Hellenistic use of παρακαλεῖν and παράκλησις , to denote the act of consoling and consolation, gave rise to the rendering Comforter, which is given in every instance in the Gospel, but is changed to advocate in 1 John 2:1, agreeably to its uniform signification in classical Greek. The argument in favor of this rendering throughout is conclusive. It is urged that the rendering Comforter is justified by the fact that, in its original sense, it means more than a mere consoler, being derived from the Latin confortare, to strengthen, and that the Comforter is therefore one who strengthens the cause and the courage of his client at the bar: but, as Bishop Lightfoot observes, the history of this interpretation shows that it is not reached by this process, but grew out of a grammatical error, and that therefore this account can only be accepted as an apology after the fact, and not as an explanation of the fact. The Holy Spirit is, therefore, by the word παράκλητος , of which Paraclete is a transcription, represented as our Advocate or Counsel, “who suggests true reasonings to our minds, and true courses of action for our lives, who convicts our adversary, the world, of wrong, and pleads our cause before God our Father.” It is to be noted that Jesus as well as the Holy Spirit is represented as Paraclete. The Holy Spirit is to be another Paraclete, and this falls in with the statement in the First Epistle, “we have an advocate with God, even Jesus Christ.” Compare Romans 8:26. See on Luke 6:24. Note also that the word another is ἄλλον, and not ἕτερον, which means different. The advocate who is to be sent is not different from Christ, but another similar to Himself. See on Matthew 6:24 4.
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
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
