IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1144

ON LOVE; PART DCCXXXIII

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 on grace that we started many posts back and where we have been cementing our thoughts on the relationship between the concept of grace and the operation of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the man who keeps His words. We should remember here that while this IS painted as black and white in the Master’s words to His accepted disciples, this IS a matter of degree and we should read this idea into the Master’s words as He speaks to the eleven in the fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. In the idea of “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15), we should try to see that there IS the implication of degree and that by the measure of keeping His words one can discern the measure of Love; while NOT stated in these terms, we should see this in the Master’s own interaction with His apostles who ARE NOT acting in the fullness of His words as He may desire them to be. And we can see this in the ideas offered in this chapter where the measure of revelation and realization, the measure of grace, that some of the Eleven have IS NOT complete as IS seen in their lack of understanding and in their questions. We see the former idea in the Life of Peter who, even in the very end, still has carnal instincts, as well as in the thoughts and actions of James and John who seek better for themselves that for the others; and we should remember that these ARE the three disciples that the Master had chosen to be closest to Him according to the gospels. In the latter point we should see the questioning of Judas, Philip and of Thomas as a sign that their measure of grace has left them unsure and uncertain regrading things that they should have KNOWN and we can sense this in the tone of the Master’s replies to them; here we should understand that these too ARE disciples of the Lord, men who keep His words, but who at the same time ARE NOT complete….they ARE NOT perfect which IS the goal of them ALL. The Master tells ALL men of this objective saying: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

While this idea of perfect IS NOT seen as it should be by the doctrinal church where some see this idea or perfection as an impossibility, the reality IS clearly stated as the goal of men in this world; and we should see that most ALL of the instructions that the Master gives us in His words ARE intended to accomplish this goal. We should note here that the idea of perfection is so deep as that it IS the same perfection as the Father, as God; and we should try to understand the simplicity of this IS found in keeping His words. Again, the apostles of the Lord DO keep His words, they have forsaken ALL things carnal, but they ARE still lacking in this sense of perfection insofar as their thoughts still tend to the self and the self in the world; they tend to what a man in the world should DO as we see in Jesus response to Peter saying “thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matthew 16:23). Can we see Peter’s fault here; that he IS refusing to see the unpleasant Truth of the Master’s words regarding His own arrest and death? The point here IS that the ARE degrees to be considered in ALL things spiritual and it IS this measure of perfection that grows as the Kingdom Within grows according to the Master’s teaching and His parables. And so the same IS for us, that we grow by degree, we gain more grace by degree, and that these advances are intimately tied to our focus upon the things of God. It IS this focus that shows our Love for God and it IS this focus that results in our ever greater ability to NOT ONLY keep His words but to see them in the full light of Truth as well.

In this we should see our own growth from seeing the Light, to following the Light and then to being the Light as we grow from aspirant to disciple and on to that state of being that we can but imagine….the fullness of perfection which IS to be AS the Master. Jesus tells us this rather clearly and yet again in words that are discounted by doctrine as He says “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40); we should see this idea in the very same way as we see His words that we have been discussing: “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). And this IS the heart of the Master’s message for those who can hear Him….that they CAN be like Him. We ARE NOT left to just see this as an elusive dream however, we are shown the Truth of the Way to the Kingdom of God and we should understand here that to be accounted worthy of the Kingdom IS tantamount to this perfection; it IS to stand with the Master in the Father’s house and to have found the “the glorious liberty of the children of God“. This IS the reality of that adoption, that Oneness and that Unity between the expression of the man in the world and the Truth of God; this IS that adoption for which even the Apostle Paul waits as he IS writing these words to the Romans: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”  (Romans 8:21-23). The apostle also expresses a similar thought of perfection and of our being as the Master in his words to the Ephesians saying: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“; while we take this out of context, the essence of the Master’s words are here in this saying which Paul holds out as the goal of True discipleship.

We must understand here that the whole of this journey IS, from the perspective of the man in the world, a matter of expression and in this we should try to understand the ideas that we presented again in the last essay; the ideas on the unction and the anointing that IS the Soul, the Christ Within, and which IS at the same time the expressed Power of the Soul in the Life of the man in the world. This idea of sameness IS built for us in the words of the Master who tells us of the “Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name” (John 14) and, while this idea of “in my name” IS NOT generally understood, we should see that the reference IS to ALL that IS implied in His Name. We should understand that this reference IS that the Holy Spirit IS sent in His place; that the Master IS leaving their physical presence but His Presence will remain with them in their lives as the Holy Spirit; and this idea IS further built in Jesus words from our current selection from John’s Gospel below. While this idea of “in my name” IS much deeper than this, this IS the understanding that we need to clearly see our point here; a point that is shown again in the operation of the Holy Spirit, that “he shall teach you all things” in the Master’s words and the use of the word anointing in the Apostle John’s repeating of this same idea which we read as: “”But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things…..the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him” (1 John 2:20, 27)”. It IS the idea behind this word anointing that IS of import here as this IS the same word that IS rendered as Christ throughout the New Testament.

“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. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:26-31).

The reality that should be seen in these ideas from the Master IS that God IS One and that the separation of this One God IS intended to help men to understand the essential realities of Life. That God IS Spirit is a settled fact from the Master’s words to the woman at the well; that God IS Love is a settled fact from the writings of John. It IS these, the Spirit and the Love which we should see as the Spirit and the Christ, the Father and the Son, that come into the Life of the man who keeps His words as we read in Jesus words saying: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). This IS the Presence of God in the Life of man and, with this Presence in the consciousness of a man in the world, he would perforce express it. And we should try to see this idea that the Christ IS the Love of God made manifest to men. Paul tells us such in his words to the Romans saying: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39-40). John also shows us this reality of Christ as the Love of God saying: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:8-9). These should show us the reality of Love and it IS in this context that we should understand the apostles other 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).

We should remember here while that this saying from the Gospel of John IS attributed by most to Jesus, others, Vincent among them, believe that these ARE the apostle’s words. Nonetheless this IS a most misunderstood idea on many levels as the reality of believing in the Master IS NOT seen in the reality of keeping His words and it idea of perish IS NOT seen in regard to the spiritual Life of the man who DOES. And, most importantly, the idea of the “only begotten Son” IS NOT seen in the reality of the Christ as the Love of God given to the world in the person of Jesus the Christ. The sense of Love expressed in the idea of “For God so loved the world” IS the reality of the global grace, the free gift of grace, that comes from God while the grace offered to the individual IS tied to the reality of  our reciprocal Love which the Master shows us in His sayings about Love in the fourteenth chapter that we are studying. In the entirety of this saying from the John we see the same ideas that ARE presented by the Master. Can we see that the idea that “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him” IS the same as “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life“? Can we see that this sense of Life found by the man who “should not perish” IS the reality of his own realization of “everlasting life“, which should be understood as eternal Life, and that this IS the fullness of his measure grace in the Kingdom of God. And the KEY IS the same….it IS to the man who “believeth in him” which we must understand in the fullness of keeping His words and NOT in the common idea of assent.

Through this ALL we should see the ideas that ARE presented; that it IS the Spirit and the Love of God that come into the Life of the man who keeps His words, that this IS the Father and the Son….this IS God and the Christ. And, it IS in the realization of these by the consciousness of the man in the world that allows him to wield the Power and understand that this Power IS the Holy Spirit; this Power IS the grace of God in the Life of the man in form as released to Him by the God and the Christ Within. This grace IS the expression of Love by God which we should see in the idea of His Presence in the Life of the man who Loves Him, the man who keeps His words. We must remember here that the fullness of this grace, the fullness of His Love and His Presence, IS ONLY given to the man who can fully comply with the idea of Loving Him; a Love that IS accomplished by keeping His words which we KNOW from His sayings….and in this we must understand the totality of the commitment that IS required. This totality IS achieved by the man in the world who can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) and we should KNOW that this perforce includes the Great Truth that IS given us in the Great Commandments that we have at the top of our essay. And this Great Truth IS that we “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“. Here we should understand that this IS NOT in devotion and in worship….this IS in DOING. This IS the reality of seeing NO thing before God…this IS the reality of our focus upon ONLY the things of God and this IS the reality that Jesus offers the rich young man as He says to him that he must “sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).

While this IS framed in regard to a man who has much, we should understand the deeper implications as they ARE presented in the idea that one must look away from ALL that is holding one’s attention in this world. In these ideas ARE the reality of Love as grace and the Power of the Spirit of God in one’s Life; in these ideas we can see the Presence of God being realized by the man in the world by degree. And we must ever be aware of the cost, the price that must be paid which IS most clearly stated for us as Loving Him and keeping His words. It IS in this context that we should see the next sayings from our selection and especially the reality of that Peace that the Master offers and which IS found in these same realizations of grace. In His words saying “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you“, we should understand that this IS His Presence; that the Peace of God IS the Presence of God in the conscious Life of the man in this world; and we should see the separation of this Peace and the that peace that one may find which “the world giveth“.

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!