Monthly Archives: September 2014

ON LOVE; PART DCCXXXIX

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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 post we continued with our look at grace with special attention on the cost of grace for the man in the world. While the greater reality IS that there IS NO cost, no price to pay, for this grace, that it IS Truly the “free gift” from God, we should understand that this IS a spiritual Truth and NOT a carnal one. In the carnal Life of a man, he will see the price to pay for the Kingdom and for discipleship as a True cost but, as that man progresses along the Path to the Kingdom of God, this sense of cost will fade as his spiritual understanding will show him a measure of the Peace that the Master speaks of in our current selection from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John which we repeat here again:

“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 fullness of this Peace comes to the man who can DO as the Master instructs His apostles in this chapter; it IS the man who can keep His words and Truly Love God that can come to “the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13) as the Apostle Paul frames this for us. This idea of keeping His words IS of course the cost of discipleship, the cost of True salvation which IS our deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20) and this IS the cost of entry, if we can use that word, into the Kingdom of God. The Master shows us this idea of the cost of discipleship in His saying to men who would follow Him but who were torn between their own doctrines and the new teachings of Jesus; we read His words as: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). Here IS the simply stated cost of discipleship….that we keep His words; here we should realize that this cost that IS to be borne IS but pride and habit; it is carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions. And the reward, the grace if you will, IS discipleship; by measure at first as aspirants, as those who have Repented, and then the ever growing upward spiral of added grace until one can come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“. And we should note here that there IS an immediate reward, again by measure, which the Master says to the man who will follow Him “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Paul shows us the reality of our salvation as he leads us to his words to the Romans that we cite above. Again we have a cost, a cost that IS borne by the personality which IS grounded in the world of things, a personality that has been nurtured in the ways of the world and who IS bound in this state which the apostle calls corruption. Here again we should see the role of Repentance as that decision to change one’s Life; we should see Paul’s words here as a guide for the unrepentant and a caution for the aspirant and the disciple who has seen a glimpse of the greater Truth; the apostle says: “if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die : but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). The cost here IS the same and the reward IS the same; although it IS framed differently, there IS little difference. Here in this chapter from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans we find the reward of “the glorious liberty of the children of God“, which IS freedom “from the bondage of corruption” which IS found in one’s Life “after the flesh“; this reward IS the Truth of our salvation. The grater reality here IS that one keep His words which IS to “mortify the deeds of the body“; to focus one’s Life upon the things of God.

And the Master shows us the reality of our coming to the Kingdom of God which we must understand IS here and now and NOT at some future time; not at our death nor at the time of that most misunderstood idea that IS called the rapture. In those same verses that we discussed in the last essay, we find the reality of the Kingdom; as that this state IS reserved for the man who “doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven“;  that it IS this man who shall “enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Again we have the same reality of keeping His words as the cost of being accounted worthy of this state of being and again we should try to understand the role of by degree, that it IS by degree that this state of “glorious liberty” IS realized. In this we should understand that it IS the man who “doeth the will of my Father” that achieves this goal and that it IS the man who strives that can see this reality and the measures of grace by which he can continue. This IS the reality of His admonition to us that we “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) and in this sense of striving we should see the cost of the Kingdom of God as in this striving toward the Kingdom, one must forsake the things of the flesh which IS to “mortify the deeds of the body“.

We should note that there ARE more stringent sayings regarding these things in the Master’s words to us regarding our deliverance. In ALL however IS this sense of striving, this sense of measure and this sense of the upward spiral that brings us to our goal; in ALL of this the cost IS simply Repentance, and this IS a cost that IS seen by the man whose focus IS upon the things of the flesh as a steep price which will take him away from ALL that he may hold dear. In the reality of one’s True spiritual Life however, a man’s ideas of this cost fade and as his focus continually moves away from the flesh and onto things spiritual, he continues into greater realizations and revelations, into greater grace. And we should see in the Master’s words from our current selection above the reality of His Peace, a Peace that comes into one’s Life as the growing Presence of God which IS the Presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s Life in this world. It IS in this spiritual Peace that a man comes to see the Path ahead as this IS a Peace that IS NOT distracted by the things of the world; and in this we should try to see the True meaning of “take no thought” (Matthew 6:25). In the Sermon on the Mount the Master shows us the reality of this change of attitude and, in the Peace that comes in DOING, we see the way to accomplish this; and in this combination we should see again how that ALL things spiritual work together toward the same goals….deliverance, discipleship and the Kingdom of God.

We should understand that these goals ARE Truly one; there IS no real separation as to be delivered from the corruption IS to be in the Kingdom of God and in both of these IS the reality of discipleship. As we strive toward this goal we should see the reality of the Peace of God, that Peace that the Master offers us in our saying above. We should remember however that we must take hold of this sense of Peace which IS found in His Presence in one’s Life and which soothes the consciousness of the man in the world. It IS in this Presence and in the Peace that this Presence brings that the we can see the Master’s point to “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid“. This fear that can come upon a man IS the product of the world but in our “take no thought” attitude of Peace in His Presence, ALL such fear dissipates. Fear IS a product of the personality, of the mind and the emotions, that IS attuned to the world and, when we live in the Light of the Soul, it IS this Light to which the personality will attend. This IS the change that Repentance brings and it IS in the process of Transformation that we move from focus upon the things of the world, to that sense of duality that besets the aspirant and the disciple, and finally to the single-mindedness of the complete disciple whose focus IS upon the things of God.

Much IS made of the next sayings from our selection that causes doctrine to separate the Christ from the Father but when we look at His words in conjunction with His previous words on the Oneness of the Father and the Son, this separation disappears. In this we must understand that it IS NOT Jesus that IS One with the Father as the man Jesus CAN NOT, as a body of flesh, be One with the Father from a spiritual perspective; here we must see that the spiritual Presence that IS the Christ in the body of Jesus IS One with the Father. And while we can say here that Jesus can be within God, this idea of the creation being within God IS NOT a generally accepted Christian idea. When we add the idea of the Master being in the disciple to this idea of His being in God we have His combined saying “that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20), and in this we should understand that the reference here IS Truly spiritual. From the perspective of the man Jesus, the Father IS Truly greater as He IS purely Spirit while the Son IS that Spirit within what John calls “the temple of his body” (John 2:21) and which Paul brings to our personal view as he says: “know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Corinthians 6:19). And, from the perspective of the reality of our spiritual Unity we should be able to see the idea that the Father, as the Godhead, IS ONE and that the Son and ALL sons are but a part of that ONE Whole. Can we see here the greater reality of His words that “my Father is greater than I“. In the Master’s words saying that “I go unto the Father“, we should see the more psychic idea rather that the physical idea of going; the lexicon offers us this idea as part of their definition of the Greek word poreuomai which IS rendered here as go; they say: to pursue the journey on which one has entered, to continue on one’s journey ², and in this we should see the culmination of His mission.

While the next part of our selection is seen to be the idea of Satan or of the devil, the reality here IS that of the forces of the world, the forces that have rallied themselves to arrest and crucify the Master, ARE coming and we can see this both physically and psychically. In His words we read “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” and, if we look past the doctrinal approach, we can see the reality of His words here. In the word that rendered as prince we should see the broader idea of ruler as this IS rendered in many translations. If we can see that this ruler IS the forces of illusion and of glamour, the Truth of that vanity of which Paul speaks, we can see past the archaic ideas of a personality of evil in the form of a devil or as Satan or as any assortment of demons that ARE still reckoned by many in the church. This ruler IS the very corruption from which we must free ourselves. But doctrine gives another view of this idea of the “prince of this world” as the devil and as Satan; much of doctrine gives this force of the world a personality much like they accord to God Himself and in this view it IS Satan that afflicts the minds of men in the world much as the Christ will ‘save’ the man if he will believe. Sans the idea of personality, this IS the reality of Life in form; men ARE afflicted by the vanity to which he IS subjected and this subjection should be seen according to Paul’s words; that it IS universal, that it IS of the world and that it IS a part of the Great and Awesome Plan of God. We read the apostle’s words again according to our own rendering as: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in expectation that 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).

While we change “hope because“, as this is rendered in the King James Bible, to “expectation that“, we do so based in part on Vincent’s ⁴ ideas and we offer our reasoning on this in In the Words of Jesus part 926, but this change IS NOT necessary for the proper understanding of our current idea; that mankind IS subjected to this vanity, to this sense of separation from God in the Illusion and the Glamour of Life in form. And this IS the greater reality of Life in this world and it IS from this that we must escape; it IS this escape that the Transformation of the man from the aspirant to the disciple and then to the True disciple DOES accomplish and in this Transformation we should see the steadily growing inflow of grace and the resultant Power of the Holy Spirit. We should try to see that the Master IS preparing the Eleven for their state of confusion as He leaves their presence as well that sense of doubt which we KNOW that they DO experience and endure. We should see as well that there are many ways to view these words; from the actual coming of the forces of illusion and glamour which prompt those who are carnally focused to arrest and crucify Him, to the more general idea that these forces that ARE in the world will come against the aspirant and the disciple who DOES NOT yet have that sense of Peace, to the more practical ideas that can be seen in the actual experience of the apostles in doubt and confusion. Perhaps the summation of these ideas can be found in the reality of the Power of the forces of the world that DO come into the Life of the man in the world, forces against which the aspirant and the disciple and the Eleven must stand. We should try to see here in these ideas the reality of the Apostle Peter’s words saying: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). In the promise of “greater works” that come to men in the grace of His Presence we can find that we ARE “partakers of the divine nature” in our deliverance, our discipleship and our being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. This IS ALL ours if we can overcome and escape “the corruption that is in the world through lust“; the corruption that IS the illusion and the glamour; the power that IS the forces of the “prince of this world“.

ALL that the Master shows us here in this chapter, ALL of the grace that we should see in the promise of His Presence, ALL of the Truth of the Presence of the Holy Spirit of God in one’s Life, builds up in the reality of keeping His words which He offers us in that final phrase which shows us again of His example to us; we read: “and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do“. This IS His Way…that He keeps the word of God, so shall we who chose to follow Him. We close today with this from the Epistle of John: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous” (1 John 5:3).

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