IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1175

ON LOVE; PART DCCLXIV

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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 our picture of the True man as the Soul, the Christ Within and the God Within, we have the divine man who shares his divine nature with the Master and with ALL Souls which ARE equally part and parcel of God from the viewpoint of man. As Souls we ARE that unction of which the Apostle John speaks, we ARE that same anointing as IS the very meaning of the Greek word Christos which IS generally rendered as Christ. Our picture however IS NOT shared by the mainstream church nor its doctrines that seek to protect their own view of the nature of the Master as they fail to see the relationships that are created and strung together for us throughout the New Testament. There IS much reference to the reality of the True man and to the nature of His Life in this world and this has been a big part of our blog from the beginning as we try to navigate through the pronouncements of doctrines that ARE grounded in their own sense of Life….that man IS this body and brain in this world and that some part of this Life, the personality for lack of a better perspective, continues on. While this seems the most common doctrinal belief, there ARE many variations to this, and, while some hold to the idea of a resurrection of the bodies which are then reunited with the personality which some call the Soul, there ARE many variations to this as well. In our view this unction, which IS the reality of man and his Soul, IS that aspect of the man that incarnates into the forms, the bodies that ARE used for a time in this world and then discarded and here we DO consider the personality as a part of the body as the mind and the emotions ARE not spiritual but must be Transformed by the Life, by the Soul, from within. What we see as the rational part of the man in the world IS the Life itself and its attendant consciousness which ARE the essence of the Soul in form; in this we should see that the Soul gives Life and consciousness to the carnal nature.

We have then the divine Soul, the divine aspect of man, living for a time through the carnal body, giving to this form its Life as a man and its consciousnesses which IS used by the personality in the world of men. It IS the personality then that IS ever in touch with the world and it IS the consciousness that IS ever in touch with the divine and this IS where things DO get muddy and why there IS such confusion in understanding the perspective that must be taken in discerning scripture. The man in the world IS the body and the personality, the emotions and the mind, and it IS these that react to the things of the world and which feed the consciousness with the thoughts and attitudes learned through the man’s nurturing and experience….these become the nature of the man in the world. Why this IS so IS a mystery and we should remember that there ARE many mysteries that elude the minds of men and which are divinely protected in the Master’s words so that this muddy relationship between body and Soul IS NOT easily discerned until the man develops some measure of spiritual discernment. This discernment DOES NOT however come from doctrines which hide the Truth behind the traditions and the rituals and the rites of religion; and in this we should try to understand that the Apostle Paul IS NOT speaking ONLY to men outside of Christianity in his view of the “natural man” but to ALL men who DO NOT yet see clearly the Truth of the Master’s words; we read:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

While many doctrinally oriented Christians see themselves among those who have received “the spirit which is of God“, the reality IS that this is a rather divine state that IS the same as what we have been discussing over the last several weeks; a divine state that IS the Presence of God in the Life of the man in the world. This IS a mans realization in his personality, his mind and his emotions, that overwhelms by measure his previous sense of Life as a man in the world; and this IS the result of keeping His words and of one’s expression of Love in this world. In this we see that change of focus from the things of the world which IS the natural way for the man whose focus IS upon the self, to a new sense of focus upon the things of God; it IS in this that we find the reality that “the Holy Ghost teacheth” and the ever increasing ability to see the Truth which IS “spiritually discerned“. We should remember the reality of the Master’s words here and we should remember the Truth of grace which IS the Love of God and His Presence in one’s Life…a Presence that DOES NOT come through doctrines that DO NOT show the Truth of keeping His words. In the fullness of this divine state we should see the Master’s words that show us this reality of His Presence and of the Truth of the Presence of the Holy Spirit as that great teacher, and we should understand that this Presence and this teaching come to us from the Soul, the unction, as John frames this. And we should remember that while the words of the Master and His apostles seem to be framed as absolutes, there IS a teaching and in such we should see that there IS measure and degree of the divine Presence in the Life of the man in the world; we read again:

• “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21). 
• “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. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:23-24).

This IS the reality of the Presence of God which the Master frames here as that He “will manifest myself to him” and as that the Father and the Son will “make our abode with him“; this IS the reality of “the spirit which is of God” as this IS realized by the man in the world; this realization IS in ALL respects the product of His Presence. And this IS the same idea that IS presented to us by John in our combined selection of sayings below where we read that “we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit“. This Spirit, this Holy Spirit, IS the Presence of God in the Life of the man and it IS this same Spirit of which the Master speaks saying “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” (John 14:26). When we have the Presence of God in our lives, when the reality that “God dwelleth in us” IS the revelation that comes to the man in the world and becomes his own realization of Truth, we can then KNOW that we ARE “born of God” and this IS the same idea as the Master’s words regarding being “born again“. Again, while these ideas ARE offered to us as absolutes, the reality of measure and of growth IS ever found in the teachings of the Master and of His apostles and, again, we must see that this measure come to us as His grace which, from the perspective of the man in the world, comes in direct proportion to our measure of focus, our measure of keeping His words, and, as the apostle shows us, our measure of Love for ALL men; we read again John’s words:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect , that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we now that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 4:7-5:5).

So then it IS from the perspective of the man in the world that we must understand the ideas of the Master and His apostles as they speak to us about divine things and it IS only in our awakening to the Truths that we can discern these ideas of grace and the Presence of God. And this awakening comes to us by measure; as our focus upon the things of God increases, so increases our measure of grace and it IS in this that the personality that has been grounded in the ways of the world in which he was nurtured and which has been his experience begins to Transform. It IS in this increasing measure of grace that the divine nature of the Soul steadily overcomes the ways of the personality and replaces these ways with those ideas “which the Holy Ghost teacheth“, ideas that are embedded in the consciousness of the man which IS ever a part of the Soul’s nature in this world. While it IS difficult to understand the nature and the role of consciousness as we are defining the vary nature of the man in the world, we should try to see that it IS ever the consciousness which acts. Until one’s awakening, the consciousness acts on the input given by the personality, by the mind and the emotional nature, and then, after one’s awakening, the consciousness acts upon the impulses that come from the Soul, from the divine nature of man. It IS during this awakening that the man finds himself embedded in the world of duality, a world where there IS seemingly alternating input to the consciousness of the man; sometimes from the world and desires for the things of the world and other times from the Soul and, while this can be seen as a most difficult time for the man in the world, it IS in realty his greatest encouragement…..it IS his progress upon the Path to the fullness of grace, the fullness of one’s realization of Truth.

We must remember here that this ALL begins with the prompting of the Soul, that twinge of righteousness so to speak that creeps into the mind of the man, which IS most often ignored or interpreted in carnal terms. It IS when this prompting IS heard and acknowledged as the better way that a man begins his journey, a journey that begins in Repentance and continues in Transformation. While it IS the fullness of this Transformation that is depicted for us in the Master’s words and the words of His apostles, as the Presence of God and the fullness of His Spirit in one’s Life, there IS as well the reality of the continuing efforts of the man in the world to Transform his Life’s focus. This Transformation IS shown to us in part in the Life of the Apostle Peter which IS painstakingly depicted for us in the gospels and in the Book of Acts. Here we have a Jewish fisherman, whose sense of religion is in the Jew’s doctrines and traditions, hearing the prompting of the Christ and coming to the Truth that the Lord presents; we then see a picture of his growth from aspirant, to disciple, to the fullness of discipleship and the expression of His divine nature as he breaks chains, opens locked doors and then heals ALL by his proximity to them. While Peter heard the Prompting of the historical Christ, he heard as well the prompting of his Christ Within, his God Within, and it IS in this that we find his own Repentance, his own change from what he believed to be the Truth to the greater Truth that the Master presents and which IS found in His ever growing Presence in the apostles heart, in his conscious awareness in the world.

It IS the heart of the man in the world that the Master speaks of in His words which show the choice of direction and the Truth of one’s focus. It IS here that the idea of what feeds the consciousness comes into play; IS it the ways of the world or the things of God? or IS it the duality that men face as they Transform? Perhaps here we can see the difficulty of religion which seeks to paint things as black and white; that it IS in their inability to see the dynamic of duality and the reality of Transforming, that they have devised their own ways of salvation rather than to see the steady movement from carnal to divine through duality. It IS in this that we get Life advice from the Master which comes to us in the way of His words and thereby His commandments. This sense of commandments should be understood in the way that Jesus intended for us to see His words, as a guideline for DOING which will result in His Presence, in His grace in one’s Life; this IS the realization by the man of his own divine approach. There IS NO requirement that a man keep His words in this world except insofar as that man seeks the reward, the grace that results from such action. And there IS NO ‘pit of hell’ into which the man who DOES NOT yet see this Truth will fall, there IS NO eternal punishment except in the idea of one’s continued separation from God, his continued separation from His Presence. In this we should understand that while most men DO NOT understand this relationship with God, while most ARE yet blinded by the vanity, by the illusion and the glamour, of Life in this world, they ARE still our brothers and our neighbors and ARE those who we must Love if we DO choose the Path to God and this IS a Path that IS for the average man in Jesus words saying:

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also….No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon“

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!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888