ON LOVE; PART MXXXII
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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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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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).
We ended the last essay with some thoughts on the Life of the Apostle Paul and our gospel example of the Way of the disciple, the Apostle Peter. Both of these disciples of the Lord have left us their writings which have been read by men for many centuries but Truly understood ONLY by the few who have found the KEY to the “mystery of the kingdom of God“. Jesus tells us that this mystery of mysteries IS the privilege of the disciple as He explains why His manner of speaking IS parabolic; He tells His disciples that “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10). We should note that the Master tells them this as He expounds upon the Parable of the Sower and that His explanation IS also parabolic to the man who DOES NOT see the Truth….to the man who believes himself to be the “good ground” while NOT being among those “which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).
In their own sense of doctrinal Truth men may believe themselves to be among His disciples and believe that they have found the Truth of salvation but this belief IS based in the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world. While it has been the objective of the writings of the apostles to awaken men to this Truth, they have NOT awakened but have rather constructed doctrinal ways which ARE more convenient to the ways of men in this world rather that to the Ways of Truth which ARE found in these writings. Men DO NOT see the deception in their own lives and in their own doctrines as they place the intent of the apostle’s words upon others while seeing themselves as saved and in the ‘grace‘ of God. Most ALL doctrinally charged men miss even the clearest ideas offered by the Master and His apostles and they miss the bluntly direct words of the Apostle James who tells us to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). Most ALL men CAN NOT see their own self deception nor can they see the clearly stated Truths of our trifecta which we repeat again:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“ (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “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. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, 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 14:21-24).
These ideas ARE a part of the mysteries albeit a part that can be readily understood should one look past his doctrinal understanding of Truth. It IS in looking past his doctrinal understanding that a man can step upon the Path and eventually come to see the revelation of these mysteries which comes by measure to the man who strives to keep His words. It IS this same doctrinal affliction that overcame the Jews as they interpreted the Truths behind the words in the common understanding of the words without ever reaching for the Truth that had been spoken from the time of Moses and before. The Jews DID NOT see the relevance of the Great Commandments over their own doctrines of convenience nor DOES the greater Christian movement see this relevance yet today; they DO NOT put themselves into Jesus words that repeat the words of the prophet saying “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35).
While these secrets, these mysteries of Life and of the Kingdom, ARE rather clearly stated, men DO NOT see them through the fog of illusion in which they have been nurtured and indoctrinated and we should be able to glimpse here the strength of this illusion as it deflects even the Truths that ARE the prompting of one’s own Soul. This prompting IS NOT heard over the clamor of Life and the comfortable place that men find in their doctrines and beliefs and it IS unfortunate that even when one’s sense of comfort IS upset by one’s circumstances of Life, it IS to his doctrines that he will most likely turn. We should try to understand how that the idea of mystery and of “things which have been kept secret” ARE NOT as mysterious as they may seem or sound for the man who strives to keep His words; the revealed mystery IS simply the Truth of His words and the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles.
In the revelations and the realizations that come to a man in the Presence of God in his Life, a Presence that the Master promises in our trifecta above, the mysteries ARE revealed. While this may happen by measure as revelations build upon revelations, we should try to see that this IS the way of the unction, the way of the anointing which IS the Christ Within. The Apostle John tells us of the unction as a man’s Way of KNOWING spiritual things and we should try to see here that this KNOWING ONLY comes to the man whose focus IS upon the Godhead and, according to our trifecta, the man who will keep His words. Similarly we should see this same idea in the mystery that Paul shows us as he tells us that it IS revealed “to his saints“, this IS the mystery that IS “Christ in you“.
There IS much the same idea presented in these ideas from the apostles. Paul shows us this idea, this mystery revealed, saying that “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27). Here we should see his point which IS that this mystery IS revealed to those who Truly follow the Master, the holy one’s that Paul calls saints and, at the same time, he tells ALL just what the mystery IS. In this we should see the apostle’s seemingly intentional conundrum in which he reveals the idea of the mystery, and the mystery itself as the idea of “Christ in you“, but fails to explain how that this becomes a reality ONLY for the saint.
Here again we have the unfortunate way of doctrines that misinterprets this Greek word hagios to a point where some denominations call ALL who simply believe as such while others have rigorous tests for sainthood posthumously based in their own doctrinal terms. The reality of this word hagios should be seen in the Way of the man who DOES keep His words, the man who IS Truly “led of the Spirit“….the man who IS among the “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). This IS the few who DO “ enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24) and this IS those of whom we read again in Paul’s words below; those who can be counted among those “that are Christ’s“; among those who “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” as we read again in our selection from Paul’s words:
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:17-24).
That millions upon millions of men across the world DO believe that they ARE among those “that are Christ’s” IS a testament to the Truth that lies beneath the outward appearance of humankind, a Truth that pulsates through the world as conscience and which IS the echo of the prompting of the individual Souls of men. In this we should see that while doctrines DO keep many focused upon the Godhead through them, they DO, at the same time, keep men from True revelation and realization of the secrets and the mysteries which ARE the privilege of the man who IS a DOER of the word and, by measure, to the man who will strive to keep His words.
Over the course of our blog posts we have tried to show how that the One Truth that IS God and Christ stands before men in the clarity of the many sayings of Jesus and His apostles that we present. Our tone has been singular and steady as we try to place the True perspective of ALL scripture squarely into the idea that we should keep His words and that it IS in DOING so that the Truth that IS the Soul Within, that unction if you will, can become the expression of the man in this world. This expression is that of the spiritual man who IS freed from “corruption that is in the world through lust” which IS the same as saying that the spiritual man IS “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).
While most doctrines paint this as the ‘free gift’ of God for the man who will believe in Christ according to their specific teachings, the reality IS found in DOING as the Master shows us in the trifecta. It IS in DOING that we have access to the mysteries and the secrets which ARE ONLY mysteries to those who DO NOT see the Truth that lies beneath and which IS, in many ways, kept covered by the doctrines that purport to expose this Truth. So long as men’s focus IS upon the carnal self in this world and NOT upon the Truth of God according to the Great Commandments, their access to the mysteries IS limited and they will NOT understand the deeper meanings of Jesus’ own words as we find in the trifecta and in other sayings like “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
This idea IS lost by most men who DO NOT see the reality of the duality that Jesus speaks of regarding Life and death which we discussed a few posts back. Here, in the idea that “It is the spirit that quickeneth” we should see how that it IS the Spirit that gives Life to the form; NOT ONLY the ability for physical Life but the reality of spiritual Life for the man who will heed His words as “they are spirit, and they are life“. It IS the man who IS “led of the Spirit” that will KNOW this idea that “It is the spirit that quickeneth” as it has happened in his own Life; and we should see that NOT ONLY IS this man “led of the Spirit” in his expression of Love to ALL, his expression of “the fruit of the Spirit “, but he will be led also to his own realization of the mysteries and of those “things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world“.
This IS the Truth of discipleship and, by measure, the Way of the aspirant; this IS the Truth of the saint to whom IS revealed “the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations“, and we should ever remember how that the idea of measure plays into this faith, this KNOWING of the Truth. And we should remember and understand also that we who have come to KNOW such things as ARE covered in the secrets and the mysteries DO but glimpse a measure of the Truth and it IS this reality that we should take from Paul’s words saying “For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:9-12).
Paul’s words here must be seen in the context of Love, in the context of one’s expression of agape as he has tried to define it in these words to the Corinthians. The apostle tells us elsewhere how that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10) and in this we should see that it IS the reality of keeping His words which draws the man who will strive to DO so toward the reality of perfection. Can we see his point here and relate this to the idea of measure? Can we see how that it IS in the building of measure that one moves from KNOWING the part to KNOWING the whole, how that one moves from glimpsing the mysteries and the secrets to KNOWING? In this we should try to see how that the apostle’s idea of “through a glass, darkly” IS the view of the man who sees the Truth but CAN NOT fully discern it until he can come “face to face” with his own Soul….his Christ Within.
And if we can relate Paul’s words on being a child to his own growth from a doctrinally motivated man in the world caring for the ways of his own doctrines in the world, to that time when he put away such things….that time of his awakening, we will see clearer his Life and our own Path. We close today with these other words from the apostle which we discussed a in recent essays and which have a direct bearing upon our ideas here of the Truth and the revelation of the mysteries; we read:
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 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 2:9-14).
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.
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 a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
