ON LOVE; PART ML
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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 more words on faith, on that KNOWING that comes in the revelations and the realizations of Truth to the man who will strive to keep His words. We discussed how that the end game of everyman’s Life in this world IS communion with the Lord which IS that Oneness that the Master shows us saying that “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). If we can see that “At that day” IS Jesus’ reference to that fullness of revelation, or perhaps some greater measure than they may currently have, we can better understand the idea presented.
When we add to this Jesus, other words saying “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:11) we can rather clearly see how that such communion IS complete. We must understand however that this communion IS in realization, in KNOWING, and NOT in any physical sense….this IS the fullness of the Presence of God as we read in the trifecta and it IS by measure that we come to this goal. It IS this goal that IS the reality of the hidden mysteries; NOT that we should ONLY follow the Lord but that we should have realization of His Presence according to Paul’s words which show us: “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: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus” (Colossians 1:26-28).
This IS NOT that simple matter of doctrines; this IS the reality of the Christ Within being expressed through the Life of the man who strives toward the goal. And this expression can most clearly seen in the Apostle Paul’s words that show us “the fruit of the Spirit“. This IS the reality of one’s having some measure of His grace, some measure of His Presence which IS the flow of Truth and Love from the Soul, the Christ Within, through the thoughts, attitudes and actions of the man in this world. And this IS the same reality that the Apostle James shows us regarding Wisdom saying that “the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17).
To believe that one IS in accord with the Master’s words IS unfounded if one’s Life DOES NOT express some True measure of the “the fruit of the Spirit” and the “the wisdom that is from above“. Here we should see, again by measure, Paul’s words saying “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3) and his words to the Romans saying “through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).
These ideas work in two ways; first against the man whose believing himself holy or spiritual but has NO flow of True grace according to His words and keeping His words and second against the man who DOES have some measure of Truth based in His words and who believes that he has a greater measure than he DOES have. It IS here that we should see the separation between doctrines and Truth; it IS here that we should see that regardless of how one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE in accord with his doctrines, that this matters NOT if he IS NOT striving toward the Truth according to our trifecta which we read again saying:
- 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).
In those words that ended our last post, the words from the writer of the Book of Hebrews, we should see the very idea of our journey, of our striving forward and gaining by measure until we reach our end point. His words ARE a continuation of his ideas on faith and follow upon his view of the trials and the tribulations that the True believer of old, the DOER if you will, had to endure at the hands of other men and who “received not the promise“; we read: “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).
In these ideas we should see the reality of striving which IS to “run with patience the race that is set before us” and we should see as well the progression of revelation that comes to the evolving human family. It IS NOT that the man before Christ DID NOT have the reality of the Christ Within, that he DID NOT have a Soul, it IS rather that the man before Christ DID NOT see Life according to the revelations that the Master brings to men. Before Christ God was Transcendent….that IS how He was viewed in the limited minds of men. With Christ we learn of God Immanent in the Life of man and while most could NOT understand the reality of the mystery “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory“, we should understand that it was presented to them for future generations.
Through the wranglings of doctrine and the admixture of the New and the Old however much of the Truth has been missed and lost in the doctrinal approach to God. And many of those who perhaps DID see some of Jesus’ Truth in the beginnings of the church were shut up and shut out as heretics by those who had taken authority. And so here we are today; the Truth IS yet there for us to see and the mysteries await their being revealed, but the authoritative push of doctrines prevents men from glimpsing the Truth that IS ever presented to them in the prompting of their own Souls.
It IS Jesus who brought to mankind the Truth of the Immanent God, the God and the Christ Within. It IS NOT that the Immanent God DID NOT exist, He always existed as God IS without change, which the last prophet tells us saying “I am the LORD, I change not” (Malachi 3:6)….was simply unknown and perhaps unknowable to the minds of men. Perhaps this IS because few could fathom the idea or perhaps because the Trancendency of God was a more potent tool for the taming of the barbarous and superstitious man of old. But regardless of the Divine reasons, it should be apparent that the Truth of God Immanent IS still a difficult idea for men to Truly grasp. This IS the mystery “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory“.
It IS the understanding of the deeper realities of the Trinity, the understanding that the very nature of Spirit IS the nature of God and the understanding that the very nature of the Christ, the anointing and the unction, IS the nature of the Soul, that men come to see in the revelations and the realizations of Truth. Few there ARE however who DO see the Truth and we should understand that there ARE likely many who have an inkling of these Truths which ARE yet bottled up within their outer sense of religion and doctrine. Throughout the New Testament the idea of the spiritual nature of the True man IS seen but the idea of the Soul IS rather convoluted by the translations of the ideas that ARE given to the Greek word psuche; this word IS rendered as Soul, as life, as mind and as heart and its definition ranges from the breath of life to the Soul as the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions 2.
Most ALL of these ideas of psuche are founded in the doctrinal approach and, as the common understanding of Love IS NOT the Truth of agape, so these ideas of Soul ARE NOT the Truth of psuche. If we can see the idea of Life here in psuche as the Life that IS animated by the Soul, the very animation of the Soul in the world, we will be closer to the True idea of this word. The Soul IS the animating principle of the physical Life of man and it IS the objective of everyman to be that animating principle in time and space. Here we should see that the mind and the emotions ARE physical attributes, that they belong to the body nature; they ARE used either by the body nature in ALL carnal pursuits or they ARE used by the Soul, the animating principle of Life.
In these ideas we should see the evolved nature of the human being; a being capable of thought and emotion that IS nurtured according to the ways of the world and the place in the world that one finds himself. While the Life IS ever spiritual, the human part IS just that; though it receives its animation from the Soul, it IS free to perform howsoever it chooses while the Soul ever prompts that that human part to express the Truth that IS the Life of the Soul….the spiritual Life. It IS here that the reality of revelation and realization become the determining factors, the separating factors between one’s focus upon the Truth of God or the lure of mammon and, to be sure, mammon IS the easier but far less fruitful path.
We could say that mind always existed but the human being, the human body nature, was incapable of using it. It IS when the human form evolved enough to be able to use the mind and the emotions, in reverse order according to history, that these human bodies became suitable hosts for the indwelling spirit. And the purpose, as we have posited before, IS the reality of Paul’s words saying that the spiritual man, the True man, IS “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. It IS this adoption that IS the communion of the Soul and his expression; the communion of the inner man, the God and Christ Within, with his Life in this world.
It is here that the man in the world, his mind and his emotions, ARE totally renewed and under the control of the Spirit and it IS in this that he can express the fullness of the Godhead which IS the fullness of the Presence of God and the fullness of “the fruit of the Spirit“. This IS the adoption of which Vincent gives us Mr. Merivale’s words telling us:
“The process of legal adoption by which the chosen heir became entitled not only to the reversion of the property but to the civil status, to the burdens as well as the rights of the adopter – became, as it were, his other self, one with him….We have but a faint conception of the force with which such an illustration would speak to one familiar with the Roman practice; how it would serve to impress upon him the assurance that the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father” (“Conversion of the Roman Empire”)4.
In the last essay we offered some ideas regarding the journey to this sense of adoption of which Paul tells us that he himself was yet waiting for. This should show us the depth of this idea; at the time of his writing to the Romans Paul either DOES NOT have such adoption or, based in his own writings, he IS NOT inclined “to think of himself more highly than he ought to think“. To be sure, there DOES come a time for the apostle where this sense of Redemption IS his and it IS in this state that the Truth of the Power of the Christ Within IS the expression of the man in the world.
The very flow of this Power through the physical form IS what we should see in the pictures that ARE painted for us in the Transfiguration of the Lord. It IS in this display which Matthew shows us as “his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light” (Matthew 17:2), that we can see the Power of the Godhead fully Redeeming the body nature. We should understand however that the display IS a voluntary event from Jesus’ perspective and one that garners far too little attention by men in their doctrines.
It IS the journey that IS important for the man in the world. It IS through the journey that men gain ever greater measures of grace and it IS in this grace that he can express ever greater measure of fruit and, more specifically, “the fruit of the Spirit“. It IS in the fullness one’s expression of this “the fruit of the Spirit” that one can realize the adoption….the Oneness and the Unity of the outer form and the God Within. We should ever remember that it IS through the journey that revelations and realizations of Truth bring us ever closer our goal and we should understand that as one’s measure of faith expands, the mind IS continually renewed by his KNOWING of ever greater measures of Truth in an upward spiral that, once it IS Truly begun, CAN NOT be deterred.
And while we should ever remember that place where ALL of this journey occurs, the place where it begins and it ends, IS in the Life of a man in this world. We can see this as the very purpose of Life: that through a Life here in this world and the Soul’s effort to express his own Truth of being, the body nature IS Redeemed by the radiance of the Light of the Soul pouring through it; in this ALL of this physical creation IS benefited by the radiation of spiritual Light into the Earth. And it IS the measure of Light attained in one’s Life that IS carried forward into the afterlife.
We close today repeating our selection from Paul’s words to the Galatians.
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
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| 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.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 2 from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
