ON LOVE; PART MLXXVIII
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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).
In the last essay we discussed the Way of the disciple which we can see in the gospels and the Book of Acts in regard to the Apostles Peter and Paul. We noted how that their individual paths differed. We discussed how that Peter was brought from a seemingly normal carnal Life, with perhaps some religion to be found in his nurturing and indoctrination, to his realization of the greater Truths that he found in the Presence of the Master. We should try to see here how that the sense of revelation was always there in the prompting of Peter’s Soul to the Good, the Beautiful and the True but that this was NOT realized over the din of his own worldly Life.
We should realize here that Peter IS NOT unique in this respect and that ALL men DO have this same dynamic working in their lives: the prompting IS ever there as ARE the revelations of Truth which ARE in that prompting that comes to everyman from his own Soul, that unction and that anointing by which “ye know all things“. The Apostle John shows us this saying “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” and again that “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).
While John’s words may have a more specific meaning to the man who DOES see some measure of the Truth and have a measure of His Presence according to the trifecta, they ARE also True for everyman who yet lacks the realization in his heart, in his consciousness, of this Truth. One’s Soul IS ever his True being that IS attempting to gain some measure of control over the Life by gaining the attention of the mind and the emotions which ARE held in bondage by way of that vanity to which ALL ARE subjected. A vanity that deludes the mortal man and IS reinforced by his nurturing and his indoctrination plus his experiences in Life which DO NOT lead to the greater Truth.
Paul presents this sense of bondage in his words to the Romans that we often use to show the point that it IS birth into this world that separates men from the Truth and it IS his work in form to find again that Union with his True self and thereby God. Paul shows us this in words that ARE doctrinally perceived as his acknowledgement of the story of Genesis and the ‘fall of man’ but it IS the greater Truth of our plight and our journey that should be seen. The apostle says: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“.
And Paul continues to reveal to us this mystery as he shows us the very way to our Union with God which ALL ARE working toward. Speaking of ALL men, of himself and of those who ARE following in the Way of the Lord he says: “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 8:20-23). It IS these “firstfruits of the Spirit” that ARE the way of the man who IS “renewed in the spirit of your mind“, the one who has “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” IS the man who waits “for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. It IS this choice between “being alienated from the life of God” and actively “waiting for the adoption” that IS the apostle’s subject in his words to the Ephesian which we repeat:
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24).
It IS this Union, this adoption, that IS the Redemption….it IS NOT the spiritual man that must be Redeemed but the body nature. And if we can see this as the fullness of the Soul, the Christ Within, using his mortal body to express the “glorious liberty of the children of God“, we can perhaps glimpse the idea that every cell, every thought and every emotion that IS a man’s body IS irradiated by the glory of God. The doctrinal idea of adoption pales in comparison to the Truth which Vincent captures for us in his commentary on the Greek word huiothesia; he tells us of Merivale’s words that capture the Truth that Paul expresses saying: the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father 4.
It IS this same Union that the Master teaches us in the trifecta; this same Union comes in the fullness of keeping His words. And while Jesus shows us this Union in many of His sayings, NONE show us this more clearly stated than His words saying that “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“. This IS the same sense of abiding that we find in John’s words above and while the idea may seem reversed, the abiding IS ever mutual as we read in Jesus’ other sayings. We should try to see here that the Greek word mone which IS rendered here as abode IS wrongly rendered as mansions in the first part of this chapter. In both instances the idea to be taken from mone IS the Presence of God which IS the ONLY Truly spiritual interpretation that we can take from this third part of our trifecta which we read 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).
We see this same idea in Jesus’ parabolic words about the vine and the branches where we should see how that the branch IS nourished by the vine and that it IS by the growth of the branch that the whole of the vine grows….that the branch essentially IS the vine. We should see as well that the Master shows us the mutual idea of his words as He tells us “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:7-8). We should try to see here that there IS an intimate relationship between His words and His Presence and that these ARE inseparable; we should try to see as well how that if one has His Presence, he also has His words and it IS in ‘having’ His words that one abides in the Lord.
While this may seem a rather cryptic way of expressing these Truths, we should remember that His words ARE intentionally parabolic and ARE intended to be understood by the man who has some measure of the Truth by which to interpret them. In this IS the reality of His words to His disciples saying “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables” (Mark 4:11). We should remember here also that even among His disciples Jesus’ words ARE guarded and that they understood ONLY according to their own individual measure of Truth.
We can see this in Jesus exchange with His disciples where He IS speaking about the “leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod” while they think that He IS speaking about bread. Here Jesus says “Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?” and then again “How is it that ye do not understand?” (Mark 8:15, 17, 21). This same idea can be seen in the way that NONE of the twelve KNOWS what He is saying in regard to Judas Iscariot and in the Apostle Luke’s report regarding Jesus telling the twelve of His fate; Luke tells us “And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken” (Luke 18:34).
Our point here IS that much of Jesus’ words regarding the relationship between the man in the world and the True man, the Soul, the Christ Within, ARE parabolic as well as His words that are in regard to the future. But we should remember and understand that most ALL of His words regarding the Way to the Lord are rather clearly spoken as we see in the trifecta. Our point IS also that it IS His words that ARE His Presence and that one’s measure of realization of His Truth comes as one grows as the branch in the vine and it IS at the end point of this journey that one will Truly understand the essence of “the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“.
It IS the journey of the Soul in form that we should see in the Life of the Apostle Peter who goes from the fisherman, to the aspirant, to the disciple by measure and then to the fullness of discipleship which IS that “adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“. The apostle’s struggles ARE clearly laid out for us and when we can understand that the ‘sins’ that Peter commits, those things that incur the rebuke of the Master, ARE thoughts, attitudes and actions that ARE contrary to the Great Commandments and NOT any sense of sin that men would easily perceive, we will begin to see our own Way. While the doctrines of men DO NOT see nor understand how that the apostle IS our human example of the Way to the fullness of the Truth in the Lord, the reality IS ever there in His story which IS carefully scripted for us in the gospels and the Book of Acts.
We should try to see here how that Peter could easily say to the whole of humanity these same things that we have been studying from Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians. How that his message to the church fathers could have been in his own marveling “that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another” as they formulated the doctrinal views that still persist today. We should try to see as well how that he would understand the continued plight of men and how that they could become and remain anathema which the lexicon and Vincent show us as: a thing devoted to God without hope of being redeemed 2 4.
The Truth of Redemption IS in the adoption, the Union with God that IS the state of everyman in the fullness of His Presence. And this fullness comes NOT in the doctrines of men….it ONLY comes in the Truth of Jesus’ words which IS the reality of Paul’s saying that “I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ“. It IS this revelation that IS shared in the Life of Peter who seemingly struggled to be “the servant of Christ“. Paul tells us that this comes ONLY to the man whose teaching IS NOT “to please men” but rather to “persuade men” to seek the greater Truth always. It IS at the end point of their journey that each of these apostles of the Lord can reflect upon their own past and understand the way of men in this world who have NOT reached that point as we read again in Paul’s opening words to the Galatians:
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:6-12).
Peter’s Redemption, the fullness of his Union with the Lord, is shown to us in the way that His Soul, His Christ and God Within, irradiated through his form. It IS this that we should see in Luke’s description of the Presence of God flowing through the form of the apostle and it IS this which we should understand from Peter’s own words on the “exceeding great and precious promises….that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). In Peter’s Life we have the journey from fisherman, from the mortal and carnal man of the Earth, to the Saint who has realized the “exceeding great and precious promises“; and we should try to see here another sense of his journey as well: his journey from the aspirant who had NOT yet overcome “the works of the flesh” to the man of “divine nature” whose expression IS the fullness of “the fruit of the Spirit“. We read these ideas again from Paul’s words:
“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 should be able to see and to understand Peter’s own leaning toward “the works of the flesh” in the gospel stories and Jesus’ frequent rebuke of his thoughts, attitudes and actions. We should NOT however see his actions according to the common rendering of the Greek words and men’s sexual obsession with some of them; we should rather see this as it IS intended, as thoughts, attitudes and actions that ARE contrary to the Truth of the Great Commandments. And we should see Peter’s expression of “the fruit of the Spirit” as those thoughts and attitudes that enable him to heal by the Power of the Christ Within flowing through his moral body.
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.
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
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
