Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part XCIII

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 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” (1 John 4:1-21).

While we did stay close to our subject matter, yesterday’s post was a bit of a rant on the idea of fulfilling the Master’s words as recorded by Matthew saying: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19). We have discussed this saying before in some detail as the Great Commission that the Master left for those who would follow Him. Now this is largely misunderstood with the idea of baptizing becoming the perspective of the church; for us however the reality of it is hidden in missed translations and a lack of overall understanding of His True message. In the King James Version and some others the Greek word Matheteuo is translated as teach and this is one of the defintions of it in Strong’s. Vincent however tells us that it should be translated as ‘make disciples of‘ as it is rendered this way in many of the other versions including the Revised Version and the American Standard Version. Now there is a large difference here because we understand the intent of the Master in His use of the term disciple and this Greek word Matheteuo is a direct derivative of the other word that is regularly rendered as disciple, Mathetes.

We go here to this idea of the Great Commission from our self questioning yesterday on how does one convince the doctrine based Christian that there is a reality in the world, a reality of brotherhood, that far  surpasses the  ideas that he has learned from the church? This idea is for us, as disciples and aspirants to discipleship, of great importance as these are the words that the Master left as a final statement of what it is that we should do in His absence. The baptizing part of this is not important for us insofar as the ritual of it is concerned and we should understand that this idea of baptism will happen on its own for ALL who are led to discipleship bacause, as we know, the criteria of being a disciple includes all those things that we listed yesterday and in doing these things a man will be anointed by his own Soul into the proper understanding “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost“; he will be immersed in these things which is the proper understanding that should we take from baptize. So then what is our part? It is, first of all, living the Life of the disciple as an example to ALL; the Master tells us that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16) and this saying is as True on the positive side as it is in the negative side in which it is offered. The Master reinforces this for us in His saying that “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). This is an extremely difficult enterprise and so the Master tells us; like the Apostle Peter and likely others as well, we will work out all of the inherent problems of Life in form by our continuous focus on the things of the Soul and in this is the Truth and the reality of the whole of the idea of forsaking ALL.

The Master tells us a great Truth in His words that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and we have reckoned this as an impossibility based upon the way the whole of this subject is framed by Him. This idea is however seen by the church as gluttony, as an evil sort of lustful wantonness. Like many of these type of ideas in scripture, we have come to think of them in terms of evil and good; for example there is the view from yesterday of those who are lost and the common thought that these are evil or vile, there is the Pharisee also who is looked upon by many Christians as an evil sort. For all of these things this idea of evil is rather untrue but men cannot accept the Truth of these things as it puts themselves into the class of serving mammon or being lost or as a Pharisee. This is the result again of illusion, glamour and deception and it is these that lead a man to believe that the Master was not talking about them but about others. The reality here is not in the framing of men like John Gill who tells us that: Whereas it is not an Hebrew word, nor an adjective, but a substantive, and signifies riches; which are opposed to God, being by some men loved, admired, trusted in, and worshipped, as if they were God; and which is incompatible with the service of the true God: for such persons, whose hearts go after their covetousness, and are set upon earthly riches, who give up themselves to them, are eagerly and anxiously pursuing after them, and place their confidence in them; whatever pretensions they may make to the service of God, as did the Scribes and Pharisees, who are particularly struck at by this expression, both here and elsewhere, they cannot truly and heartily serve the Lord. “Mammon” is the god they serve; which word may well be thought to answer to Pluto, the god of riches, among the Heathens. The reality is that serving mammon is serving anything that is not serving God; simply attending to the things of the world, his focus on the world, will keep a man from discipleship which is the painted direction of ALL of the Master’s teachings.

It may not be within the ken of all men to be disciples at this time, but it is the goal and the objective of each of us and a goal that will be accomplished over many lifetimes. It is for ALL of those who may sense the Light but who do not know where or what they should do that we must reach out to. There is no requirement of religion, there are no requirements at all; there is only that sense of brotherhood and Love, that sense of justice and of GoodWill. Some time back we posted a Quote of the Day entitled Values to Live By and it is in this and sentiments of this nature that we will find the New Age Disciple who will come from any religion or no religion at all but who will appreciate, regardless of his background, the teachings of the Christ and the Buddha and other True Avatars of the Love, Wisdom and Light of God. There are many, many people who fit into this mold that we are defining here and we ourselves should be counted among them. There are people in this mold of virtually every conceivable personality difference with perhaps the only substantial sameness being in their sense of GoodWill which we KNOW is Love in Action.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

Millions there are who believe that these ideals are the way of Peace and Progress, the way of Love and Understanding. Unfortunately many of these millions, ourselves included, may be unsure and uncertain of the validity of their sense of values and who may shy away from making a statement or acting on their sense of Truth. It is left to us, as disciples and aspirants to discipleship, to do whatsoever we can do to find and to help these millions who are, or want to be, among those that are striving toward that strait gate. As we have said it does not matter that they know anything of religion or the words of the Master or of any other Spiritual Leader, all that matters is that they have within them this sense of GoodWill and are desirous of expressing it.

As we come yet closer to the Wesak Festival we should look at the basic similarities of the messages of the Christ and the Buddha; both of these are Truly Sons of God, one Only Begotten who is born as such, and the other developed much the same way as we will be. Each of us can attain to the stature of the Buddha but in this day, in this age, we are more directly aimed as attaining the stature of the Christ. We should remember that the Master tells us that we can do this as the Buddha likely told his disciples as well. This is another sense of the last part of our verse from our chapter above from John: “as he is, so are we in this world“. He was able to say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) and, since we are as He is, we can overcome the world as well. This idea, overcoming the world, is also the basis of most all of the Buddha’s treaching. Quoting from the works of Paul Carus, a Nineteenth Century author who was a professor of philosophy and a student of comparative religion and from his book Buddha: His Life and Teachings, we take this brief statement spoken as if it were from a disciple of the Buddha:

REJOICE at the glad tidings! The Buddha our Lord has found the root of all evil; he has shown us the way of salvation. The Buddha dispels the illusions of our mind and redeems us from the terror of death. The Buddha, our Lord, brings comfort to the weary and sorrow-laden; he restores peace to those who are broken down under the burden of life. He gives courage to the weak when they would fain give up self-reliance and hope. You who suffer from the tribulations of life, you who have to struggle and endure, you who yearn for a life of truth, rejoice at the glad tidings ! There is balm for the wounded, and there is bread for the hungry. There is water for the thirsty, and there is hope for the despairing. There is light for those in darkness, and there is inexhaustible blessing for the upright. Heal your wounds, you wounded, and eat your fill, you hungry. Rest, you weary, and you who are thirsty quench your thirst. Look up to the light, you who sit in darkness; be full of good cheer, you who are forlorn. Trust in truth, you who love the truth, for the kingdom of righteousness is founded upon earth. The darkness of error is dispelled by the light of truth. We can see our way and take firm and certain steps. The Buddha, our Lord, has re vealed the truth. The truth cures our diseases and redeems us from perdition; the truth strengthens us in life and in death; the truth alone can conquer the evils of error. Rejoice at the glad tidings! *

Glad tidings and good news, the way of salvation; can we see in this brief excerpt the sameness of the teaching. The same goal and the same objective is found in both, to bring man into closer and closer communion with the God within. While the Buddha does not speak of God by name He does speak of Him in many other ways, the foremost of which is Truth. Does not our Master the Christ call the Holy Spirit, which we understand as the activity of the Christ Within in the world, the Spirit of Truth and does He not offer to us all healing and rest and the Kingdom of righteousness founded upon Earth? We must understand that these are not the direct words of the Buddha but of a interpreter, a commentator, of His words but we should still see in them the basic ideas of His teachings. The editor’s notes on this book by Mr. Carus tell us this of the Buddha:

The picture of Buddha that comes down to us from these sources is that of a sage, who in his understanding wisdom is able to open up in other men s minds a revelation of the nature of life. He is not a god or a man carrying from Heaven a supernatural revelation, to be accepted on faith. He does not speak of a God, a Creator. He does not tell why we live, but how to live. He teaches a way of life, a way to rise above the troubles of life, and finally a way to achieve the ultimate happiness of Nirvana, in which state untroubled peace is combined with the complete opening-up of understanding.*

Nirvana is a complex word in Buddhist jargon but we should liken it to the Kingdom of God as it exists in its reality, within us all. The editor says here that the Buddha is not a god or a man carrying from Heaven a supernatural revelation, to be accepted on faith and we should realize here that although the Master came from Heaven, if we can so state it, and though He is God, He never told us to accept anything on faith; He taught men much the same as the Buddha did. And, contrary to the editor’s thoughts, the Buddha is God as well as we are ALL God in our Truest sense. The point here is that while the method of incarnation and the method of realization may differ, the overall and the underlying teachings are the same. The Buddha does not speak of God and the Master does not ask for nor require our worship and both of these aspects of their lives are sorely misunderstood.

While we touched upon our theme we did not cover it today and we will try to get back to it in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day