Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXXXV
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:18-23).
We have progressed through a good part of these sayings from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and like many such groups of sayings, the overall message may be a bit different that the messages of the individual lines that make up the group. Here we have in the apostle’s words some of the individual aspects of human behavior that he later references in his saying that “the creature was made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) and these ideas of “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” who “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” are a part of that vanity which we call the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world. In Paul’s words, it is in this vanity that we can see the reason for the natural behavior of men in the world and the reality that what the apostle calls “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men“. It IS the result of this vanity, it IS this illusion and glamour that so obnubilate the reality of the True man as the Soul that he must find his way back to that reality, and it is finding again this reality that becomes for him his deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“; we should see here that this corruption IS that “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” as in their being lost and separated from the sense of the divine, they see ONLY the self as the man in the world. In discussing these ideas from Paul in previous posts we inserted Vincent’s understanding of this word vanity which IS NOT offered by Paul in the English context as we generally understand it; Vincent tells us that the Greek word mataiotes should mean:
- Vanity ( ματαιότητι ) Only here, Ephesians 4:17; 2 Peter 2:18. Compare the kindred verb became vain (Romans 1:21note), and the adjective vain (1 Corinthians 3:20; 1 Peter 1:18). Vain is also used to render κενός (1 Corinthians 15:14, 1 Corinthians 15:58; Ephesians 5:6; James 2:20). Κενός signifies empty; μάταιος idleresultless. Κενός , used of persons, implies not merely the absence of good, but the presence of evil. So James 2:20. The Greek proverb runs. “The empty think empty things.” Μάταιος expresses aimlessness. All which has not God for the true end of its being is μάταιος . Pindar describes the vain man as one who hunts bootless things with fruitless hopes. Plato (“Laws,” 735) of labor to no purpose. Ezekiel 13:6, “prophesying vain things ( μάταια ),” things which God will not bring to pass. Compare Titus 3:9. Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4. (NOTE: we have found a new online resource for Vincent’s works that is easier to read as it represents the Greek in a better way; this new resource is http://www.studylight.org/com/vnt/)
Seeing that the end part of Vincent’s words tell us that the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends, we should be able to understand the relationships. The perishable and decaying condition is the steady downward spiral that brings mankind further and further into this corruption; to the point where he no longer can even see nor remember his reality and we should see as well that this is a progressive spiraling that encompasses generation after generation and results in the common view of Life that we have today. Looking then at Vincent’s thought of separate from God, we should be able to see also the reality of the “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men“; as they look to the self for ALL things and for a long time, both individually and corporately, are not even aware of the True self as the Soul and this too continues to today. Finally we see the idea of pursuing false ends which we should understand as our immersion in this vanity, this illusion and glamour, that so cloud our vision as Souls in form in the world that this consciousness that the Soul provides to the human Life is lost to it. We must remember here that the Soul IS the True man, that the man IS NOT this presence on this Earth, and that he is using this incarnated Life in form as his means of deliverance and he will try and try to gain the proper foothold in each and every incarnation and accumulate any progress made as that spiritual collateral that will eventually allow his expression as the Soul through the Life in form, thereby overcoming the personality and the body nature itself and allowing the Soul in form to stand with the Master and say: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)
It is here in our saying at the top of our essay that we have Vincent’s reference to ‘the kindred verb became vain‘ and so in this context we should try to see these same ideas and we add this from Vincent regarding this particular use by the apostle: Became vain ( εματαιώθησαν ) Vain things ( μάταια ) was the Jews’ name for idols. Compare Acts 4:15. Their ideas and conceptions of God had no intrinsic value corresponding with the truth. “The understanding was reduced to work in vacuo. It rendered itself in a way futile ” (Godet)4. We should see here that the reality of this word as it is applied spiritually shows us that the entire concept of vain and vanity, of illusion and of glamour, is to take mans attention away from the ways of God and onto the ways of the world and while this is a necessity, this immersion in the world, from the perspective of the advancement of the race of men in the Earth, it is at the same time that which separates us from our God. We cannot say what would have been the reality today if the generations past had seen the Light and had come closer to the precepts of God and the Master in Love and in brotherhood; we only KNOW that it IS the free will of the man in form compounded by the lost consciousness of the Soul in the world, that has brought us to this place where we stand today, this place where we count our history by the wars and the conflicts that have dotted our past and often do so with pride. Contrary to this are those men of vision who have come into incarnation throughout history and many of whom are likely the same presence over and over who incarnate with some lesson, some new perspective on living, that can help the race to progress spiritually and the Greatest of these IS the Christ who came among us over 2000 years ago and DID change the world albeit not enough to point us toward the reality of OUR God and the God Within. This failure, if we can use that word, is not His but it IS ours as men who continually choose to look to the self and the self in the world and see more importance in pleasure and comfort than in the True objective of our eventual expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul, of the Christ Within, to the world. This is our journey and in this we do find many joining the ranks of those men of vision and this from a multiplicity of perspectives and walks of Life in form, men who join us as aspirants and disciples and who take up their own cross, correct their own lives, and stand ready to help the brother and the neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both to greater spiritual heights.
Tying these sayings from Paul together as the effect and the cause is, from our perspective, what the apostle is actually saying to us yet today. That by the very Plan of God man is put in this Earth, subjected to the vanity and lost in the illusion and the glamour; here we should understand that before this subjection to vanity, man KNEW God and that in depths of his being he still KNOWS Him. The apostle tells us this is True based upon the Life of man in this world that can be understood as his divine nature by means of his perspective on his outward appearance and here, as we said yesterday in our example of gravity, we should not consider only those things that we can see and feel. It is in this reality that man does consider that there IS more and it is here that religion blossoms; that based upon the innate sense of our own reality as Souls we KNOW God but, rather than to follow the teachings down the ages that bring us back to God, mankind has preferred to follow the way of the self in form being more concerned with his own self and the comforts and pleasures of Life. Can we understand this perspective? Can we see that the reality is found in the words of the Master and His apostles when these words ARE NOT subjected to the scrutiny of comfort and pleasure but are rather measured against the scale that the Master set; where a man who desires spiritual progression will “him deny himself, and take up his cross daily” (Luke 9:23) or, according to the apostle will “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24)?
We should see in our words here and the words of the Master and the apostle that there IS NO half way approach available, we are either godly or ungodly, we are either righteous or we are unrighteous. Ungodly and unrighteous IS a choice and one that is based in the entirety of the learning experience of the man in the world who has in any way been exposed to the opposite, religious, ideas in Life and while there may be confusion and misunderstanding, the man who chooses to move forward toward the godly and the righteous but who finds comfort and pleasure for the self in doctrines has not moved very far….he is still, from the perspective of the words of the Master and His apostles, ungodly and unrighteous because his focus IS yet upon the self and the things of the world. It is only in seeing the reality of the Master’s words as well as those of Paul above that one can Truly find the Kingdom and discipleship. And here is the apostle’s message above, that man chooses not to deny, not to take up his cross and not to crucify the flesh even when he KNOWS by the word that this is the right Path. And this Paul tells us saying “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened“. Here we should see the ongoing reality and not just the historical view; we should see as well that it is by man’s choice NOT to follow in the ways of righteousness as the word instructs but to protect his own Life in the world that his heart IS darkened. We should see here that we are speaking about those who DO KNOW or COULD KNOW the reality of the Truth spoken by the Master and His apostles, the dynamic for those who DO NOT KNOW is likely not much different as both fail to regard the right focus upon the things of God as of more importance than their focus on the things of the world. We should see here in this context however that there is the extra burden put upon those who DO KNOW and this is stated as “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth” (John 9:41).
We should note here that verses like these from Paul are generally seen in their historic perspective only but this IS NOT the way it should be and doctrine holds this as true as it uses Paul’s words to his brother and fellow disciple Timothy saying: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). While we do not see in this saying the same things that many do, we use it as our example of the doctrinal bent towards the infallibility or inerrant nature of scripture. For us this saying does not even approach this claim but at the same time we should say to those who believe that this IS Paul’s intent, that our words above are also in this same class and, that by our understanding the critique offered in these sayings by Paul is as valid for today as it was in the time it was written. John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible, tells us in his commentary on the first verse in this series that: in order to set this matter in a clear light, from hence, to the end of the chapter, and in the following ones, represents the sad estate and condition of the Gentiles with the law of nature, and of the Jews with the law of Moses; by which it most clearly appears, that neither of them could be justified by their obedience to the respective laws under which they were, but that they both stood in need of the righteousness of God 8. This is from our perspective the common view of doctrine and here Mr. Gill works into his comments the idea of law which has not yet been introduced by the apostle but which appears in later chapters as a part of his argument against the use of the law as the Truth of righteousness. In our view these ideas put forth by Paul are saying as we have said, that men in that day and forward to today are bent on continuing their Life in the world over the Truth of Life as found in the words of the Master; that even for those who KNEW God, there was and IS that tendency to live their lives in the comfort and the pleasures of the world rather than do what is required to move forward on the Path to the strait gate that opens into the Kingdom. And, as we point out above, this tendency is caused by that vanity, that illusion and glamour, that the race of men is subjected to and from which each man must extract himself and this IS a difficult thing because while enmeshed in these worldly ways it is extremely difficult to see clearly the Truth.
This is the apostle’s point as well and we can see this if we read his words in the Light of the Truth of the Master’s teachings regarding the Kingdom and discipleship and not in the light of doctrine. Many there are who believe themselves on the Path and many there are that believe themselves accounted worthy of the Kingdom who are not in tune with the reality of His words and Paul next tells us that these are as those in his day “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” and in this is the reality of Paul’s other saying “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” (1 Corinthians 3:19).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
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.
We are again at a time of year that includes the three Spiritual Festivals which are yet largely unrecognized by the Christian churches except for the one that recently past called Easter. We know about these festivals through the teaching and the efforts of the Master’s of the Wisdom who we should see as advanced disciples of the Christ, a group which may yet include those Souls that appeared with the Master as His Apostles, disciples and others who aided and assisted in His Great Mission such as the Baptist and His natural mother Mary. Each of these festivals is celebrated at a Full Moon and the cycle begins with Easter which is celebrated on the Sunday following the first Full Moon of Spring. At the Full Moon of May, which occurs on the 5th day of the month, is the Wesak Festival which is the Festival of the Buddha and at the Full Moon of June, which will occur on the 4th of June, is the Christ Festival also known today as World Invocation Day. As we progress toward the Wesak Festival we will post Quote’s of the Day that are, in our view, conducive to the view of the Buddha and the Christ as regards the spreading of Love and GoodWill throughout the world; we begin with the Affirmation of the Disciple.
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
We repeat again what we had previously said of this Mantram:
Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world“ (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
