Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCLXVII
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•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•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 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” (Ephesians 4:13-18).
Returning for a bit to our words above from the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, we find, in his own words, the same ideas that we have been dealing with in our more modern language. Until we ALL come unto “a perfect man“, until we ALL come “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“, we are but on our journey to those ends and we will pass through the various stages of Life which we can psychically say, in very broad terms, are total absorption in the self and the self in the world, to the growing extension of that self to include a growing number of others albeit along very separatist lines of family, friends, one’s own religious affiliation and then too the political and the societal. In this rather long stage, is the growing into prejudices and hatreds and the growing out of them as well as this does eventually lead us to that sense of duality were one’s vision is clearer and he can see and understand others in the words that the Master gives us. The KEY word here in our short depiction of this journey of man IS the idea of growing and we should understand that this process takes many lives, many incarnations, and a very long period of time as we see time here in the Earth. From our perspective this growing IS directly dependent upon the focus of the man; if his focus is on the things of the world then the things of the world will grow in importance to him and in this we should understand the things of the self as whatsoever way the focus IS oriented so that we can see that there CAN BE and IS an opportunity for reverting, or moving backward from a spiritual perspective, in any given Lifetime in form. Likewise, there is ever opportunity for the focus to dramatically change during a particular Lifetime, thereby easing the length of this second stage that we premise above. The final stage here or the final state of being that one will encounter, as this IS the goal and the objective of Life in form, IS that which the apostle refers to above and this IS the state of True discipleship and of the ultimate of KNOWING the mysteries of the Kingdom; it IS here that ALL is revealed in relation to this Life in form and the Nature of God as we can KNOW Him; this IS then “a perfect man“.
The apostle tells us here that it is when we reach this stage, this High Calling of True discipleship, that we will no longer be susceptible to being “tossed to and fro” as we are today as aspirants in our own state of duality where we are moved from pole to pole by the illusion and the glamour and, while prejudice and hatreds may be behind us, there is still much of the self in the world that each must overcome. Now there are many, many millions of people, better said then as billions which number is rather inconceivable from the perspective of the human mind, who are in this very long second stage as we paint it above and it IS in this stage that we will find the focus of the man and the treasure of his heart in a range from barely noting the existence of others, to the complexity of the average man of GoodWill and on yet to the man who IS more engrossed in the ideas of Love as Active GoodWill and Right Human Relations. A look at the world today will find that the many are in the first group and the early part of the second and that the middle and end as we note here are the exception rather than the rule. We should note here that what we see is beyond any idea of religious affiliation and that those affiliated people are as much scattered along this scale as any other and this IS because what one believes matters not…..it IS what one DOES and what is the True focus of the Life. The apostle uses our understanding here or, rather we have adopted his understanding, when, in his next words he uses this same idea of growing and, if we read his words correctly we should see the overall of his message thus far: until we are perfect in Christ and the Christ Within we are susceptible to being “tossed to and fro” in the confusion of our Life of duality which is yet based in illusion and glamour. KNOWING this, we should then speak “the truth in love” for it IS in this way that we “may grow up into him in all things” which we can interpret here as the Christ and the Christ Within. While this is not so simply stated, likely because of the mystery that this IS, we should see this as Paul tells us elsewhere saying: “Even 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).
Of course we should understand the idea of saints in this saying to be those who CAN KNOW these mysteries based upon their focus upon “the truth in love” and not upon the carnal understanding of being appointed as one by some ‘authority’ posthumously or in the understanding by others who minimize this word to include those who believe but DO NOT do. And we should take the words in our saying above that are rendered as “speaking the truth” and broaden our understanding as we note here from Vincent who tells us of the Greek word aletheuo that: Speaking the truth ( αληθεύοντες ) Only here and Galatians 4:16. In classical Greek it means to be true, to arrive at truth, and to speak truth. Here the idea is rather that of being or walking in truth. Rev., in margin, dealing truly 4. Using Vincent’s idea then we can make much better sense of the apostles message that it IS through walking in truth or dealing truly in Love that we can grow into the state of being as we see in the first verse above; as the perfect man expressing the Power and the Love of the Christ Within.
In the next verse we can find much confusion but there is a single point here if we look for it. Commentary regards this as referring to the church and we should remember here that there IS NO real church at this point in time but rather the assemblies of saints, of disciples, in various places and here in these sayings, in Ephesus. Now we could regard this as the object of the apostles words and thereby see the opening verse as referring to this same assemblage or, we can see this as we did prior and understand that this unity is the single mindedness of the of the disciple, the single mindedness of “a perfect man” which we see as the verse progresses. We should understand that the view of this as coming into a single faith can only be appropriate when we consider that this one faith is that “knowledge of the Son of God” from any perspective, any religious persuasion, which IS NOT likely the perspective of the doctrines that promote this idea; an analysis of this in this way would cause this idea to fall into that realm of separatism of which the Master has NO interest in. So while we can see this as reference to the group of disciples at Ephesus all seeing this reality of ‘faith’ in the same way, it is our preference to understand it as the single mindedness of the individual who CAN come to this realization and the “knowledge of the Son of God” as the Christ within as well for it IS in these things that the man can become perfect and his Life in this world can be seen as that same expression as we see in the Christ who IS “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). It IS here in this perfect state of the True disciple that we can “henceforth be no more children“.
Can we see the logic in the apostles words? and can we see the relationships to the words of others? The Apostle James for example uses this same ideas of single minded and tells us of the problems of being double minded as this man is “tossed to and fro“. We should note here that James is referring to asking for that Wisdom from above and we should understand that from the perspective of the disciple that this IS ALL that he would be asking for as the things of the world of of no moment to him. James tells us: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering . For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed . 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). Can we see the synergy in these thoughts from James and from Paul?
Resolving then that Paul is speaking NOT about the not yet existent church but that he can be referring to the assemblies of saints at Ephesus, we still have the issue of the perfect man to accommodate and we should here acknowledge that, while he may be speaking to them as a group, he is addressing their individual accomplishment of dealing Truthfully in Love and we read this idea in our Light. We should understand that there IS NO group attainment here; ALL is individual and, as we have discussed, we are on our own; it is we who must strive, it is we individually who must focus and it is we individually who receive revelation of that Wisdom from above. We should note here as well that ALL of this striving and this focus and the aim of ALL this revelation IS NOT for the limited use by the self in the world; it IS for our service to our brother and to our neighbor and to the stranger who qualifies as both. Here then we should try to see the apostles language as that which is the custom of the reader who may not yet KNOW the mystery of the Christ Within and who, in that day, may have no idea of the separate parts of the constitution of man other than by the analogy given by Paul and by the Master who tells us “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out….And if thy right hand offend thee” and then later on “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee , cut them off , and cast them from thee” (Matthew 5:29, 30, 18:8). Of course we understand that He does not mean the physical eye or hand or foot but rather the cause of the offense as the mind or the emotions, the self in selfishness, the prejudices and the hatreds and we should read this same into the words of the apostle who, from a positive perspective, shows that the body parts are the analogy to those parts of the man that CAN “maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love“; a joint CAN NOT do this but a mind can when it is under the influence of the True head…..the Christ and the Christ Within.
And Paul clarifies this for them; speaking to these disciples and aspirants who have not yet achieved this perfection, he cautions them to NOT fall back into the ways of the Gentiles and, again we have a word that must be viewed in the broadest sense. This word, as it is carried over from the Old Testament is thought to mean those who are not Jewish, they are the others, and perhaps the Hebrew word that is rendered as Gentile does mean this. From the New Testament perspective it is thought to mean many things including pagan and even heathen, both as derogatory terms and both carried over from the Old Testament supposed use of the word. Vincent however tells us this: Gentiles (εθνων) Assigned to the same root as ἔθω , to be accustomed, and hence of a people bound together by like habits or customs 4 and in these explanatory words we should see the greater reality from Paul’s perspective of the man who is yet focused largely upon the self and the self in the world. And Paul’s description of this man bears this out; he IS not drawing a line between the Christian and the NOT Christian, he is drawing a line between the man who is focused upon the things of God, as a disciple and an aspirant, and the man that IS focused upon the self and the things of the world. And in this doctrinal view that his reference is to the Christian and the NOT Christian is blown away by the reality that there are so many who would call themselves Christian who are yet focused upon the self and the self in the world and this IS compounded in the continuation of this doctrinal approach that seems to say yet today that this IS where the Christian focus should be.
Of course we understand otherwise and we KNOW that there is only one True focus for the man who would advance spiritually and this IS NOT on the self but on Love and the expression of that Love to the world in Active GoodWill and in Right Human Relations. Repeating our words again on Love and its importance in the Life of the Christian or anyone else who sees the True objective of Life as the disciple and the True goal as the Kingdom of God….and through their work these words ARE for ALL mankind.
Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:
“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 12:30-31).
We ask ourselves 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.
We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).
We will continue with out 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.
Staying on the theme of Love we repeat again the sayings of the Apostle Paul that put this Love into perspective.
But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13 (New King James Version)Regardless of our daily theme, the underlying theme of our posts and of this entire blog is Love. In these words from Paul we should be able to see the overriding importance of Love in the Life of each of us. This is a common theme throughout the gospels and the other writings of the apostles and a theme that is not nearly understood. In our theme today regarding Paul’s writings to the Romans and in the previous discussions on them we seek to impart the better understanding of the reality of Life, the Life of the True man as the Christ Within, the Soul, as it is from this perspective that we can gain that revelation of Truth and, as Paul says above, be free from the condemnation and the vanity of Life in form, free from the illusion and the glamour. We repeat here what we said about these verses in a prior post:
Today’s Quote of the Day from the Apostle Paul is his testimony to the power of Love. After speaking at length about the gifts of the Spirit that one should desire in order to be of service to the Lord, he says plainly that Love is a more excellent way. Love in the context of these verses is not the sentimental or affectionate kind that we ordinarily think of but rather 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. This defining of Love is covered in some depth in a previous post; In the Words of Jesus part 47.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
