Tag Archives: Shepherd

ON LOVE; PART DCXVIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“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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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

In the last essay we discussed the apostle’s ideas behind his words that seem to be in regard to Peace and then “wars and fightings among you”  but which ARE in reality words that address the Inner struggle of the aspirant and the disciple, the man who IS seeking God. We noted in our recent posts that there IS a link of the apostles previous ideas on temptation and on asking for Wisdom, to the current ideas where we see the lusts and desires stream from the effect of the temptations of the world and James’ words that “ye ask amiss“. In this idea of asking one should see also the reality of Wisdom from above; that the things for the self in the world ARE “earthly, sensual, devilish” while those things of God ARE NOT amiss but ARE “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:15, 17). This list should be seen in the spiritual view that we recently spent much time on and we should understand that to the aspirant and the disciple these ARE the things of importance, the things of God; these ARE what IS found in those incorruptible “treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20). It IS these things, these treasures, that ARE the focus of the True seeker and it IS these that James references in saying that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

ALL of James words and ideas revolve around the central point of discipleship and ALL can be see as his instructions and cautions for the aspirant and the disciples who struggle through the duality which they face in the world. While many may see a host of different topics and no rhyme nor reason in the style of his approach, we see a steady stream of like minded ideas which are built upon in each succeeding section of text and the relationships we show above are but a few that we have noted. We should note as well that James DOES define the disciple, the True disciple, and we should this as the end result of heeding what he IS saying throughout and we should remember that what we see as his intentional vagueness, his use of odd words and phrases that lead to a variety of interpretations, IS his own parabolic style. From our perspective one must be Truly among the seekers to Truly understand James’ words and in this Light, we are likely missing much. And this IS NOT an affront to others who believe that they ARE seekers and yet see only the carnal aspects as this appears to be James’ intent as he sees the reality of his words addressed to the man who lives in the Master’s words and who sees that “Pure religion and undefiled before God” as his way of Life, the man who will “keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).

ALL of this has brought us to our current set of verses which follow upon the idea of the Inner struggle of the man who seeks God, the duality faced by the aspirant and the disciple who see some degree of the Truth but who ARE yet in the world and subjected to that illusion and glamour that gives rise to the temptations which cause and are caused by the lusts and the desires for the ways of the world and the benefit of the self. We read our current verses:

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded” (James 4:4-8).

In the reality of Wisdom from above and the opposite thoughts and attitudes, revelations and realizations, that ARE “earthly, sensual, devilish“, we should see the divide between God and mammon, between the self in the world and the things of God. It IS in this Light that we should see the apostle’s words on the idea of friendship with the world as it IS opposed to God. In friendship we should see the idea of familiarity, which we frame more acutely as intimate familiarity, with the things of the world, the ways of the world, and the ways that these benefit the self in the world. While we see the ideas presented in this first verse as a Truth that needs to be understood before one can Truly progress spiritually, most doctrinal sources place criteria upon these words which the apostle DID NOT intend:

• John Gill, in his Exposition of the Bible tells us: know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? that an immoderate love for the good things of the world, and a prevailing desire after the evil things of it, and a delight in the company and conversation of the men of the world, and a conformity to, and compliance with, the sinful manners and customs of the world, are so many declarations of war with God, and acts of hostility upon him; and show the enmity of the mind against him, and must be highly displeasing to him, and resented by him ⁸. Here Mr. Gill sees only the grossest of ideas in evil, in immoderate love and sinful manners. The apostle places no such criteria upon his point of friendship.
• The Commentary Critical and Explanatory of the Whole Bible on the other hand offers little in the way of explanation of James’ words; we read: the world–in so far as the men of it and their motives and acts are aliens to God, for example, its selfish “lusts” ( James 4:3 ), and covetous and ambitious “wars and fightings” ( James 4:1 ). enmity–not merely “inimical”; a state of enmity, and that enmity itself. Compare 1 John 2:15 , “love . . . the world . . . the love of the Father.” whosoever . . . will be–The Greek is emphatic, “shall be resolved to be.” Whether he succeed or not, if his wish be to be the friend of the world, he renders himself, becomes (so the Greek for “is”) by the very fact, “the enemy of God.” Contrast “Abraham the friend of God.” ⁸ By the examples that they cite, the authors are offering us this same idea of the grosser things of Life in the world ONLY; this IS of course what we see as the common plague of most ALL doctrine…they DO NOT see the idea of that separation of God and mammon.
• Matthew Henry in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise) offers us some more appropriate ideas regarding James words here in this fourth chapter; he says: And let us beware that we do not abuse or misuse the mercies received, by the disposition of the heart when prayers are granted When men ask of God prosperity, they often ask with wrong aims and intentions. If we thus seek the things of this world, it is just in God to deny them. Unbelieving and cold desires beg denials; and we may be sure that when prayers are rather the language of lusts than of graces, they will return empty. Here is a decided warning to avoid all criminal friendships with this world. Worldly-mindedness is enmity to God. An enemy may be reconciled, but “enmity” never can be reconciled. A man may have a large portion in things of this life, and yet be kept in the love of God; but he who sets his heart upon the world, who will conform to it rather than lose its friendship, is an enemy to God. So that any one who resolves at all events to be upon friendly terms with the world, must be the enemy of God ⁸. Mr. Henry converts the idea of friendship to Love and makes allowances for the man who IS or can be rich; he also makes allowances for men to pray for such things in the right way. This IS of course contrary to the Master’s words regarding treasure as He says “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth” (Matthew 6:19); this IS a concept that IS wholly misunderstood and which men push away from themselves.

There should be NO criteria on the apostle’s words that he himself DID NOT place there and here in our current verse we should see the idea of friendship as that word IS defined in ways that is NOT about people. The lexicon offers nothing regarding friendship and only offers ideas that are in regard to people being friends with people; they do give us this regarding friend: he who associates familiarly with one ² and in this we can see our idea of familiarity. The modern dictionary tells us that friendship means: a friendly relation or intimacy ⁷. It IS in these ideas that we should see the apostle’s point and our interpretation as intimate familiarity; it IS this that IS at enmity with God and it IS any who have such intimate relationship that are opposed to God. The nature of this whole idea of the world IS tied to the same words from the Master who tell us that “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and in James idea of friendship, in the reality of intimate familiarity, we should see the Master’s idea of service.

Again we must note that here IS NO thing inherently wrong here in these ideas and, except as one approaches the Truth of the message, this ALL makes little or no sense; this IS the state of the majority of humanity, that they are focused on their lives in the world and on what they can get out of them from the only perspective that they Truly KNOW, the carnal perspective. In the end this too can be seen as an issue of focus, an issue of turning one’s attention to what IS Truly important and away from the temporal which IS the things of the world. Where IS the treasure of a man; what IS important to him, on what does he spend his time? In the answer to these questions is the reality of the man…that he IS a friend of the world or that he IS a friend of God. With which DOES he presently have this intimate familiarity?

The next saying IS rather obscure and it has some relevance to this current idea. It IS linked by most to some scripture but the origin is unknown and the opinions ARE many. There IS of course the idea that this IS NOT linked to any but is statement about the generality of asking if we should think that this IS what scripture says; that “The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy“. We KNOW that it DOES NOT say this; we KNOW that scripture DOES NOT say that this IS the nature of the Spirit in us and in this view we should be able to understand that the man who seeks God should not envy any other. In this we can see yet another effect of the duality that affects the aspirant and the disciple as he goes about disciplining his own Life for greater focus upon the things of God; he can see as a personality in the world ALL that he IS NOT partaking in any longer….he can see around him ALL that gave him that temporal pleasure when these were in his scope of intimate familiarity. Here we are told by the apostle that these pangs of carnal attraction ARE not spiritual, that the Spirit DOES NOT have these thoughts and attitudes, and in this way James IS affirming that these ARE carnal effects as seen it the duality of the man striving toward that strait gate.

There IS NO other logical approach to be seen here and this too can be seen in a carnal fashion as can so many of James sayings. The Commentary Critical includes this idea: “Does the (Holy) Spirit that God hath placed in us lust to (towards) envy” (namely, as ye do in your worldly “wars and fightings”)? Certainly not; ye are therefore walking in the flesh, not in the Spirit, while ye thus lust towards, that is, with envy against one another. The friendship of the world tends to breed envy; the Spirit produces very different fruit ⁸. There IS some reality in these words and they include in their commentary other ideas which have not this same tone. We should note here that friendship with the world breeds many things and that for James to single out envy here would be odd in our view. We should also note that this IS NOT the same Greek word that is rendered earlier as envying and which we understand as emulation which IS our idea of self-devotion.

John Gill offers us these ideas: the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? that is, the depraved spirit of man, the spirit of an unregenerate man; that as it is prone to every lust, and prompts to every sin, the imagination of the thought of man’s heart being evil, and that continually, so it instigates to envy the happiness of others; see ( Genesis 6:5 ) ( 8:21 ) or this may be put as a distinct question from the other, “does the spirit that dwelleth in us lust to envy?” that is, the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the hearts of his people, as in his temple: the Ethiopic version reads, “the Holy Spirit”: and then the sense is, does he lust to envy? no; he lusts against the flesh and the works of it, and envy among the rest ⁸. In the first part we can find NO usable ideas as the Spirit of man IS the same and DOES NOT regenerate at ALL; the Spirit of man Transforms the willing personality, when it can be held in the Light of Truth. The second part IS the better idea as that this IS a question and that the answer IS clearly NO.

From the reality of lust and desires as they afflict the aspirant and the disciple in the duality of Life, to the idea that it IS these things ARE from one’s friendship with the world, to the reality that these ARE NOT from the Spirit but from the world, the apostle now takes us into the reality of the way of the disciple again as he writes: “But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble“. There IS likely a relationship between envy and pride as used in these verses and we leave off today with this from Webster’s 1828 version:  Envy springs from pride, ambition or love, mortified that another has obtained what one has a strong desire to possess ¹.

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.

As we approach the Wesak Festival at the Full Moon of May, it seems appropriate that we post the Great Invocation as our Quote of the Day. Wesak IS the Festival of the Buddha and it IS said that on this day the Buddha returns to us and stands with the Christ to help to focus the attention of men of GoodWill on the Truth of the Plan of God, the Plan that can come to fruition in the expression of the Light and Love and Power in the world of men.

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132

The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.

Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.

The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com