70 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
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WESTERN WISDOM BIBLE STUDY:
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Learning to Walk With Love
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Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
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perfect.-Matthew 5:48.
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Till we all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son
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of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of Christ.-
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Ephesians 4:13.
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And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is
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love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein
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is our love made Perfect.<2E>I John 4:16,17.
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The perfection mentioned above is not an idle dream, but a living,
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developing condition toward which we are all striving. Since humanity first
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became aware of the great breach between the omnipotence of the Creator and
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the weakness of its own powers, as related in the first few chapters of
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Genesis, when Adam and Eve took their faltering first steps alone in "eating
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of the fruit of the tree of knowledge," man has gradually learned to walk
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upright and some few have even consciously walked with God.
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It is interesting to note that Max Heindel avoided the use of the word
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karma in his books, preferring the word destiny or the phrase Law of
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Consequence. Too often this word karma has come to carry with it the
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connotation of punishment for a past offense. This is a perversion of its
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meaning, for this law is as impersonal and universal as the law of gravity
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in its application. It is outside and above the moral law of good and evil;
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the moral laws, based on the Ten Commandments were given to man to aid in
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his relationship with other men.
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The universal laws, such as that of Consequence or Cause and Effect, and
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Harmony (the finite mind has cataloged seven universal laws) are laws that
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operate on the higher levels. Since the material world is only a reflection
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of the spiritual, it follows that, when the spiritual side of man comes into
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harmony with these divine laws, then the material working out is abrogated.
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By this we mean that when a man truly repents for a wilful disobedience of
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moral laws and comes again into harmony with the higher laws the effects of
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his wrong act are forgiven him. Max Heindel writes, "even though we are not
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able to make restitution for a wrong, the sincerity of our regret will
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suffice. Nature does not aim to 'get even,' or to take revenge. Recompense
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may be given to our victim in other ways."
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The Law of Consequence may be summed up in the verse from Galatians: "Be
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not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soeth, that shall he
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also reap." As we have stumbled in our weakness, or overextended ourselves
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in our exuberance, or overstepped the law in ignorance, are we brought up
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short and learn what and where are our limitations. Thus do we gain wisdom
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through experience. Every sorrow or trouble that comes to us demonstrates
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some lack of soul-quality which only such an experience as this can teach,
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and so brings us closer to the "perfect man."
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Earthly experiences, distilled into wisdom between incarnations, is the
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only way we have of learning to walk consciously with God. An intelligent
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acceptance of these limiting factors is the first step toward completing
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this particular lesson. When our mind has accepted it, then we can analyze
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and incorporate it into our way of life much as a child learning to walk
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learns to dodge obstacles or to remove them from his path.
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It is this picture of the infant learning to walk, guided and helped and
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loved by his parents that makes the best comparison of learning to live in
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perfect harmony with God's laws. If we can read the Old Testament with this
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analogy in mind we can see beneath the fumblings of the old chroniclers, and
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trace the loving parental hand of God as He guided reluctant humanity. How
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well they learned to walk is to be measured by the great multitudes who
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recognized the higher ideals of the new teachings of man's perfectability as
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explained in the New Testament in Christ's work.
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