This essay continues a sequence. Read the previous one here.
God is a Spirit
— KJV, John 4:24
Rules may outlive their usefulness, but the “why” remains…
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Spiritual Before Material
Man is a spirit, and the Nature of God is entirely different from that of man. Therefore this passage requires deeper interpretation. For now we will interpret it as a reference to the Holy Spirit, a topic we shall return to later.
Since the Almighty Creator is the Origin of all Being, and His Nature may partly be called a Holy-Spiritual one, we can infer that things are first created spiritually, and only afterwards do they manifest materially.
The natural sciences have discovered physical laws (e.g. laws of thermodynamics) that act consistently throughout the universe, independent of human opinion.
So it must be that these physical laws are material manifestations of higher spiritual laws. These higher spiritual realities also work in a consistent and definite (i.e. logical; ref. “Perfection Can’t Be Illogical“) way.
For example, the physical phenomena that collectively give rise to the fact that we must reap rice where we sowed rice are a manifestation of a higher spiritual law of sowing and reaping.
So, as we discussed in greater detail in “The Nature of God’s Laws“, there are some fundamental spiritual laws or “Laws of Creation“. We can call them “Divine Laws“. They express “God’s Will” – how He intends things to work.
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Man’s Law = Advice
When the average Jew made reference to “the law” he was not referring to these Divine Laws but to the Mosaic Law, the Torah. At the core of the Torah are the Ten Commandments, which describe good behaviour.
The Word revealed that for these behaviors to be actually good, they must emerge from a loving heart:
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
— Matt 22:37-40
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.
The word “Torah” in Hebrew is derived from a root word which means “to guide” or “to teach”. So, the Ten Commandments are a guide to how man is to behave.
Divine Law = How The World Works
God’s Laws have guided Creation from the very beginning, long before man and the Mosaic Law came into existence. These comprise the real “Law” from which all things – the Ten Commandments, scientific observations, etc – derive validity and which Christ often referred to.
So, rather than say “the Ten Commandments are God’s Will” it is better to say that they are a guide for how to align with God’s Eternal Will (ref. “The Nature of God’s Laws“).
In the same vein, we should not say that the laws of thermodynamics (for example) are God’s Will, but physical realities representing manifestations of His Will.
As stated above, these physical behaviors must emerge from a loving heart to be truly “in sync”. The absence of love makes obedience to “the law” meaningless and even hypocritical.
When we tell a child that it is a bad idea to jump from a height, this is not “the law of gravity”, but common sense guidance on how to behave in a way that respects the law of gravity. When the child matures, he will understand the “why”, which is gravity itself (ref. “Act To Experience To Know“).
As we reflect on “thou shalt” and act accordingly, we gain experiences that lead us to an understanding of the actual “why” i.e. the Laws of Creation, which also express the power of love.
The Divine Laws are revealed in The Word, and become understandable to us through experiences that are a result of action taken in the sense of The Word (ref. “Act To Experience To Know“).
We shall explore this further in the next essay.
Today’s Resolution:
- We shall seek to align with the love that is at the heart of all spiritual guidance in all our thoughts, words, and actions.
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