These essays are written in sequence and build on each other. Read the preceding essay here.
We can observe from the world around us that Creation works in a consistent and definite way. Here in our material world the natural sciences have made us aware of physical laws (e.g. laws of gravity) that act consistently throughout the universe, independent of human opinion.
God is a Spirit
— KJV, John 4:24
Man is a spirit, and the Nature of God is different to that of man. Therefore this passage is not to be intepreted superficially. For now we may adopt it in the context of the Holy Spirit.
This Nature of God means that all things manifest spiritually before they manifest materially. This implies that the physical laws that the natural sciences have discovered are material manifestations of spiritual laws.
For example, the fact that we must reap rice where we sowed rice is a physical manifestation of a higher spiritual law of sowing and reaping, which has been recognized by many cultures and given many different names.
So there are spiritual laws or “Laws of Creation“. We can call them “Divine Laws“. They are equivalent to “God’s Will“. We can use these terms interchangeably. We already discussed this in brief in an earlier essay.
When the Jews made reference to “the law” they were not referring to the Divine Laws but to the Mosaic Law, the Torah. At the core of the Torah are the Ten Commandments, which describe how man is to behave.
Christ explained that, for these behaviors to be meaningful, they must be based on love:
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”. The Mosaic Law is a guide to how man is to behave.
For a behavior to make sense, it must align with God’s Will. God’s Will has existed from all eternity, and It gave rise to Creation. The Laws of Creation are therefore expressions of God’s Will or, equivalently, His Power.
The Laws of Creation, as God’s Will, as the manifestations of God’s Power, have guided Creation from the very beginning. All of this was long before man and the Mosaic Law came into existence.
So it would be incorrect to state that “the Mosaic Law is God’s Will”. It would be more correct to state that it is a guide for man to behave in a way that is in sync with God’s Will/the Laws of Creation. Obviously, as explained in The Word, these behaviors must be borne of love to truly be “in sync”.
When we tell a child that it is a bad idea to jump from a height, this is not a statement of the laws of gravity, but an implication thereof. As the child matures, he will understand and consciously experience the “why”, which is gravity itself.
So we should view “thou shalt” not as a statement of Divine Will, but as an implication of It. As man matures, he gains an understanding of the actual “why”, which are the Laws of Creation.
How is the actual “why” revealed to we human beings? Through experiences that are a result of action taken in the sense of The Word.
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.
The Word, (Re)Discovered 