THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A LAW, A COMMAND, AND A RULE

It is said that there is much difference between a Law, an Order or Command, and a Rule. In our world today we live under all three, and yet, the difference between them is scarcely considered or understood.

“The Laws of the universe are simply the manifested modes of expression . . . the way of existence or activity in which we live, move and have our being.” We cannot avoid these laws nor can we deny them. Summer, autumn, winter and spring will follow each other in an ordered sequence through repetitive, never-ending cycles because it is one of the laws under which we live. Like other natural Laws they govern and control all that happens in time and space and we are naturally swept into activity by them. These Laws are natural and fundamental in the process of living.

“Orders and Commands, on the other hand, are the feeble interpretations which men give to what they understand by law. In time and space, at any given moment and in any given location, commands are issued by those who are in a position of authority . . .” or in a position to enforce their ideas and wishes.” We have to pay taxes, for instance, and many other levies under the command of government policy, which is ever limited or conditioned by man’s current view of the universe at any particular stage of the evolutionary journey. Orders and commands are often indicative of human frailty, limitation, lack of insight, and vision.

“Rules are different. They are the result of tried experience and of age-long undertakings; assuming neither the form of Laws nor the limitations of a Command, they are recognised by those for whom they exist and therefore evoke from them an immediate intuitive response.” These Rules require no enforcement, are easily accepted and put to the test in the belief that the knowledge and understanding gained by humanity through past experience, and the testimony of the ages, warrant the rules required.

“The commands, rules and regulations devised by humanity are meant to accord with Divine Will, and to act as agents of its expression within the course of human evolution. To the extent that they do this, they are good commands, good rules, and good regulations. But being devised by humanity, they can never be wholly adequate means of expressing the Divine Intent. People tend to forget this, and in so doing, place severe and rigid limitations upon themselves and others.

Divinity needs scope to express its endless potential. The “seed of spirit” within the human being demands freedom above all, and will induce violent rebellion if confined by artificial patterns of conduct (i.e., spiritually repressive laws, commands, rules and regulations), the construction of which is usually motivated by fear and dogma, and the purpose of which is simply to “keep people in their place.”

Let us look for those new rules that are now unfolding in the New Era, that we may find a ready response to the intuitive ideas and energies embodied in the new groups of world servers now emerging. ‘What is good for one is good for all‘ is ever the motto and distinguishing feature of those who seek to enter upon this new stage of spiritual awakening within the human race.