IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 86

YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

In the last post we spent considerable time discussing the first stanza of the Mantram of Unification which is appearing below as the Quote of the Day for a few days. The objective in doing this was to show how this meditation and prayer reflects the teachings of the Christ. We continue now with the second stanza for the same purpose. It reads: Let pain bring due reward of light and love. Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events, And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Of the teachings of the Master there is one that carries His self proclaimed purpose and this He tells us in this: “And he said unto them , I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also: for therefore am I sent” (Luke 4:43). And preach it so He does as He tells us “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). It is the seeking of the Kingdom that He came to show us. It is in our following of His other command of “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in , and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) that we may find the pain caused by losing sight of our earthly lives; of giving up some of those things that are dear to us or even habitual. It has been our message from the first that we should focus on the Kingdom and on His Presence and in this is found, according to this prayer, a reward of Light and Love. Is not this the whole idea? Also, in line with the ideals put forth in these posts, there is the idea of letting the Soul, the Inner Man, the Christ Within, control the life of the conscious personality, which is our outward appearance to others, and the events of our lives. Focus on the spiritual brings forth the “good treasure of the heart” as it originates in the Soul and the Spirit of man.

The last line here is simply a prayer that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes. It is also to ask that the Love that is exhibited in our own lives and in the lives of those like us can be seen working out in the world today. We should see here in this second stanza, a prayer asking that the results of our following the Master and becoming a true disciple will have the stated effect on our lives and the lives of those around us.

Continuing now with our main theme for this series, we will focus today on Love. In the last post we recalled our definition of Love as it is intended by the Master. In putting forth this definition we combined the definitions of both Love and Charity from Webster’s 1828 dictionary. Neither of these words carry for us these same ideas today as our language and use of these words have changed.  There is also what appears to be a decided avoidance found in using Christian ideas and ideals in a secular dictionary today. It is important for us to understand the meaning of the Greek word agape and its related term agapao in order to get the full meaning of the message of Christ and of the writers of the epistles. We will not go into the definitions ascribed to Love here as these are available in previous posts (In the Words of Jesus parts 25 and 47). Suffice it to say that the modern understanding and usage of this word do not measure up to the intent of the Master’s use of these words. This should be apparent to any who read the words of Jesus in their entirety and His application of the word agape in His themes and sayings. Of course, we must add that the whole of the message on Love is encapsulated in His expression of the Golden Rule: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12). This is the essence of Love and it includes all that is in our adopted definition which we will state here as: In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.

Now Jesus teaches us that if we do this definition of Love in keeping the Golden Rule, that our whole lives and our life’s attitudes will be such that we no longer have any need of the law. The law becomes superfluous having been superseded by Love. If we have and we do these things of Love there will be no murder, stealing, and no covetousness. We will houour our fathers and mothers and we will Love God as our Supreme Lord. And, most importantly, we will be acting out in this physical world, through our physical conscious personalities, the ways of Life in the Kingdom and in His Presence. If we do this definition and maintain the precept of the Golden Rule there will be no doubt to anyone that we are disciples of the Christ. Is this not the overall objective?

The Apostle Paul is, in his writings, shows that he is convinced of the Power of Love and of its supreme importance in the Spiritual life. He tell us this in His letter to the Corinthians, after spending many words teaching them about the gifts of the Spirit. He says to us “covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). He tells us in this statement that what he is to show us next is “a more excellent way” than being under the influence of the greatest of spiritual gifts. Better than the word of wisdom or the word of knowledge; better than supreme faith or the capacity for healing; better than the working of miracles or the capacity for prophecy; better than the discerning of spirits and better that speaking in tongues or the interpretation of tongues. He tells us that there is some thing more excellent than all of this and this more excellent thing is having Love. Over all the spiritual gifts Paul tells us that to have that Love is of supreme importance. From the King James Version (KJV) which is our version of choice, the following is Paul’s teaching. The word Love has been inserted into each verse next to the translators choice which was Charity. Again, both these English words are translated from the same Greek word agape. Through Paul’s words here, the depth of the meaning of Love in the New Testament should be evident to all.

  • 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (Love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
  • 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity (Love), I am nothing.
  • 3. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned , and have not charity (Love), it profiteth me nothing.
  • 4. Charity (Love) suffereth long, and is kind; charity (Love) envieth not; charity (Love) vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
  • 5. Doth not behave itself unseemly , seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked , thinketh no evil;
  • 6. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
  • 7. Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
  • 8. Charity (Love) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.                    (1 Corinthians 13:1-8)

Eight verses that say all that needs to be said about Love and through which we can gauge any definition and action by asking: does it meet these ideals put forth by Paul. Let us break this down a bit; first he says that the best and most spiritual speakers even those angelic in tone are but noise without Love. This is thought by some to refer to speaking in tongues and if so, it works as well saying that this gift is useless without Love. He goes on into the gifts that he had just praised and says that none of them is of any good to the man; he is nothing without Love. Note that he includes here the great faith the the Master told us of in saying “whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed , and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart” (Mark 11:23); even this great faith, without Love is nothing. Continuing, he says that even though one may give all he has to the poor and die a martyr it is all of no use to the man without Love. There is no clarity regarding the idea of giving one’s body to be burned and so we will assume that this is in martyrdom as it was considered a high calling.

Paul then goes into a dialogue regarding the effects of Love in one’s life and we should remember that this Love comes from the Spirit, the Inner Man.  It suffereth long or it is patient without bounds; it is kind as the outward appearance of Love; Love has not envy of any other person wanting the best for all and does not vaunteth itself or seek to make oneself of any more importance than any other especially as being puffed up or showing outwardly any self importance. He goes on to say that this Love does not behave unseemly in any instance and does not seek her own but is unselfish and selfless in all endeavors; it is not easily provoked but is slow to anger or better, as Jesus teaches us, impossible to anger which is the better translation according to Vincent**** and Love thinketh no evil which is Vincent says is better translated as reckoneth not the evil****; this meaning not to react to evils done to one but maintaining Love. In keeping with the KJV, this would mean devising no evil against another as well.

Paul continues saying that Love Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth which is to say that there is no joy in seeing others suffer; fighting off the idea that someone may have deserved what he got. Joy only with and in the Truth which is part of the essence of Love. He also tells us about the steadfastness of Love saying that Love: Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Vincent tells us that that the word translated as beareth should convey the idea that it keeps out resentment as the ship keeps out the water or the roof the rain and he says of endureth that we should see it as an advance on beareth: patient acquiescence, holding its ground when it can no longer believe nor hope****.  This doubles the idea of believe and hope saying that after we believe and hope  all things that we need also to endure. He closes here by saying that Love never fails; we should know that if Love is truly from the Spirit that it is the same as that Love which is God. All else that prevails in the Christian churches will pass away; all thought and all ideas of redemption and of salvation will be gone. Only Love survives.

Can we say that the Love that we express every day to family and to friends, to the man on the street; to the person in the news, both good and bad; to the Muslim and the Jew and the Hindu and the atheist; to the struggling farmer halfway around the world, is the Love that is found in our definition of Love or is the Love found in the writings of Paul outlined above. This is the High Ideal of Christian Life; there is no other. We must draw upon our Inner Man, our Soul, constantly for this Love and in it we will find the Truth of the Kingdom of God and the Truth of our Salvation. LOVE TO ALL !

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.

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Mantram of Unification and is part of the Ancient Wisdom as taught by a Master of the Wisdom who is simply called The Tibetan. We will leave this for one more day to discuss the final stanza in the next post as part of our overall theme of Love is the Fulfilling of the Law. This mantram has been added to the Prayers and Meditations section on the right side of the Home Page so that it will always be available.

  • **** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888

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