Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part XXX
Our discussion has been centered on judgment, harmlessness and meekness under the general heading of ON GOD and perhaps there are some who wonder how these are connected. The answer is found in the last line of our last cited verse in the last post which says to us clearly and plainly that in all that we do, that we should strive to do as does Our God. To this end the Master tells us that we should “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Our perspective here has been a carryover of our essays on the Aspect of God enunciated by the Apostle John which tells us that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and it is from this that the notions of judgment, harmlessness and meekness in our interactions with others can reveal this Aspect of God is us, His children. Tying together the idea above, the Perfectness of God, with His Love is done for us by John who says “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:16-17). In this combination we understand that God is perfect and that we have the ability to be perfect as He is; this the Master tells us plainly. We should see also that this relationship between Love and perfection is accomplished by dwelling in that Love that the Master speaks to us of. We see also that even as the Master tells us of our potential to be like the Father, the apostle tells us that we are already like the Son; that is, when our Love is made perfect. To be perfect as the Father is to keep the words of the Master which we should also understand as that they are the words of the Father as well for Jesus tells us that “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). Today we will look at the thought presented by John above as it relates to our interrelationships with our fellow man namely:”God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him“.
The word dwelleth here is generally rendered abide in other translations and it is a rather mystical and misunderstood message using either word. Vincent tells us regarding this Greek word meno that: To abide in God is a more common expression with John than to be in God, and marks an advance in thought. The phrase is a favorite one with John. See John 15:4 sqq.; 6:56; 1 John 2:24, 27, 28; 3:6, 24; 4:12 sq.; 15 sq. Bengel notes the gradation in the three phrases “to know Him, to be in Him, to abide in Him; knowledge, fellowship, constancy.”4 We should be able to get a glimpse here of the reality that is intended; Can we get here the idea of living in; not physically but spiritually. We have our Life in God as the Life is the Spirit and it is this Life that is potentially expressed by the personality consciousness. The personality consciousness is not the Life, it merely expresses it to the world. To “dwelleth in love“ is therefore clearly to Live in Love. This is a high idea that one should Live in Love as it carries the connotation that all that one does is in Love. To live in the world requires the same thought, that all that one does is done in the world and we speak here from a practical sense and not from the spiritual. Let us look here at a couple of other sayings that support our premise; first from the Apostle Paul who says, speaking of the Christ that “He abideth faithful“. (2 Timothy 2:13) and second, from this same Epistle of John we have “And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17) showing us not only the idea of Live in the understanding of abideth, but also giving that idea that keeping His word gives to us that realization of eternal life. Can we identify any other ideas here other than what we have said above……that to dwelleth in Love is to LIVE IN LOVE.
Can we see here that our subject verse is an amplification of the teaching of the Christ’s commandments on Love? Not in form but in substance. The idea put forth by the Christ is clearly that we should Love our neighbor and that we should Love him as we would Love ourselves. By the use of His Golden Rule we can glimpse the reality of how to Love oneself as well as the practical application of this Love to one’s neighbor. As we never do get tired of this theme of Love, let us again look briefly at what the Master says:
- “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 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” (Matthew 22:37-39)
- “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
- 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.
Do we see here the better understanding of “dwelleth in love” or Lives in Love as enunciated by the apostle refers to and amplifies the commandments of the Lord which say that one should “love thy neighbour as thyself“? That the Master is not selective in His understanding of neighbor and that neither is John because to Live in Love is to be in that state all the time. Do we see in the Golden Rule the practical understanding of how to Love oneself through the idea that what we want of others for ourselves in respect and in GoodWill and in benevolence; how we wish to be thought of favorably and how we want to have only good done to us? Do we see in the Golden Rule the practical application of how we should Love our neighbor by extending to ALL the respect and the GoodWill and the benevolence that we want for ourselves; plus how we must think favorably of ALL and endeavor always to to them good?
Do we see in this the better understanding of “dwelleth in love” or Lives in Love? that it is living ones Life according to these ideals set forth by the Christ. Do we see also the greater understanding of the second part of this saying by John which tells us that if we do this, that if we “dwelleth in love“, that then also we will “dwelleth in God, and God in him“? Do we see also the relationship between this and our greater theme that “God is love” which is also used as a declarative statement by the apostle at the beginning of this same verse? We should pay special note to the interchange of words here that tells us that when one Lives in God, God also Lives in Him. This is a great Truth from our perspective of the Soul and the Spirit of man and that in that same way as the Master refers to the Father, so do we when the Christ Within is the expression of our outward lives. The Master tells us in the verse from John’s Gospel above (John 14:10) that the “Father that dwelleth in me” saying that He is the originator of the works and He tells us this also in saying that “….believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” (John 10:38). Do we see the reality of this saying from John that we are discussing in relation to the words of the Master here? Can we see that to “dwelleth in love” is to let the Light of the Soul, the Christ Within, flow through one’s conscious Life making then the power and the Love of the Christ Within the expression of the Self and that in this the Self is no longer of the world nor interested in it? Can we see also that to Live as the expression of the Christ Within that one’s relationship with the Father becomes that same as what the Master tells us of above? That through one’s expression of the Christ Within, we come to be able to say with the Master “that the Father is in me, and I in him” and this because the Father is in the Son and when the Son is one’s expression through form, when the Son becomes the Self, then the Father is there with the man as well as his source of ALL power for the use of the Son.
Do we see also the tie in here to those verses in the synoptic gospels that show us in the Master’s words the reality of treating ALL in a Spirit of Love which, as we can see in the above is the same as to “dwelleth in love“. In this parabolic saying below is the reality of Life in form. Where is our focus has always been one of the points that we have carried through here in these posts and in today’s we get a fresh look at the idea the if we focus on Love we are in the right place and that if we focus that Love on ALL, we are at the same time focusing on the Master, Our God and the Christ Within. We close with this saying by the Master from the Gospel of Matthew:
“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me” (Matthew 25:34-45).
Do we see in this the intentional repetition of the point on both the negative side and the positive side and can we see the tie that exists between this and His sayings above on Love and the neighbor, the ANYMAN? We will continue with these thoughts in the next post.
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.
A simple message here today regarding our saying and the idea of Light. ALL that do wrong do so in the darkest places that they can find as not to have the light of day shining upon their deeds. This is the saying of John here telling us that “every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” and this is the reality of Life where, except for the most hardened or deranged of men, we eschew the idea of anyone seeing us in doing what we believe is wrong. There is a deeper message here as well and that is that in doing wrong, and by this we mean only those things that each of us considers as wrong, we shut out the Light of the Soul. As we progress in our spiritual lives we are aware of a different relationship between wrong and right and at some point we will come to see that ALL that is not considered as righteousness is, for us, wrong. This is a natural progression but at all points along this moving range of values there is the reality and the fact that we are not focused upon the Soul, the Christ Within nor on God in any way when we are doing a thing that we consider as wrong. This is also an affirmation of the Master’s telling us that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13, Matthew 6:24) which is, as we have discussed before, as positive statement by the Master telling us of this impossibility. Ponder on this.
We will continue with this in the next post.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest , that they are wrought in God (John 3:15-21).
Today’s Quote of the Day contains several points that we have covered in our essays and contains some of the more difficult sayings of the Master as regards our perspective on spiritual Life. John 3:16 is much spoken of in the Christian Church and upon it much of church doctrines are established and built. Over the next several days we will continue to post this as our Quote and we will take in parts daily as to try to ascertain the Truth of the Master’s teaching. We should remember that this is spoken to Nicodemus as part of the Masters dissertation on being born again.
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
