Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part XCIX
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. 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. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment . He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:1-21).
There is a saying posted on our front page which likely gets little attention and yet is one of the ideas than can help to bring the world out of the morass of separate ideas of God and religion, of race, culture and history, of philosophy and of politics. This was the intent insofar as goes the Christian Church, all churches and congregations for that matter, of the ideas that began our last post; that the era of separatism must give way to the New Age ideas of inclusiveness. Mankind must realize that this progress cannot be stopped and that one can either go with it or go against it and, since this ideal is here to stay, to choose against it is a rather foolish perspective to take; an attitude which is likely based upon the age old habits and beliefs that contribute so greatly to the illusion and the glamour that deceive a man into believing that the way of separateness is right. Essentially the idea of separateness is an idea that is founded in self and selfishness and man’s refusal to give up anything that may be conceived of as his or his culture’s or his religion, or his race…..etc., even to the extent of the fantasies in thought and desire. Ponder on this. The saying from the front page is from one of the older religious texts which is said to be the recorded word of God speaking to the man in form who is caught in his own sense of duality and seeking release:
UNITY IN DIVERSITY
Anyone who sees that all activities certainly in all respects are the result of material conditioning and that one as the soul is not the doer, sees perfectly. When one following that tries to see that the diversity of the living beings is resting in oneness and that it expanded to that reality, at that time one attains the Absolute of the Spirit.
Bhagavad Gîtâ 13:30-31
What do we see in this most ancient text which is a saying of Krishna, an incarnation of an Aspect of God as was the Buddha and the Christ, who lived among men around 3000 BC. Like in Christianity and in Buddhism, one must exercise care to discern the reality from the myth and the doctrines when reading the respective scriptures’ various translations and interpretations. Our translation above correctly, according to our view, calls the Soul the Soul while other translations of this same text call this the self and in this we should note that in some other translations of this saying by Lord Krishna that the idea of Self if not the same as it is reflected in the translations and interpretations that we have been looking at in Buddhism. Speaking here the Self would be the our correspondence to the Soul while in our Buddhist text it was our correspondence to the personality. This translation and interpretaion issue is likely a problem with most all sacred texts much like the uses of Soul and Spirit and like words in the Christian bible. This however is not our point except that we should be aware of translational differences. Our point here is to understand the meaning of the idea of Unity in Diversity and to recognize this as a tool par excellence of bringing together diverse groups of men based upon their essential unity.
Our saying from the Gita above is clear in saying that it is NOT the Soul that is acting in this world and that when a man can see and understand this he sees perfectly. Our Christian texts tend to speak to all aspects of man in the same breath, telling him how he should shun the lower and carnal forces and react to and respond to only those things that the man can KNOW are in keeping the Master’s words and following Him. This saying in the Gita takes its spiritual understanding from a very different perspective and tells the man that there are two forces and tells him also the difference between the two and this is a very helpful understanding that can only enhance the Christian’s experience and make easier his way to the Path. It is unfortunate that the precepts of this teaching in the Bhagavad Gita as well as the words of the Buddha as well are shunned by Christians and, in the case of our saying above, they are shunning some of the very words that would help them to better understand the Nature of God through understanding the nature of man. We should add here that no matter what men may think or believe, if their belief or thought does not include a God who is Universal in scope and a Christ whose Love is shed abroad to ALL, then the belief is founded only in illusion and glamour and not in reality;
We are to understand then that it is not the Soul that is acting in the world but it is the personality that is working through the consciousness but we should understand too that this effect is only valid until the man in form can express the Life of the Soul and so we must assume that Krishna is speaking about those who have not attained discipleship, He is speaking generally of man in form. The Lord Krishna goes on to to say that behind all of this activity in form by the race of men there is the reality of the Soul and we should see here that this is a hard division in that He gives no allowance for degree of attainment as we do in our posts; that is that He takes the position of the Master that a man is serving God or he is serving mammon. We are more gracious while realizing that there is the reality of a man being only in one place or the other, we give credit to the journey and we should understand that the Master does as well although it does not really effect the reality of being either in the Kingdom or in the world….to Truly be a disciple of the Master one must keep ALL of His words and ALL the time and our only deviation would be such as Peter’s.
Krishna goes on to say that in this realization that it is not the Soul that acts in the world, that we should also have the realization that the very diversity of man, the morass of separate ideas of God and religion, of race, culture and history, of philosophy and of politics that men exhibit as well as the goodness and the evil intentions that may be found are resolved into the True man. All these activities that go on around us are not the activities of the Soul which is EVER IN ONENESS and above the activities. Hence the reality of the saying above of Unity in Diversity which we can now understand as the Unity of the True man that is found in the diversity of the man in form. That regardless of whatever differences that we may see around us in the world we should see as well our Unity as Spirit and as Soul. The Lord Krishna tells us that when we can do this that we have attained the Kingdom or, in His words one attains the Absolute of the Spirit and we KNOW that this is ever our only objective.
This was a long way to go to say again in another way that the schisms and the separateness within Christianity and in the Christian relationship with others is the work of the man in form, the lower self and not of the Soul, the Christ Within, and this is regardless of what a man has to say about his ideas of his own spirituality or that of others. No man can be Truly spiritual if he does not see these ideas as True; that despite the differences that we express and individuals and as groups in the world, we are essentially ONE in Spirit and in Soul, Sons of the SAME FATHER. It is interesting to note that in our saying by Paul from the Book of Acts where he is speaking to the Greeks as we posted yesterday, he says at the end that “for we are also his offspring” after telling us that “For in him we live, and move, and have our being“, that these are not nearly understood as they were intended. Many align these sayings with Paul’s thought to the Greeks that some of their own poets have said similar as if to say that Paul was more repeating what he had read that delivering to us divine Truth. We do ALL “live, and move, and have our being” in Him and we are ALL “also his offspring” and it is in this realization that a man will make much progress.
Due to the constraints of the day we will end this here and pick up with our chapter above 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.
We leave our Quote of the Day from the last post for today again.
In today’s Quote of the Day is the resolution for all of our fears. That everything that we read and write in these posts exhibits the nature of the sayings below is our goal and or mission.
KEEP HIS WORD
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy stren-gth: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these”. (Mark 12:30-31)
WHAT THEN IS LOVE?
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.
PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12)
There is nothing more important in the True Christian Life than our sense of Love as it relates to these sayings of the Master. The Truth of our closeness to the Master and His Kingdom is found in the degree to which we live a life as He instructs us in relation to our fellowman. This is the essence of all of His words and His teachings and in doing these things all other things will come to us as well.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
