IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 400

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLXXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:1-13).

Today marks the 400 th daily essay on our topic titled In the Words of Jesus and this is yet another milestone, the last of which was the 1 year anniversary of daily post a few weeks back. These milestones are personal ones as nearly every day I wonder what to write on and sometimes agonize over how much to write. I struggle to be informative and not judgmental but at the same time to point out the problems and the issues that I perceive have hurt us as men in form over the centuries since the Advent of the Christ. Few of our positions fall neatly in line with the doctrines of the churches although this is in itself not surprising as there are so many different doctrines across the multiplicity of denominations that exist today. This has ever been one of our themes; One Christ and thousands of different, and at times conflicting, ways of seeing and teaching Him with most ALL of them claiming the right way for themselves and this contrary to the precepts of the Master and of His apostles who give us the rules for right living which most ALL tend to ignore. We have taken many positions over these 400 posts and have claimed as the most important that same one that the Master has claimed as most important and this is LOVE. It is in the interaction of man to man that the Truth of our spiritual achievement is seen and to understand this we need not go any further than those words that have been our Quote of the Day now for several days. Here the Apostle Paul sets straight for us the reality of the importance of Love which we KNOW is not that emotional feeling of one man for another or for a thing of pleasure. We post this here with the original translation from the King James Version (KJV) where the Greek word agape is translated as Charity and in parentheses the New King James translation of Love which is rather universally used in most all others.

But earnestly desire the best gifts.

And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not charity (love),

I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

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,

but have not charity (love), I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and though I give my body to be burned,

but have not charity (love), it profits me nothing.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity (love).

In these words we should be able to find our own perspective on Love (Charity) as we perceive it in our own lives; in Paul’s words it is more important than anything spiritual or religious; better than the best gifts of the Spirit, and better than ALL worldly acts of kindness or giving; better yet than that highest pinnacle of spiritual achievement of having “all faith, so that I could remove mountains“. The most important thing in Paul’s teaching here is Love (Charity) in or daily expression of one man to another and to this particular understanding of Love (Charity) we assign the more universal an modern term of GOODWILL. This idea of GOODWILL has been a hallmark of our essays from the beginning and it plays a prominent part on our home page as well and, of late, it has become another added sub title for our essays in our adopted saying that GoodWill IS Love in Action. And this is the reality of Love, that it is found in our actions of one to another in this world of illusion and glamour; that we can see beyond the fogs and the mists of selfishness and pride and see our brother as the Master tells us that we should and in this we should ever and always keep His word which is ever so clear: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

Early on in our posts we took to adopting the Webster’s definition of the word Charity from the 1828 version of Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary and in doing so we got a glimpse of the way that our usage of words changes the very definition of them. In this context we saw that the King James translators in the Seventeenth Century had a similar understanding of the words Love and Charity to what we find in the 1828 dictionary; this is no longer the case but this revelation gave us the impetus to adopt these words as our understanding of Love as intended from the Greek word agape (agapao), which is so much more than the common understanding of Love in the world and in the teachings of the church. We say then that Love is:

In a general sense, love, 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 men¹.

In addition to these words the 1828 version does give us the current understanding of charity as being charitable as well saying that: In a more particular sense, love, kindness, affection, tenderness, springing from natural relations; as the charities of father, son and brother. Liberality to the poor, consisting in almsgiving or benefactions, or in gratuitous services to relieve them in distress.  Alms; whatever is bestowed gratuitously on the poor for their relief. Liberality in gifts and services to promote public objects of utility, as to found and support bible societies, missionary societies, and others. Candor; liberality in judging of men and their actions; a disposition which inclines men to think and judge favorably, and to put the best construction on words and actions which the case will admit. The highest exercise of charity, is charity towards the uncharitable. Any act of kindness, or benevolence; as the charities of life. A charitable institution. Charity-school, is a school maintained by voluntary contributions for educating poor children¹.

By contrast the word Charity in modern language has taken itself away from our adopted definition of Love and has become: 1. generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless: to devote one’s life to charity. 2. something given to a person or persons in need; alms: She asked for work, not charity. 3. a charitable act or work. 4. a charitable fund, foundation, or institution: He left his estate to a charity. 5. benevolent feeling, especially toward those in need or in disfavor: She looked so poor that we fed her out of charity. 6. leniency in judging others; forbearance: She was inclined to view our selfish behavior with charity. 7. Christian love; agape⁷. Can we see here how the primary thought on Charity from 1828 has become almost an afterthought in 2011 and how the idea of agape has become ‘Christian Love’?

There are many ways to look at the idea of agape from a human perspective, that is the perspective of the man in form and especially the man who has not had that realization of the reality of the Christ Within as this overcomes the more carnal thoughts. There are many in the church and I dare say highly esteemed in the church who retain the prejudices that the reality of agape would easily overcome if that man were acting as the Soul and not as the man; that is as the Higher Consciousness from above and not from the self-centered personality. We mean no disrespect here as this is the nature of man who has not realized this Light from above for in that Light that the Master implores us to shine there is no prejudice and no hatred and there is no self centeredness. And at the same time we do not mean to imply that we have this Light as this is a thing for others to see albeit a man will have some real understanding of his own progress toward God. This sense of progress in seen in the pangs of conscience which serve to correct those who can feel them and KNOW that a thing is wrong and in this idea one can see his own place by his ability and desire to correct what is perceived as wrong. This is also the reality of repentance as the Master teaches it.

Our understanding of agape has evolved somewhat over the course of our writings but has never changed and we have developed better ways to elucidate our understanding of this word which is understood differently by the context in which it is used. Generally it means Love and, as we have said so often, Love as we have it defined above which is from the 1828 dictionary entry on Charity. The last time that we discussed this idea of agape (agapao), In the Words of Jesus part 395, we noted how the word is used in many ways and gave example of the Master’s use of both agapao and phileo in reference to the Father’s Love which is generally accepted in doctrine to be agape (agapao). Today we should note that this word agape (agapao) is used as well for Love of the things of the world as we see in these examples:

• “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).
• “For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43).
• “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia” (2 Timothy 4:10).

In each of these is seen uses of the word agape (agapao) which are contrary to the way this is depicted in doctrine as ‘Christian Love’ and our only point here is that we are spending too much time of this segregation of words and not enough on the Truth of the meaning as intended by the Master and by His apostles. Getting back to the idea of agape in its meaning as ‘Christian Love’, we need to explore here just what does this mean. A noted Christian writer from our more modern times gives us this interesting perspective with some comments on his understanding; Anglican theologian O. C. Quick cautions however that this agape within human experience is “a very partial and rudimentary realization,” and that “in its pure form it is essentially divine.” Quick suggests that, “If we could imagine the love of one who loves men purely for their own sake, and not because of any need or desire of his own, purely desires their good, and yet loves them wholly, not for what at this moment they are, but for what he knows he can make of them because he made them, then we should have in our minds some true image of the love of the Father and Creator of mankind.”*  

This idea as presented by Mr. Quick is in regard to the Love OF God and does not take into account the Love FOR God and for our fellow man. From our perspective this idea of agape IS essentially divine although for our ongoing use we should drop the reference to agape and refer to this ALL only as Love as we define above and as we KNOW is meant in the Master’s repetition of the Greatest Commandments: “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 strength: 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). In reading these words there should be no doubt as to what the Master means and this should be the heart of ‘Christian Love’. However, all too often ‘Christian Love’ is not taught nor appreciated for what it is in reality and this is evidenced by reading the news or reviewing history. We have often referred to the history of our race as a testimony that this idea of Love is not nearly understood and we can see this reality here in the history of America in the conquest of lands, in slavery and in the extreme prejudices that have been held against others who are different. In these realities much has been begun or has been perpetuated by those who claim themselves Christian and even claim for themselves roles as Christian leaders and this is compounded by the lack of revolt against these things by the church as a whole. A look around the country and the world today will show that this has not been eliminated in the thoughts of Christians and Christian leaders who take stands against their brothers because of some difference in culture or religion or national background; the reasons may be different and many may believe that there is good reason for these new prejudices but the reality is that ALL are contrary to the words of the Master. And here we find the evidence of our statement above regarding one who is living as a Soul in form, as a True aspirant or a True disciple; in these men through whom the Light of the Christ Within shines forth, there will be no prejudice, no hatred and no sense of being superior to any other man. This is the reality of Love and it is found hidden within a single modern word….RESPECT.

So much of the commentary and interpretations of the New Testament carry forth the Truth as regards this Love as taught by the Master but so much of it all has become mere platitude. And this is our platform and this has been and will be our platform as we go forward; to bring about that change in the understanding of man as regards the reality of this agape, this Love, of which the Master teaches and to foster Love in the Hearts of men or, as we have framed this in the past from the Tibetan’s writings, to foster Love among the sons of men. We who would be aspirants to discipleship do this daily in our actions and in our interactions with others and we do this understanding the difficulty that abounds as we strive toward the Kingdom of God, the difficulty of overcoming what it is that the personality, the flesh, thinks is right in any situation and replacing that action with the action that streams forth from the Christ Within.

The comments from Mr. Quick above bring out the idea of divinity; he says that agape “in its pure form it is essentially divine.” and we can take this idea further based upon our realization of God and of Life. So long as the reality of man is seen as this body that has a Spirit and that has or is the Soul according to the various doctrines, there is little real foundation for this Universal Love that we here teach and preach. This is because in aligning ourselves with the carnal self we find ourselves continually at odds with other carnal selves and this is due of course to that what Paul’s tells us; that the creature, the conscious man in form, is “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) which is the ways of the world and in these ways we find those things that are contrary to the ways of the Christ. From the words of the Master in the Parable of the Sower, a parable that should ever be our guide as to where we are in our spiritual Life at any given time, He tells us that these are the things that take our focus away from the His word and the ways of God; these are taken from the three different renditions of this parable in the synoptic gospels. The Master says: the deceitfulness of riches, the cares of this world, the lusts of other things, and the pleasures of this life are those things that keep us from God these are those things that make the man unfruitful.** These ideas are expanded by the Apostle James as he speaks to us about what he calls: “this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish“; and which he tells us are “bitter envying and strife in your hearts” and these word are not only what they appear to be as we set forth in In the Words of Jesus part 323. James continues then to tell us how one ought to act saying: “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” (James 3:14-17).

Paul also amplifies the Master’s words in his saying that: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:19-23). Now in these words from James and Paul and those from the Master above we should be able to understand the ways of the flesh according to scripture and from Paul and James we see their opposites in the ways of the spiritual man; the Master also gives us a list of the qualities of the who keep His words in this same parable saying these things across the different renditions: they which are honest, they which are of a good heart, they which having heard the word, keep it, they which hear the word, and receive it, they which heareth the word, and understandeth it, and finally they which bring forth fruit with patience; some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.**

The objective here is to contrast again the ways of the man who is focused upon the flesh against the ways of the man who is focused upon the Christ Within and we should realize here that these realities are a matter of degree, that not all men are all of these things on either side. In this Light, can we see that when the man believes that his brothers and his neighbour are carnal men, that he will think that they are prone to some or all of these ills as are they themselves and can we understand here some idea of the foundation for the prejudices, hatreds and distrust among men?

Can we see also that if we regard the man in form, our brother and neighbor, as the expression in time and space of a Soul, a divine being, who is just like us and who is trying as we were and are to free himself from the ways of the world, that we can likely attribute to him all of the positive ideas as regards the man focused upon the Soul?

There is another reality here and that is in seeing ALL men as the same, as Souls on the Path to liberation from Life in form, and in this sameness seeing that ALL men are the same as himself. In this Higher Understanding we can be free from ALL of these negative ideas that find their place only in this Life in form and begin to realize that “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

We close today’s essay with our final thought which is that ALL of the virtuous ideas that we have above from the Master, from James and from Paul can be summed up in those words of the Master on Love for one’s neighbour and the essence of the Golden Rule. Love is the way par excellence to progress on the Path to God and His Kingdom.

Note on the Quote of the Day

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
• * Wikipedia contributors. “Agape.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 16 Jun. 2012.
• ** from Matthew 13:22-23, Mark 4:18-20 and Luke 8:14-15