Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCLXXIV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:

“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).

We ask ourselves 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.

We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).

Continuing again with the words of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians about Love, words that are intended to define our own understanding of this Love and its importance in the Life of man as it IS necessary to the spiritual Life and required in the carnal Life if mankind is to ever find that “peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). We have often said that it IS this Love as taught by the Master that has the Power to cure ALL things in this world and, of course, this is a euphemistic way of looking at the discipleship of the whole world; our point however is that the fulfillment of our goals as aspirants and disciples begins and ends with Love and most ALL spiritual movement by the masses depends upon their recognition of this same Love that has been a misunderstood part of Christianity and most ALL religions for thousands of years. Over the last few posts we have taken apart the apostle’s words below regarding the importance of this Love and some his ideas of what it IS and what IT is intended to do in the Life of the man in the world and most especially the man who would be close to God. The first hurdle in humanity’s understanding of this importance is found in the perspective that one takes in defining Love overall and for this purpose we have established our saying that we so frequently post: 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. As we have said, this saying IS a paraphrase of the definition of Charity found in Webster’s 1828 Dictionary and we should remember that the word Love as seen in Paul’s words below is rendered from the same Greek word that the original King James Version renders as Charity; agape (agapao). Today, both these words, Charity and Love, are understood in ways that are contrary to the ways that the Master intended and the adoption by doctrine of the more narrow views of Love are in themselves responsible for much of the lack of understanding yet today. The doctrinal understanding of these words from Paul, the apostle and writer so closely followed by much of the Christian Church, IS indicative of the problem as the idea of Love is clearly stated and is never narrowed in its scope which is evident to us as aspirants and disciples but still lost in the doctrines and the teachings of the church. Reading this again:

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 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 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 love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease;

whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;

but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 

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

but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13

In these words we MUST see the reality of Love as the most important aspect of one’s spiritual journey and this Paul tells us clearly as he says that he IS NOTHING without Love and that NONE of the supposed ‘gifts of the Spirit’ are of any use without Love. We MUST KNOW by the very words that the apostle is not speaking about that carnal understanding of Love, that selective Love that we bestow on others close to us as well as to things that offer pleasure. We MUST KNOW that the depth of the apostles words are tied to his other sayings and especially this saying that reflects the Master’s teaching and amplifies it saying: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14). Many in the various parts of the Christian Church make claims to speaking in tongues and having the gift of prophecy but at the same time forget the apostles words on Love; many hold to their various ideas and interpretations of the mysteries and the knowledge of God believing that they have the Truth but forget the apostles words on Love; and many offer of their substance in tithes and offerings seeking a return on their investment and forgeting the apostles words on Love. And we should understand that ‘hidden’ in these first few verses above, ‘hidden’ in the reality that Love IS the “more excellent way” is the same intent that the Apostle John offers more bluntly and with great clarity as he says: “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 4:20-21). It is interesting to note here that much of the Master’s teachings on Love are seen by much of the church only in the way that is offered by John as that a man should “love his brother” or that we should “love one another” (John 13:34); here, brother is often seen as fellow Christian and one another as referring to one’s fellow disciples and based upon the Master’s words we should KNOW that this IS NOT True. On the whole, these ideas of Love should be expanded to the broadest possible view and not restricted as we often find in the church and in doctrine. It is in the idea of the neighbor, as this is framed in the beginning by Jehovah and as it is repeated as the Great Commandment by the Master, that we should see Love and we should see the neighbor as everyman and anyman and the the Master DOES clarify this for us in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. It IS this same idea of neighbor that is given to us in relation to Love by Paul and by the Apostle James who tells us that this Love of one’s neighbor IS the Royal Law, echoing Paul’s saying above. Why John speaks in terms of brother and one another is unclear; perhaps his thinking was that there is such emphasis on this Love for ALL by the Master that it did not require repeating or, perhaps this is yet another way of hiding Truths that must be discovered by each individually. Regardless of the reason, we do have these varied words and the chosen interpretations of them but, when we look from the perspective of Truth and of the intent of the Master, there is really NO WAY for the reasonable person to dispute the contention that the reference to Love is to ALL which would necessarily include those same whom God Loves as the Master tells us:

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:4-48).

Can He have been any clearer? we don’t KNOW as this is crystal clear to the man who chooses to look away from the self in the world and look to the reality of the Golden Rule and with so much evidence of the intent of the Master and the intent of His apostles, it is rather bewildering how the attitude of the masses is not changed nor are there teachings by the churches that try to change this. And yes IT IS DIFFICULT to do as the Master says here but, in the Love that we have in our words above from Paul, it is possible and in the end ALL will come to realize that IT IS NECESSARY. Now this IS NOT to say that the church does not teach Love as most likely do; this IS to say however that they DO NOT teach Love with the same intent and emphasis as the Master and His apostles, nor do they teach it with the same defining ideas nor blunt expression as we find above from John who also tells us that:

“We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no  murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso  hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:14-18).

There IS NO shortage of Love in the words of the Master and His apostles but there IS a shortage of understanding the importance of this Love even when we see words like we have above and here IS that convenient dilution of the apostles intent that we spoken of before making them to mean less that the True idea of Love thy neighbor.  John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible tells us this regarding the idea of brethren in these verses: because we love the brethren: this is not the cause of passing from death to life, but the effect of it, and so an evidence of it, or that by which it is known; brotherly love being what the saints are taught of God in regeneration, and is a fruit of the Spirit of God, and is what true faith works by, and is what shows itself as soon as anything in a regenerate man; nor can anyone love the saints, as such, as brethren in Christ, unless he is born again; a man may indeed love a saint, as a natural relative, as a good neighbour, and because he has done him some good offices, and because of some excellent qualities in him, as a man of learning, sense, candour, civility though he has not the grace of God; but to love him as a child of God, a member of Christ, and because he has his image stamped on him, no man can do this, unless he  so that this is a certain evidence of it ⁸. Here Mr. Gill has broken apart the idea of Love so that the Truth of Love should not be taught as it CAN NOT be understood by any who has not received the grace of God which IS a purely doctrinal approach that says that only those that the church perceives as Godly can Love as John and the rest tell us, and, of course, we can likely imagine just how doctrine teaches this grace is achieved. From our perspective it IS these in the church that limit and narrow the Love the the Master teaches and that they miss as well the Truth that the Master gives us saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” and again “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:15, 23) which ARE clear citing the reality of that Love that Mr. Gill speaks of as being accomplished by keeping His words and as we have been discussing, His most important words, and His Greatest Commandment tell us “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:29).

And while Mr. Gill and much of the doctrines may tell us that it is only to the Christian that  has received the grace of God that this ability to Love comes, we say that it IS only to the one who Loves as the Master instructs that can receive this grace. In these ideas we have the greatest of difficulties as regards religion, that the teachings are contrary to the teachings of the Master but are justified by doctrine and in this we have our motivation to change this dynamic. As we have been saying, ALL True spiritual pursuit starts and ends with Love. God IS Love and this sense of Love CAN NOT be separated from divinity and from the flow of divinity that can and will be the eventual expression of humanity. This Love IS that universal, non-selective, Active GoodWill with which we relate to our fellow man; this Love IS Right Human Relations expressed as this GoodWill to ALL men regardless of their place in the world or in society. This IS the Love that the Master teaches and this IS the Love that Paul speaks of above as he first tells us of the importance against the supposed ‘gifts of the spirit’ and then defines it for us so that we should understand that the True Love has NO self interest and that it cares for none of the human failings that the apostle suggests. This Love IS patient, this Love IS kind, this Love allows for others betterment, this Love sees itself as equal and IS unassuming, even modest, this Love acts appropriately and cares not for the self in the world, this Love finds Peace always and thinks ONLY on the Good, the Beautiful and the True, this Love rejoices and takes comfort ONLY in the Truth, and this Love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” as we expressed this in the last posts saying:

This Love bears its existence in the world of form subjected to the vanity, to the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world as he tries to wrest control of the Life from the personality that he created. We should try to see as well that in the believing and the hoping is that expectation of God as it works out in the KNOWING by the Soul that he WILL BE delivered from this existence in this world through his eventual expression through form and we should try to see in the enduring, the patient waiting for the consciousness in form to awaken to the Truth of the Soul, the Truth of Love. Now into each of these points which we see the Life of the Soul in form moving through we can add the idea of ALL things and say that the Love that we ARE, the Truth of Love, bears ALL things in its existence in this world of glamour and illusion; it believes ALL things and hopes ALL things which are the KNOWING and the expectation of deliverance through the eventual expression of divinity in form, and this Love endures ALL things in his patient waiting for the awakening, the Transforming of the Life in the world.

Now our thoughts above are from the view of the aspirant and we see this part of Paul’s writing as directed toward our understanding and away from the more worldly approach in the words that precede these and which we state in our verbiage above, in our string of ‘this is Love’ statements. The first challenge that these and the other words of the Master and His apostles creates IS in the right understanding of the meaning and the importance of Love and, in our words at the top of this essay plus the words of Paul and our understanding of them, we have the tools to equal the challenge. The second challenge IS the expression of this Love, as it is shown and defined, in our relationships with ALL men which is unlike the common understanding of that selective emotional Love of the world; this expression must per force come to the point of the Master’s words above from His Sermon on the Mount but it need not start there….it does however need to start. There are likely many challenges but these will suffice for today except we add this here for those who ARE bound by the doctrines that they have learned, doctrines that may be contrary to what we are here saying and this challenge is to look at these words on Love in the broadest possible way for as He IS God of ALL so His Love and ours IS for ALL.

We will leave again our Quote of the Day on Values to Live By which we posted for our contemplation during the days of the Festival of the Christ, World GoodWill Day, and we should try to note how these values are much the same as the apostles words above.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

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 should ever understand that the purpose of our aspiration and of our discipleship is to bring into the world our expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul both as an example of the righteous Life and as a ready aid to our brothers, our neighbors and the stranger who qualifies as both. Our intent should be to serve and in our service to instill in others that same sense that we have; from a spiritual perspective to the spiritual man, and from a worldly perspective to the man who is yet grounded in the world. The Apostle Paul puts it this way for us from his own Life and personal experience:

“for if I may proclaim good news, it is no glorying for me, for necessity is laid upon me, and wo is to me if I may not proclaim good news; for if willing I do this, I have a reward; and if unwillingly — with a stewardship I have been entrusted! What, then, is my reward? — that proclaiming good news, without charge I shall make the good news of the Christ, not to abuse my authority in the good news; for being free from all men, to all men I made myself servant, that the more I might gain; and I became to the Jews as a Jew, that Jews I might gain; to those under law as under law, that those under law I might gain; to those without law, as without law — (not being without law to God, but within law to Christ) — that I might gain those without law; I became to the infirm as infirm, that the infirm I might gain; to all men I have become all things, that by all means I may save some. And this I do because of the good news, that a fellow-partaker of it I may become;  have ye not known that those running in a race — all indeed run, but one doth receive the prize? so run ye, that ye may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:16-24).

With this in mind we redo a past Quote of the Day and one that we have been using from very early on in this blog. The sentiment here is the fulfillment of our duty as aspirants and disciples and our duty it to instill these ideas in the hearts and minds of others.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com