Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCLXXXI

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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).

In yesterday’s post we discussed and re-discussed some of the sayings by the Master on Love; some of these do not explicitly use the word Love but by the intended action that they invoke, we should understand our view of Love as being the overriding message. As example we can look to the Parable of the Sheep and Goats as it is called by those that see in this a parabolic message, this message IS for us one of Love which shows how it is that we can Love God by Loving our fellowman; that is by doing them good. And this IS GoodWill and this Is Love in Action as we as aspirants and disciples must see it. This is the end result if we may say it this way of following in the Apostle Paul’s words that we have paraphrased as Love IS: patience, kindness, and a humble attitude that is not overly boastful nor envious nor selfish and is an attitude of trust, and, as we can see these as part and parcel of Love, these are part and parcel of Active GoodWill as well. When we remove the emotional aspect that we generally tie to Love, we can see the Truth of GoodWill as our expression of Love in the world and we can see how GoodWill IS at the same time our interaction with others under the term Right Human Relations which can be seen as simply a modern name for the action of the Golden Rule in the world today. This is apparent to us but invisible to the average person in the world who DOES NOT see our interrelationships in a ‘religious’ or a spiritual way even though most of the words of the Master and His apostles, and the words of the Old Testament as well, have these Right interrelationships as their theme. 

For many the ideas of scripture on how to deal with others seems to be a form of weakness, especially the ideas of the Master from the Sermon on the Mount where He tells us that we MUST: “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:27-31). These attitudes are a necessity for the disciple and required of the aspirant who Truly wishes to be a disciple and these attitudes are encouraged among ALL people; and they are sore difficult to accomplish. For the aspirant who is Truly aware of his own Soul, his Christ Within, he will recognize the value in these words and understand that there IS NO profit in maintaining any worldly attitudes that are contrary to these words and if he is not overly burdened by the worldly understanding of Life he will be able to sense that this Earthly part is temporal and that Life goes on regardless of what may happen as a result of following the Master’s words. These ARE of course most difficult things to foresee one doing in the common working attitudes of men in the world and perhaps this IS the point, that in doing these things we are making that proclamation that we ARE NOT of this world. It is commonly thought that in one’s standing for his religion, holding fast against others that want one to stamp out his beliefs or, even doing as the story of the three Jewish boys in the Old Testament who refuse to look away from their accepted religious duty, that these things ARE a sign of True spirituality and perhaps they ARE but the greater sign is in following the Master admonitions above as He instructs us on how to relate to others.

From Matthew’s Gospel we read similar words and we used part of the Master’s words from Matthew in the last essay as we spoke about how the Master emphasizes Love for ALL. Preceding this however the Master says these things that reflect what we see above and expands our vision to include yet more worldly attitudes that we must learn to forsake; the Master tells us: “Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.  Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew 5:36-42). Can we see the intent here in the Master’s words? in swearing we see the value of Truth, in turning the other cheek we see the spiritual quality of meekness, in giving up more than may be taken from us we show our realization that there IS NO value in these things, and the same idea with doing for others, being compelled under any guise, we should do more. Finally we see that we should give to ALL that ask of us and that we should lend and in lending we have yet more from the Master in Luke’s Gospel where He says: “But love ye your enemies, and do good , and lend , hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35). Can we see that in ALL of these that there IS an expression of Love, the Love that the Master teaches us as Active GoodWill and Right Human Relations.

We must understand that there IS no weakness in doing these things and we must realize as well that these are but examples of how we should Live with our brother, our neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both and that we should expand these ideas into ALL areas of our lives as we see Love in the broadest possible sense rather than the narrowest. The church has great respect for the martyrs of the scriptures and the martyrdom of the Saints as these men and women stood in the face of those who would persecute them for their religion; many a sermon is given regarding Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the Book of Daniel, as they stand strong against Nebuchadnezzar the king who demands that they worship him and not their God and many a sermon is offered about the strength of Stephen from the Book of Acts who is stoned for revealing the Truth of the Jews forsaking of ALL the promises and their crucifixion of Christ and these are good examples of the strength of those who see that this Life in form is meaningless when compared with the Truth of the divine. But there is a greater reality here that can be found in the words of the Master above as these men “resist not evil” and even go so far as to utter forgiveness at the end as we see in Stephen’s story where we read: “And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). Looking at this in our way today, where IS Stephens glory if we can use that word here? Is it in the fact that he stood for His religious beliefs before those who persecuted him or is it because he stood in the admonition of the Master that we should  “resist not evil” and then offers prayer on their behalf as he goes about in the Master’s word till death fulfilling His admonition that we “Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you“? Can we see in Stephen’s action the Truth of meekness?

Meekness is understood by many as a sign of weakness and the reality that this idea of being meek is among the greatest of virtues goes unappreciated by most. The common definitions tell us that:

• In the 1828 version of Webster’s dictionary we read that meek IS: 1. Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries. Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men. Num.12. 2. Appropriately humble, in an evangelical sense; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient or refractory; not peevish and apt to complain of divine dispensations. Christ says, “Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” Matt.11. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5 ¹. This understanding of meek that we get from Webster’s 1828 version is remarkably close to the New Testament understanding and to the meek that IS listed in the Apostle Paul’s fruit of the Spirit as he tells us that: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). And, can we see some of Webster’s ideas of meekness listed as this fruit and can we see them as well in that paraphrase that we use of Paul’s definition of Love: patience, kindness, and a humble attitude that is not overly boastful nor envious nor selfish and is an attitude of trust.
• The 1913 version of Webster’s dictionary is much the same except that there is the added idea of submissive: 1. Mild of temper; not easily provoked or orritated; patient under injuries; not vain, or haughty, or resentful; forbearing; submissive. Not the man Moses was very meek. Num. xii. 3. 2. Evincing mildness of temper, or patience; characterized by mildness or patience; as, a meek answer; a meek face. Her meek prayer.” Chaucer. Syn. — Gentle; mild; soft; yielding; pacific; unassuming; humble. See Gentle ¹. We add here that their definition of submissive which says: Inclined or ready to submit; acknowledging one’s inferiority; yielding; obedient; humble ¹, and, as we can see, this 1913 definition is not attuned to the original 1828 definitions in this respect but we can see here the creeping change of understanding of this most important Christian concept.
• Moving on then to the current understanding we find this definition of meek in our on-line dictionary: 1. humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others. 2. overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame. 3. Obsolete . gentle; kind ⁷. Here we find defining terms for meek that are derogatory and show weakness but, from the Master’s use and the use of His apostles we should KNOW that this assessment IS NOT True. Another modern dictionary version tells us that meek means: 1. patient, long-suffering, or submissive in disposition or nature; humble 2. spineless or spiritless; compliant 3. an obsolete word for gentle ¹⁰. Here we have a combination of the older and the newer understandings but, in modern parlance, the derogatory seems to have precedence.
• The Greek Lexicon gives us some understanding of the doctrinal view of this word meek which is presented by several different Greek words which all take on similar meaning:Remembering that the above from the lexicon are doctrinal understandings of this word we should note that there IS nothing derogatory in the presentation; Strong’s tells us this: gentle, meek, the positive quality of dealing with people in a kind manner, with humility and consideration ³. Here, we come closer to the reality of GoodWill, while the gist of the above has been passive, here there is the more positive action as we would expect in this word as Jesus uses it, calling Himself meek.
  • Praus: mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness; Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice. Thus,meekness toward evil people means knowing God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He is using them to purify His elect, and that He will deliver His elect in His time. (Is. 41:17, Lu. 18:1)  ².
  • Praos: gentle, mild, meek ².
  • And, as meekness we find, Praotes: gentleness, mildness, meekness ².
• From Vine’s we get a rather lengthy definition which is also along doctrinal lines and from which we take these parts: Noun,4240, prautes | praotes> an eariler form, denotes “meekness.” In its use in Scripture, in which it has a fuller, deeper significance than in nonscriptural Greek writings, it consists not in a person’s “outward behaviour only; nor yet in his relations to his fellow-men; as little in his mere natural disposition. Rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul; and the exercises of it are first and chiefly towards God. It is that temper of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting; it is closely linked with the word tapeinophrosune [humility], and follows directly upon it, Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12; cp. the adjectives in the Sept. of Zeph. 3:12, “meek and lowly;” … it is only the humble heart which is also the meek, and which, as such, does not fight against God and more or less struggle and contend with Him. This meekness, however, being first of all a meekness before God, is also such in the face of men, even of evil men, out of a sense that these, with the insults and injuries which they may inflict, are permitted and employed by Him for the chastening and purifying of His elect” (Trench, Syn. xlii). In Gal. 5:23 it is associated with enkrateia, “self-control.”⁶  Continuing on we read: The meaning of prautes “is not readily expressed in English, for the terms meekness, mildness, commonly used, suggest weakness and pusillanimity to a greater or less extent, whereas prautes does nothing of the kind. Nevertheless, it is difficult to find a rendering less open to objection than ‘meekness’; ‘gentleness’ has been suggested, but as prautes describes a condition of mind and heart, and as ‘gentleness’ is appropriate rather to actions, this word is no better than that used in both English Versions. It must be clearly understood, therefore, that the meekness manifested by the Lord and commended to the believer is the fruit of power. The common assumption is that when a man is meek it is because he cannot help himself; but the Lord was ‘meek’ because he had the infinite resources of God at His command. Described negatively, meekness is the opposite to self-assertiveness and self-interest; it is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all ⁶. Now while this IS a doctrinal approach, we can take from Vine’s words some positive ideas as we further develop our understanding of meekness.
• Our last entry here is from Vincent who we should remember is writing for us in the 19th Century when the understanding of the 1828 Webster’s dictionary above yet prevailed and we should note here the doctrinal bent as well. Vincent too is wordy here and we take only the pertinent parts that do not trace the word through Classical Greek; he says: Another word which, though never used in a bad sense, Christianity has lifted to a higher plane, and made the symbol of a higher good. Its primary meaning is mild, gentle. It was applied to inanimate things, as light, wind, sound, sickness. It was used of a horse; gentle…..The Christian word, on the contrary, describes an inward quality, and that as related primarily to God. The equanimity, mildness, kindness, represented by the classical word, are founded in self-control or in natural disposition. The Christian meekness is based on humility, which is not a natural quality but an outgrowth of a renewed nature. To the pagan the word often implied condescension, to the Christian it implies submission. The Christian quality, in its manifestation, reveals all that was best in the heathen virtue – mildness, gentleness, equanimity – but these manifestations toward men are emphasized as outgrowths of a spiritual relation to God…..The meekness of the Christian springs from a sense of the inferiority of the creature to the Creator, and especially of the sinful creature to the holy God. While, therefore, the pagan quality is redolent of self-assertion, the Christian quality carries the flavor of self-abasement. As toward God, therefore, meekness accepts his dealings without murmur or resistance as absolutely good and wise. As toward man, it accepts opposition, insult, and provocation, as God’s permitted ministers of a chastening demanded by the infirmity and corruption of sin; while, under this sense of his own sinfulness, the meek bears patiently “the contradiction of sinners against himself,” forgiving and restoring the erring in a spirit of meekness, considering himself, lest he also be tempted (see Galatians 6:1-5). The ideas of forgiveness and restoration nowhere attach to the classical word. They belong exclusively to Christian meekness, which thus shows itself allied to love. As ascribed by our Lord to himself, see Matthew 11:29 ⁴. 

We have gone far here today on the idea of being meek and we do so in explanation of the strength of the man whose focus IS on God and who strives to keep His words. We especially want to refute what we see as the mindset of much of the world; that to keep His words as we repeat them above is seen by many as a sign of weakness and this seeing reaches across to many who deem themselves religious. For us this meekness is a part of the character of Love itself and it is mentioned by the apostles as a component of the fruit of the Spirit and as the lead-in understanding for that Wisdom from above. At the same time it IS our desire to give this word the right perspective and not the weakness and pusillanimity as Vine’s notes nor the overly submissive or compliant; spiritless; tame definition from our modern dictionary. Meek IS a component of Love for which we have in previous essays given the more modern understandings of positive harmlessness and humble restraint which we see in the very nature of the Master and which thereby must become the nature of the disciple and the aspirant. In the Master’s own words and the repeated words of prophecy we find these verses on being meek:

• “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).
• “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
• “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold , thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21:5)

These ideas will serve as today’s continuation of the words on Love from the Master and His apostles as we began yesterday and while we did not yet finish our discussion on the reality of that Unity of ALL men in regard to the Great Commandment, that we should Love ALL, we will get back to this as a part of our ongoing discussions on Love and in closing we leave this thought from a previous post that we will pick up with again in the next post: In addition to these teachings on Love the Master teaches us meekness and does so in many ways that are apparent when we realize the True meaning of this concept which we have defined as humble restraint which should give us the understanding that one who can have his way and do as he will is in meekness when he has the ability but he does not use it.

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!

• 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
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
• ¹⁰ Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers