ON LOVE; PART DCCLX

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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 12:29-31).

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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.

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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).

In the last post we continued with our discussion of grace from the perspective that our expression of the grace received IS found in keeping His words and therefore this expression IS Love. In the trilogy of Love that we have related to the different realities of grace, we have found that God’s Love for us, which IS depicted in the Master’s sayings from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, IS found in His Presence in the Life of the man in this world. In this we find global grace which IS His Presence in the Life of ALL men. In the Life of the man who IS unaware of his own divine nature, this Presence IS unrealized and IS his own Soul, his own Christ Within, which we should see this from the Apostle John’s words saying that the Christ IS “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:1-9). We should try to see this same idea in the words of the Apostle Paul who tells us that “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7). This treasure IS the grace of God and this IS the Light which IS the Life and the consciousness of men regardless of their realization of it. And it IS this realization that comes in the revelations of Truth that IS the individual sense of grace that moves a man closer to God and which IS based in first his glimpse of Truth and then his following that Truth onward to ever greater revelation and realization of his divine nature. It IS in realization that a man’s divine nature IS revealed and understood as the treasure of which the apostle speaks. And this IS the reality of the Master’s words saying:

• “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).
• “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:23-24).

In these ideas IS the reality of individual grace as the Presence of God in the Life of the man in the world and here we should see that this Presence IS itself the revelation and then the realization of the Truth of God by measure to the man; in these sayings IS also the cost of this grace which we can define as our use of it in Life which IS the reality of keeping His words. While the global grace of God IS Universal and IS present in and for ALL men, this idea can only be understood when grace itself IS seen as ALL that flows from God through the God Within who IS part and parcel of the One Lord. Here then we see that the True man, the Soul or the Christ  and God Within, IS that grace of God and that this IS the source of the individual grace realized by the man whose focus IS upon the things of God. And this individual grace that IS received IS the second part of the trilogy of Love; it this idea of grace we have the expression of Love in keeping His words. It IS in keeping His words that we Love Him and in this we should be able to see the defining idea of this Love and thereby of this grace in the expression of the Soul in the Life of the man in the world. These first two parts of our trilogy are rather clearly stated in Jesus’ words above where we find the quid pro quo of grace realized in this world; it IS when we Love God by keeping His words that His Presence comes into our lives, that His Presence becomes the revelation of the God Within to the consciousness of the man in the world and thereby His realization of this Love as grace, as His Presence. There IS NO real separation of these ideas as they work hand in hand in a simultaneously smooth fashion and we should understand here that this ALL begins with the glimpse of Truth that the consciousness receives as the prompting of his own Soul, to prompting of the global sense of grace which, when it can spark a response from the man, can lead him to Repentance and then ever greater grace in an upward spiral of spiritual growth.

And then we have the third part of this trilogy of Love which IS rather illusive as it IS a part of the second from many points of view and this IS much like the Holy Spirit IS a part of the reality of the Christ Within in the Life of the man in the world. The third part of this trilogy IS the activity of Love in the world of men, this third part IS the activity of the Holy Spirit in the world, the Power of the Christ Within, which IS Love. This IS the reality of the expression of grace and of Love by the man in the world who has such realization of Truth and of the Presence of God in his own consciousness. Perhaps here it would be helpful to separate the second and the third parts of our trilogy and see that although they ARE the same, there IS the extra requirement of DOING in this third part which IS the fulfillment of keeping His words. In the second part we have the KNOWING, the realization of Love and of grace and the understanding that these ARE meaningless if they ARE NOT expressed in the Life of the man; then, in the third part we have the forced retreat of the carnal senses that had heretofore prevailed in one’s Life and the True expression of GoodWill to ALL in the world. We should understand here that the second IS NOT completed without the third and that the first IS NOT realized without the second; in this we have the reality of the Christ Within receiving from the Father and acting through the Holy Spirit in the world of men. We must understand that it IS this final part that IS the necessity of DOING, this is the ultimate reality of keeping His words and the Truth of the Apostle Peter’s words saying:

“According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:3-8).

Can we see our reality here in these words? How that “his divine power” IS His grace and that in the idea that He “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness” we have the reality of the global sense of grace of which we speak above. Can we then see that the realization of these IS found in “the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue“? We should try to see that the grammar here in the King James version IS NOT rendered as it IS presented; that the idea of whereby can eliminated along with the punctuation and read as a single thought that offers us the idea that through this knowledge we are given the revelations and the realizations that ARE these “exceeding great and precious promises“. This IS our individual sense of grace which will allow us to consciously “be partakers of the divine nature” and that the cost of this IS found in our keeping His words which IS stated as that we have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust“. There is little commonality in the rendering of these verses among the different translations and ALL go along doctrinal lines; our view here IS according to our own vision of the apostle’s intent as he IS instructing aspirants and disciples in the Truth of these matters; that they have this grace and that the can realize it by their focus upon His Truths and by foregoing the things of the world. In the continuation of his words, Peter next gives instruction for the expression of things realized in the Life of the man as that he should build upon what he has….to his faith or KNOWING, he should add virtue and to this more knowledge and we should note here that this IS NOT the same word usage as the previous thought as that first use of this idea of knowledge IS in regard to the specific knowledge of Christ and God. And so the man moves on in Life in this world from the aspirant to the disciple as he adds greater divine ideals and in the end he adds the fullness of Love which IS here rendered as Charity but IS from that same idea of agape, the same idea of Love as we find in the Great Commandments above. We should understand that there IS likely NO real order intended here but we should understand that in the reality of Life ALL of these virtuous ideas DO add up to the fullness of Love which the apostle cites last.

In our ideas here we have construed Peter’s words to reflect our own ideas and while we DO NOT KNOW that this was his intent, his words DO follow along with the ideas that we present and which we see as the reality of Love and of grace. The global grace, the global Love of God, IS for ALL men while the individual grace and Love IS his realization of Truth which comes as the Presence of God to the man who keeps His words. It IS in this idea of DOING, of keeping His words, that the reality of our Love for God can be seen. And it IS in keeping His words that we grow as men in the world, it IS in keeping His words which IS our Love for God that brings us greater grace, greater Love from God; it IS in our expression of Love, our expression of GoodWill toward ALL men, that gives us greater revelation and greater realization of our own divine nature and in this we should see the growth of the Kingdom of God Within. From the smallness of the mustard seed to the greatness of the Tree, the Kingdom of God grows within us as the Master shows us in his parable saying: “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it” (Mark 4:31-32). Much IS made of the idea of the seed and the tree in commentary but none that we have see cite the reality of His words regarding the growth of the Kingdom Within. Some see the parable as that it IS about the growth of the church and others see this as that it IS about that external idea of a Kingdom of God; in our view there IS NO talk by the Master regarding the church, nor IS the external Kingdom a viable choice this would have NO need to grow except that more people come to it, but then what of the seed? When we can see the seed as the prompting of the Soul as we suggest above, we can then see that this IS sown in a man’s Repentance and that it grows in his Transformation; in this the man who seeks becomes the aspirant and then the disciple and finally the completed disciple in the world of men. 

And this ALL revolves around Love and the sense of grace that IS this Love for ALL men expressed as GoodWill. This IS the Will to Good that IS revealed from God and which IS reflected in His Presence as the Will to Good that emanates from the God Within and which becomes the expression of Love, the expression of GoodWill by the man in the world. And this IS the reality of the apostle’s words below where we should read this idea as the uniform application of GoodWill toward ALL men. We should understand here that the idea of our Love for God IS found in the simplicity of the Master’s words above: that we keep His words. While John’s words reflect his amplification of the Master’s own words on the Presence of God, the greater teaching IS in regard to our understanding that Love, if it IS NOT applied to ALL, that it CAN NOT be applied to God either: we read his words again:

“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 4:7-21).

When we can see this idea of Love as Universal GoodWill, we can then see that ALL things ARE covered under it as regards the relationship of one man with another. In GoodWill we DO accord ALL men what we would accord our selves and in GoodWill there IS naught in the words of God and of the Master that IS not accomplished. On a world scale the ideas of Love and GoodWill are incorporated into the Values to Live By that we have below and we must remember here that there is NO idea of reciprocity involved in this offering of Love to ALL. There IS only the action of men who Love God and who express that Love in keeping His words which IS the greater reality of Love. As we read again the Values to Live By ideas form the last post, we should try to see the Love that IS incorporated in each idea and understand that each of these IS the action of Love in the world of men.

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.

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 repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!