ON LOVE; PART DCCLXXIII
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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 essay we took our discussion on the Love of God, His grace, through the ideas of Repentance and Transformation and onto the ideas of the reality of our overcoming the illusion and the glamour, the vanity, that IS in the world. We cited several of the ideas of the apostles which, in conjunction with the words of the Master, should clearly show the dichotomy which exists between our focus on the things of the world and our focus on the things of God; a dichotomy which should be defined as: division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups 7. This IS the reality that must eventually be faced by the man who Truly seeks God. This reality if found throughout the New Testament but IS set aside by the doctrines of men who CAN NOT see the Truth of Life, the reality of “treasures in heaven” versus “treasures upon earth“, and the ultimate Truth of that choice between “God and mammon” (Matthew 6:20, 19, 24). It IS when we can see that these “treasures in heaven” ARE the revelation and the realization of His Presence in one’s Life, that these ARE His grace and His Love, that we can begin to understand His intent and the intent of His apostles who tell us similar things in yet clearer words. In the Apostle James’ words saying that “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God“(James 4:4) there IS much force but the apostles words are parsed according to the doctrines of men whose interests are in Life in this world and who, while seeing the meaning of the words according to their own vision, fail to see the intent of the writer. When we can see this idea of friend as this IS rendered from the Greek word philos as: he who associates familiarly with one 2 as the lexicon shows us, perhaps we can get the True gist of James’ intent which we see as that if when one associates familiarly with the world, that this man IS in opposition to God. And here we should be able to see the deeper meanings to the Master’s words saying: “Take no thought for your life” (Luke 12:22, Matthew 6:25).
This idea of opposition however IS pushed off by doctrines that fail to see oneself in this role of having the “friendship of the world” and who perhaps find their cover in their own sense of these same doctrines. John Gill, in His Exposition of the Bible, shows us this idea of friendship as: an immoderate love for the good things of the world, and a prevailing desire after the evil things of it, and a delight in the company and conversation of the men of the world, and a conformity to, and compliance with, the sinful manners and customs of the world 8. In these ideas we have the carnal view of sin and evil and this, along with the lack of doctrinal understanding of Love itself, contribute to the way that these things of the world ARE represented and even promoted in some sections of the church. And this IS the point of the Apostle Paul’s thoughts that we have been carrying for several posts as well as those which we included in our list of sayings on the dichotomy of God and mammon in the last essay. Paul tells us about the “the wisdom of this world“, how that this IS “foolishness with God” but again these ideas are interpreted carnally by the man whose interests ARE in the world. It IS in looking past the worldly ideas and thoughts, looking past “the wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 3:19), that we can come to see how that the True seeker has “received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God“. The apostle also shows us the reverse side of this foolishness which we read as “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12, 14). Here, the doctrinal idea IS that the man who believes and has faith as the various doctrines teach ARE NOT the “natural man” and many millions believe that they have that spiritual discernment based in these same doctrines. It IS when we can relate these ideas to the Master’s own words on His Presence and His Love that we can come to understand that the reality of such spiritual discernment comes to us by measure and in accordance with our own unique ability to keep His words, words which begin and end in our ability to Love.
So we ARE ALL natural men until that time where we can “overcometh the world” which IS intimately tied to the Apostle John’s teaching on being “born of God” which, in turn, IS intimately tied to the reality that “every one that loveth is born of God“. While so many see this idea of being “born of God” from the doctrinal bent of believing and confessing, the greater reality IS found in keeping His words which IS, in the final analysis, the same reality of Love. In the complexity of the apostles ideas in these words from his epistle which we repeat yet again, there IS a need for spiritual discernment, there IS a need to see these ideas as they are intended and as they relate to the words of the Master on Love which He gives us in the Great Commandments which we have again at the top of our essay. While the Master’s words ARE clear, while they DO show us the Truth of Love, men have failed to understand His intent and this likely because of the perceived difficulty in accomplishing the True intent of “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. But this IS the reality of His words and the intent of John’s words IS to amplify and to clarify them so that we can see that without this Love for ALL and without our keeping His commandments which include this Love as the foremost point, we CAN NOT Truly Love God; we read:
“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. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we now that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 4:7-5:5).
We should be able to see however that this idea of overcoming the world IS a process and not a miraculous change; and while it may offer comfort to men to believe that they have found their salvation in the diluted ideas of confession and of believing, the reality IS that these ideas presume that we ARE keeping His words. The Truth of this should be easily seen in the idea that we ARE speaking of God and the Son of God and, in the very idea that this IS GOD, we should be able to see that it IS “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them” who IS living in the Will of God. Here again we see the Master’s rhetorical question that makes the statement that: if you see me as the Lord, you should keep my words; we read: “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). It IS the process of attaining the Kingdom of God that colors so much of the Master’s words and the words of His apostles as they give us continual instruction on the ways that we must think and act in this world in order to be accounted worthy and it IS this process that we see in the most detailed view of the Life of the Apostle Peter who in the end could say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 10:30). It is this process that we should see in the Master’s Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven; these show us that the Kingdom grows within the man from the seed planted in Repentance or from the view that this growth begins with the leavening which should be seen in much the same way and which causes the whole Life to grow. When we can equate the reality of the Presence of God in our Life with this reality of being “born again“, we can see a deeper version of the Truth and understand that it IS when the Christ IS manifest in one’s Life by measure that the man begins the process that end in his ability to “overcometh the world“. We read the Master’s words again 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. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, 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 14:21-24).
What we see here as a resounding clarity in the Master’s words IS NOT seen as such my most men and, what we see here as the quid pro quo that gives us our individual measure of His grace, is washed away by the doctrinal views that are based in the misunderstood words of Paul and John. And we need not rely only upon these words as there ARE many others that point us in the same direction and which point to the ideas of men who claim to follow the Lord and claim to Love Him but who, at the same time, fail to DO “doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” which IS clearly shown as the way that one “shall enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21). It IS in our realization of the Presence of God in our Life in this world that we can “overcometh the world” and in the process of this overcoming we will come to understand the Truth of John’s words saying “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him“. Here in this context and in the apostle’s intent we should be able to see James’s intent in using the word rendered as friend; both ARE words of Love and neither are founded in that carnal sense of Love which IS the mental and emotional attraction and attachment to others and to the things of this world. Here again we must remember that the Presence of God IS His grace and this IS His Love and that this IS the realization of the men whose focus IS on the things of God, whose focus IS on the “treasures in heaven“. In the seemingly convoluted ideas of new and old in regard to commandments which we read in this next entry from the Epistle of John, we should take the view that the commandments ARE eternal as the Master tells us “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached , and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:16-17). Can we see the ideas of new and old in Jesus words here and relate this to John’s saying that:
“Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes…..Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:7-11, 15-17).
We should see here that there IS an old commandment and, if we can relate this to the Great Commandments, we can see that these ALL ARE speaking of Love; Love for God which Jesus tells us IS found in keeping His words and Love for ALL men which IS then the foundation of the law as this Love IS His word. Vincent helps us to see the ideas that the apostle IS presenting as he tells us: New commandment; The commandment of love is both old and new. Old, because John’s readers have had it from the beginning of their Christian experience. New, because, in the unfolding of Christian experience, it has developed new power, meaning, and obligation, and closer correspondence “with the facts of Christ’s life, with the crowning mystery of His passion, and with the facts of the Christian life.” 4 While we may disagree with Mr. Vincent’s view of the Christian experience and see the idea of the old commandments as the Love which IS the foundation of the old law, the essence of his argument IS valid; the new IS the closer correspondence “with the facts of Christ’s life”. In these words from John we should see the reality of Light and how that the Presence of God and of the Christ in the Life of a man IS Light and that with this Presence the “true light now shineth“. In the context of the apostle’s words here we should try to see that hate IS the opposite of Love; not the carnal sense of Love but the sense that IS offered by the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule; a sense of according to ALL men what one would accord to himself. In NOT doing this, one can be seen to hate his brother in the sense of the apostle’s idea and in the sense offered by James as well where the idea IS wrapped up in seeing ALL men the same, in the idea of having NO “respect to persons“.
James tells us that “if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9) and here in this idea of sin we should see John’s idea of darkness as both are walking in accord with the ways of the world. We should remember that this Greek word miseo that IS rendered as hate IS NOT that carnal idea of hate in the same sense that agape IS NOT the carnal sense of Love. Our ideas on this word rendered as hate should reflect the understanding of the Master’s sayings on discipleship where what Luke seemingly describes as hate for mother and father ARE described by Matthew as that these should be loved less than He and therefore God; and this IS of course in accordance with the first of the Great Commandments. And we should remember as well that this Loving others who ARE close less and this idea of hate ARE prerequisites to discipleship and the Kingdom as we read in the two versions given us:
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).
- “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 7 Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
