IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1194

ON LOVE; PART DCCLXXXIII

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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 continued our discussion on the role of grace as the Presence of God, as that spiritual reality that can enable a man to escape from the clutches of the illusion and the glamour, the vanity according to the Apostle Paul, to which ALL men ARE subjected through Life in this world. It IS one’s realization of the Truths revealed by the Presence of God that IS the linchpin of our being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and of being counted among the True disciples of the Christ and it IS these results that come to the man who will keep His words. When we can see that the enabling ability to overcome the world IS the reality of His grace, which IS founded in His Presence, and the revelations that this Presence brings to a man, then we can see the deeper Truths and understand that ALL these ideas, grace, His Presence, revelation and realization, and the Love of God, ARE ALL the same and that to Truly have one IS to have them ALL. And, as we have discussed over the course of our blog posts since we took up the subject of grace, we can understand as well that the operation of this grace in the world of men IS the work of the Spirit Within, the Holy Spirit, which IS the reality of the Presence of God in one’s Life. It is here that we create an artificial separation of terms as we see that His Presence in our Life comes through keeping His words as Jesus tells us and that the outflow of the “divine power” of His Presence, our expression of it, IS the reality of the Holy Spirit in one’s Life and in the world. In these ideas we can see that the way to change the world in found in the combination of the individual efforts of men who have realized the Presence of God in their lives; and it IS this reality that we should read into the Master’s words on fruit, a word that IS expanded upon greatly by Paul.

We should understand here that the Master’s idea of the  fruit of one’s Life IS spiritual and that whatsoever that comes from one’s Life that IS of the world IS of NO spiritual benefit; here then, if we believe that the Kingdom of God IS our goal, then we must at the same time see the reality of our expression of the things of God as the fruit of one’s Life. As we link the words of the Master together regarding the Kingdom and discipleship we should also be able to see and to understand that ALL things spiritual are linked as well, we should try to see that the reality of fruit, which we see as the expression of the divinity of man in this world and the work of the Holy Spirit that flows from a man, IS linked to these same realities. In the Master’s words we read that the Kingdom of God IS found in keeping His words and we find that this same reality of keeping His words IS the way to His Love and His Presence. We read also that this same idea of keeping His words brings us to the Truth of discipleship and it IS in these relationships that we find the added reality of fruit; that while keeping His words makes us disciples and makes us accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God, it IS the expression of this fruit that can keep us in this state of being….that keeps us as disciples in the Kingdom of God. The following bullet points should show these realities most clearly:

• In the reality of the Master’s words from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John we should be able to understand the reciprocal action caused in the Life of a man through keeping His words and we should try to read into this the understanding that Jesus IS speaking to disciples whose understanding IS NOT yet complete. From this perspective we should also see that while this IS presented as black and white, that there ARE degrees and measures of His Love and His Presence in the Life of the man in the world. We should try to see that the fullness of one’s realization of His Presence comes in the fullness of keeping His words, that in this fullness IS ALL KNOWING. It IS apparent in the exchange between Jesus, Thomas, Phillip and Judas presented in this chapter that these men have NOT yet attained that fullness but have the Presence of God in their lives nonetheless; and this in the same measure as their focus which IS their own individual ability to keep His words completely. We should also see this dynamic at play for us in the picture of the Life of the Apostle Peter that IS painted for us in the Gospels and the Book of Acts where we are witness to the growth by degree of the apostle’s focus as he strives to eliminate ALL carnal thoughts and attitudes from his Life. While we have called this reciprocal action a quid pro quo in past essays, we should be clearer about this in our understanding; we DO NOT get from God in exchange for keeping His words as a give and take but rather as the natural action of the focus of the man in this world. As one strives to keep His words by his focus upon the things of God, the things of the world fade away and the consciousness, the heart if you will, becomes filled with more and more divine thought and attitude; this IS the natural flow of the divine Life of the Soul, the Christ Within. It IS then this divinity that increasingly becomes the expression of the man where heretofore his expression was more carnal. We find this Truth of the grace that comes in keeping His words in many of the sayings of Jesus but NO more so than in these that we have repeated many times: “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).
• While we have the reality of His Presence as the result of keeping His words in Jesus words above, we have the reality of the Kingdom of God in His sayings to His disciples and the multitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. Here we should read the idea behind the saying as well as the saying itself; here the Master IS cautioning us that to call Him Lord and to see Him as He IS will not bring a man to the Kingdom of God. Jesus tells us: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). We should of course see the reality here of just what IS the “will of my Father which is in heaven” and understand that this IS NOT a phrase that should be restricted to the few ideas presented as to the Will of God in John’s Gospel. While it may be convenient to see the idea that “this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life” (John 6:40) as the doctrinal perception that  this IS His Will, the reality runs much deeper. We should remember how that Vincent explains the idea of to believe on or believe in the Master, how that this means: to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴, and that this IS the reality of keeping His words and seeing Him as Lord. Similarly we should see the idea of “every one which seeth the Son” in the reality of our realization of His Presence which again IS the result of keeping His words; The depth here in His words can be seen in the reality of the Greek word theoreo which IS rendered here as seeth and which the lexicon tells us means: to perceive with the eyes, to enjoy the presence of one; to discern, descry ². The Will of God, “the will of my Father“, IS better seen in the context of His words saying “For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother” (Mark 3:35) where the relationship to His Presence IS seen by a man’s closeness to Him. This IS alternately phrased by Matthew as “whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 12:50) so as to maintain the same perspective as the earlier saying.
• In the preceding ideas we have the reality of keeping His words as this applies to His Presence and to our being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. We come now to the idea of discipleship and the relationship to this Truth of keeping His words. In His saying on discipleship to those following Him we read that “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32); here we should see much the same dynamic. Here the reciprocal action of keeping His words IS that we ARE His disciples and we should make note of the way that this IS phrased. In the reality of “those Jews which believed on him” we should see that He IS speaking to those who were keeping His words and striving to DO so completely; it IS to these that He says “If ye continue in my word” which IS to say that this action of DOING “the will of my Father” must continue and that in this there IS the reality of discipleship. In the combination of the above ideas we should be able to see the Truth that keeping His words IS our part to play and, in return, we receive His Presence, the Kingdom of God and the reality of discipleship and we should try to see that ALL of these ARE essentially the same.
• Finally we have the reality of the fruit that one must bear, the fruit that IS the Life of the man who keeps His words. We must realize here that to KNOW God IS to DO as He says; we must understand that in keeping His words there IS the necessity of expression as His words ARE the reality of the expression of Love, the expression of divinity to the world of men. These ideas CAN NOT be divorced and we can most readily see this in the Master’s words on Love from the Sermon and from the Great Commandments above. To “love thy neighbour as thyself” IS the expressive part of keeping His words, and this IS the fruit by which we can measure our accomplishments. Similarly, the ideas that we should “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), ARE the expressive parts of keeping His words as in these there IS the DOING. We should understand that it IS the DOING part of keeping His words that IS the fruit by which we ARE measured and for which our reward, our continued and additional grace, IS given. And this IS the reality of discipleship which IS the reality of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and the Truth of His Presence, as we read in Jesus words saying “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).

The relationships cited above are but a few examples of the totality of the Truth that ALL things spiritual ARE ONE, that there IS NO True separation of ideas and ideas. Here we have shown again that discipleship and being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God ARE the same reality and that both of these ARE attained by the man who keeps His words and, by measure, by the man who strives to DO so. We have also shown, by the same relationship to keeping His words, that the reality of the Presence of God in one’s Life IS discipleship and IS the Kingdom of God and that ALL of these Truths ARE left for us in the clear speaking of the Master. None of this IS hidden in parables or in parabolic language and it requires ONLY that the man who seeks God look past the world and toward the things of God. Finally again there IS the matter of fruit which IS the reality of His words in action in the world of men. While ALL men can and DO likely bear some fruit, it IS the responsibility of the disciple to “bear much fruit” or, as this word IS alternately rendered, that he “bear great fruit“. This IS the work of the disciple in the world, this IS the expression of the Holy Spirit, the Presence of God, and this IS the revelation of the Kingdom of God to the world of men. Jesus speaks often of fruit in the gospels but DOES NOT define fruit for us except in relation to the good things offered in the world by men. Paul on the other hand goes to great lengths to explain fruit for our better understanding and in his words we should see the totality of divine expression in the world; we read: “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23). This fruit IS the result of keeping His words and it MUST be expressed because the expression IS itself His deeper Truth of His words. In this IS the greater reality of the Life of the disciple in the world and Paul makes this yet clearer as he tells us “the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).

While we did not get back to our current selection from the Apostle John’s Epistle, we repeat it again. In these words IS much of the idea of the fruit that each disciple must bear:

“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. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come ; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 3:17-24, 4:1-6).

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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