ON LOVE; PART DCCCVIII
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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. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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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 again refreshed our ideas regarding the stark division that we should see and realize between the things of the world and the things of God. In the Apostle James’ words this IS framed as “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4) and in this word rendered as friendship we should try to see that in this one and only use in the New Testament we have a word whose root, philos, can be seen to mean familiar association with one; here, familiar association with the world would give us the needed insight into the apostle’s intent. Philos IS also the word used to render friend the Master’s own words from our selection below from the fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel where Jesus calls the Eleven His friends; again, in the context of: he who associates familiarly with one 2 as the lexicon tells us, we can glimpse the real intent of what this can mean. In these two uses of this idea of a friend, we have the same dynamic at play; in the one a closeness to the world and in the other a closeness to the Master which He defines further for us saying “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you“. James’ point here is to create the sense of division that we must come to understand: that we can be close to the one or to the other and perhaps even alternate our friendship, but to be close to the ways of the world IS to be opposed to the things of God. Vincent helps us with this as he says of: Is the enemy (καθίσταται); Thereby constitutes himself. Rev., maketh himself 4; which should give us the idea then of a personal cause and effect.
The meaning here IS missed by most who DO NOT yet see the reality of the message; that in that choice between “God and mammon” IS the reality of one’s own salvation and that the whole of men’s Life here in this world revolves around his sense of focus, his sense of what IS the “treasure of the heart” (Luke 6:45). It IS ever in this reality that we must see the Truth of the Master’s words; the Truth that it IS when one’s focus IS upon the things of God that one can and will see the reality of Love and of keeping His words. In this view, so long as a man’s focus IS upon the mundane things of the world and his own desires for them, that man will NOT be striving toward the grace found in keeping His words but will be moribund in his carnal state of living. We should remember here that this IS the state of Life in this world; that this IS the norm according to the ways and thoughts of men in the world and that it IS the man who can break free of the doctrines and misconceptions regarding His Life, the man who can realize the Power of his own spiritual discernment in the face of the opposing forces of worldly living, who can become a True disciple of the Lord. And it IS in this realm that the aspirant and the disciple works as he glimplses the Truth while he IS alive in this world whose very nature IS at “enmity with God” (James 4:4).
And so the Master paints the way of the the disciple as He shows us that to have the realization of the Presence of God in one’s Life that one must keep His words and Love. We see this in His words from the fourteenth chapter that we have been using in our daily posts and we see this again in the fifteenth chapter where the message IS repeated and where we see that there IS a criteria for our friendship with the Lord, a criteria for our closeness to Him in that idea of familiar association where He KNOWS us and we KNOW Him. And this criteria IS also that we keep His words which we read most clearly as “Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you“. In the end we can reduce ALL of this to the reality of Love as Love IS the central point of keeping His words and DOING the things of God in the law and in ALL of the Master’s commandments and instructions to the man who Truly seeks Him. This IS the message offered in our words below which, while NOT clearly stated, IS the essence of the Master’s message and teaching as we should see most clearly in the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. We read again:
“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).
It IS when we can understand that to Love the Lord IS to Love our fellowman that we can Truly enter into the reality of the Love of God and His Presence as we see above. And this IS the message of the totality of the Master’s words to the Eleven that we have been studying; this IS the message found in our selection below where we read “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you“. This Love IS the fruit of the Life of the disciple and this IS keeping His words and while doctrines may haggle over the ideas found in the ideas of choosing and ordination, the greater Truth IS found in the most simple reality that the disciple “should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain“. It IS in this that the disciple gets what he “shall ask of the Father” which, according to the dichotomy of carnal and spiritual living, IS NOT concerned with the things of the world but rather one’s greater realizations of Truth….it IS ONLY this that the disciple will seek. We read our current selection again:
“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another” (John 15:10-17).
Again we should see the Master’s final emphasis in this selection, that His words saying “These things I command you, that ye love one another” must be understood as the True emphasis of the Life of the disciple and it IS this sense of Love that we must grow into as aspirants. In the reality of the Master’s time here in this Earth we should understand that the closeness found between Jesus and the Eleven IS based in His own choosing of them as His disciples and while many may see this as a random act that places one man above another, the greater reality IS found in the more simple idea of their own readiness as Souls, their own spiritual position in the world in that day. That they had realized this IS of NO importance as they DO, each of them, grow into their own roles as disciples of the Lord and continue to grow at an even greater pace after He leaves them. By the very questions that they ask and by the uncertainty they sometimes express we should be able to see the uniqueness of their position and understand that each of them, and many others as well, were destined at their birth to be Jesus ready help in accomplishing His sacred mission: to change the course of human history and events. While this change has NOT been according to the reality of Jesus teachings, it has been change nonetheless and perhaps the greater effects of this ARE just now being seen across this world of men.
While the apostles see and understand much of the deeper revelations of Truth as they come into their own as teachers and writers and as the Apostle Paul adds to their ranks his own unique place as a spiritual man who IS able to change his focus from the doctrines that he KNOWS and supports to the Truth of the Master’s words which come to him in communion with his own anointing, his own Soul, the Christian movement takes form around the parabolic Truths that they express; Truths that ARE ofttimes NOT so clearly stated. The apostles leave their words for the interpretations of men and, as we have discussed many times before, men have ever chosen the interpretations that best suit their carnal minds and best support their own vision of Life in this world. Here, while so much IS clearly painted for us by the Master and His apostles, much of the doctrinal emphasis IS placed upon the more obscure notions, many of which DO naught for the spiritual growth of men. It IS ever the most clear of the Master’s words that ARE NOT seen as they ARE intended and this category of teaching IS well represented by the straightforward declarations that we should keep His words and that we must Love ALL men as He Loves us. While the apostles’ confirming and amplifying tone and words ARE intended to accomplish that goal, these ARE too often interpreted into doctrines that hide and obscure the greater Truths.
So it IS with their words on the dichotomy between the carnal and the spiritual and the necessary separation that must become a part of the Life of the aspirant and the disciple. It IS in the perceived difficulty found in having to live in this world while “made subject to vanity” (Romans 8:20) that has motivated men through the centuries to find safe haven in the words of the apostles; a safe haven that IS NOT given by the writers but which IS taken by the reader who perhaps KNOWS NOT what else to DO. In the understanding that this KNOWING IS one’s realization of Truth, that this IS the foundation of spiritual discernment which comes to the man whose focus IS placed upon the things of God, we can come to see that it IS by this focus upon the things of God that we can DO the things of God which IS the essence of Love and of keeping His words.
And this IS the Apostle Peter’s message on this division of focus between the things of the self and the things of God; Peter tells us that we enter into the “exceeding great and precious promises” by our having “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust“. While many see lust ONLY in its grossest forms, the reality of this word IS desire, the desire by men for the ways and the things of the world. It IS in our change of focus that we lose sight of carnal desires which leads us to become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) which IS to have the Presence of God in one’s Life.
Perhaps it IS in the Apostle John’s most succinct view of this separation between the carnal and the divine that should be able to stir the doctrinal focus on these Truths. John tells us that we should “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 2:15-17). In this expanded view of the apostle’s words there IS a resounding call against “the corruption that is in the world through lust” and the clear message that the Love of God IS NOT the True realization of the man whose focus is such. There IS a straightforward message in John’s words here that IS missed by most who DO NOT see the stark division that IS required to be in accord with the word of God, the stark division that shows us that there IS NO thing divine in this world and that it IS the divine that IS our goal and our objective.
The great reality of spiritual Life IS found in the focus of a man’s Life; when it IS in the self and the self in the world we have the natural man, the carnal man whose Life’ center IS here in this worldly existence. When one’s focus IS upon the things of God we have the disciple of varying measure and degree and it IS ONLY the disciple whose focus IS fixed that can Truly be “partakers of the divine nature“, who can have the fullness of the Presence of God in his Life. There IS of course a third reality where the man has come to recognize the need to move the totality of his focus off of the world and the things of the world…to “take no thought” if you will. For this man we have a work in progress and a Life of striving toward the ultimate goal of the fullness of the Presence of God. This man dwells in the realm of duality where he sees both directions as he slowly tunes his mind and turns his attention away from the machinations of the little self in the world. We close today by repeating the words of our Tibetan brother regarding this sense of duality in the Life of the disciple; we read:
“For what is a disciple? He is one who seeks to learn a new rhythm, to enter a new field of experience, and to follow the steps of that advanced humanity who have trodden ahead of him the path, leading from darkness to light, from the unreal to the real. He has tasted the joys of life in the world of illusion and has learnt their powerlessness to satisfy and hold him. Now he is in a state of transition between the new and the old states of being. He is vibrating between the condition of soul awareness and form awareness. He is “seeing double” **.
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.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL and that it IS His Presence which a man realizes by measure as he begins his journey to the Kingdom of God. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
The thought behind the idea above IS NOT unlike that which we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day for many essays; It IS in the closeness that Lord Tennyson shows us that we should see the idea that “God dwells in the inner part of every man” which we read in the previous Quote of the Day. For us this saying and the previous one show us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. Men may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn and to focus upon Him. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father“
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
- ** A Treatise on White Magic or The Way of the Disciple by Alice Bailey ©1951 by Lucis trust
