ON LOVE; PART DCCCXCIII
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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)
While our topic has been the Apostle Paul’s words on strongholds, the reality of this has been the overall idea of grace as the revelation and the realizations that come to a man by measure as he strives to keep the Master’s words and to keep his focus upon the things of God. It IS in the reality of the sameness of ALL things spiritual that we can see how that the apostle’s words on strongholds here play their part in one’s overall spiritual endeavor which IS ever to attain the reality of the Kingdom of God; that IS, the fullness of his realization of the Presence of God in his conscious Life which IS the Truth of discipleship. Paul’s instructions ARE essentially to encourage the man who IS striving, the man who has some measure of grace, to greater revelations of Truth and, in these words on strongholds which we repeat again, we should see this encouragement playing out. We read Paul’s words again saying:
“the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
Here, while we ARE being encouraged, for lack of a better word, by the apostle, we should try to see what it IS that we ARE being encouraged to DO. The apostle IS telling us that we DO have strongholds and this IS likely True for everyman….ALL have some form of preconception, some form of solid or strong belief, in some thing and we should understand that the context of Paul’s ideas here IS strictly spiritual….it IS those thoughts that “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“. The point here IS that whatsoever a man may think to be True spiritually IS NOT necessarily so and if one’s thoughts, one’s reasoning or one’s judgement regarding such things of the Spirit ARE contrary to the revealed Truth of the Master’s words, then this IS become a stronghold. It IS in this sense that we see much of the doctrines of the churches as strongholds, as contrary to the Truth which the Master has revealed. There ARE clear examples of this throughout the New Testament and perhaps the easiest to see ARE those words from Jesus and His apostles regarding Love. These ARE words that ARE clearly expressed by ALL yet they are confounded by the doctrines of the churches which see these ideas on a carnal level and presume that such Love IS NOT possible for the man in the world. These thoughts ARE contrary to the Master’s words and thereby can be seen to “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“, which knowledge IS Truth and can be clearly seen when a man looks past the preconceptions that he has formed from the doctrines and the nurturing that he has received.
In this we should try to see that there ARE many who believe and teach such doctrines regarding Love who ARE sincere in their striving toward the Kingdom of God, but who ARE, at the same, time imprisoned by such doctrines which become their own strongholds and which prevent the greater revelations of Truth that will come to the man who will keep His words on Love. And this IS the reality of strongholds: that they ARE such strong beliefs that they obnubilate the Truth. And this fixation upon what one has come to believe IS based in the vanity which Paul presents us saying “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly“; it IS this vanity which Vincent shows us IS: the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4, and it IS this vanity which we understand as the illusions of the world and the tendency for men to own their individual sense of illusion as glamour. It IS in this sense of glamour that men have built castles in the sky in which they live their spiritual lives and it IS this sense of glamour that is sore difficult to overcome; men DO NOT readily admit that their own beliefs may be wrong. This IS the reality of the doctrinal church: the many doctrines ARE held as right by the man who teaches and professes them; each individual doctrine IS held as the Truth by the man who has come to believe its precepts as he holds his sense of truth above the perceived truths of others. Similar ideas of glamour occur across religious barriers as well albeit with stronger emotional sense of right and wrong and considerable disdain.
The spiritual reality IS that there IS but ONE Truth and ALL men share in it; it IS this fact that IS important to ALL. That each may see this Truth from a different perspective should NOT matter as much as it does and we should understand how that glamour plays a crucial role in these different perspectives….a glamour that IS based in the illusion and in the vanity which ALL men also share in. In most Christian doctrines the precept IS that the ONLY way to God IS through Christ and while this IS a Truth, it IS NOT one according to the teachings and the beliefs of these doctrines. Jesus was the last Great Son of God to grace this planet Earth and He IS the ONLY one who DID bring to mankind “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). It IS in the doctrinal misconstruing of His words and His intent that the reality of the Christ IS missed and that the reality of “Christ in you” IS NOT seen in the way that the Master presented this nor in the way that Paul explains this saying in the same Epistle saying:
“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:25-27).
Here, while doctrines see the apostle’s idea as that Paul is citing his own mission as the fulfillment of the word, a greater Truth can be found in seeing His words as that His mission IS to show them, the readers of his words, that they ARE “to fulfil the word of God“. In this difference we should try to see how that the following words ARE those which can help a man “to fulfil the word of God” as he comes to see the deeper Truths of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” which IS the Presence of God that the Master Himself teaches us. This IS the way of doctrine….that the very words and ideas that ARE relied upon to form a doctrine ARE used by translators to support those doctrines. Here, as most every ‘believer’ makes of himself a saint, the most common belief IS that Christ IS in them as ‘believers’ ONLY and it IS in this sense of doctrine that the reality of being a saint and the True meaning of the Greek word ethnos, which IS rendered as gentiles, IS missed. And what IS also missed is the Master’s own words on this Presence of God in the Life of the man in the world which we read again from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John:
“If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless:a I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 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 14:15-24).
What we should see in these ideas IS the reality of Life that IS equal for ALL men regardless of their individual sense of religion. We should try to understand that whether one profess Buddhism, or if one IS a Muslim or a Hindu, that the God to which he prays and whom he may worship IS the same God…..it IS only glamour that shows that there IS a difference. It DOES not matter how that one sees God, the reality IS that this ONE God IS present within ALL men; ALL ARE part and parcel of Him and it IS in the ideas of divided levels of Life that we can see and that we KNOW Christ even if we DO NOT KNOW him by this name. When we can see God as the ONE Spirit from which ALL Life flows we can then KNOW the ONE God; when we can see Christ as the conscious component or Aspect of the ONE God, then we can see the manifestation of God in man and, when we can see the Holy Spirit as the conscious activity which IS Christ in the man in this world, they we can understand the greater reality of the Presence of God which Jesus teaches us above. ALL men ARE this spiritual Life force, part and parcel of the ONE Life; ALL men ARE this conscious Aspect of this ONE Life force and there IS no True separation between these realities, it IS in this sense of Oneness and Unity that the Master shows above and in the expanded ideas found in His words to His apostles; and ALL men have this activity of Life and consciousness which goes unrealized by the man whose focus IS upon the self and the self in the world but which IS awakened in his mortal Life by that change of focus from the things of the world to the things of God.
And, as we can see in the Master’s words to his apostles above, this realization of the Presence of God comes to those who will keep His words, words that ARE universal in scope and go well beyond the religious barriers which men have erected. If a man, any man in any place and of any religious leaning, will keep His words, His universal words of Love and Truth, that man will have such revelation and realization of the Truth which IS the reality of the Presence of God. It IS by this realization as a man in this world that he can KNOW God and express His universal precepts to the world of men. ALL of this IS lost in the doctrines that pose as religions and that presume to have the Truth but which DO NOT teach nor practice the reality of keeping His words. This is the stronghold that imprisons the consciousness of the man in this world and leaves him void of the True revelations and realization of his own spiritual reality. This IS the reality of Life in the illusion and the glamour and it IS this vanity which we should see in the Master’s words regarding the Kingdom of God; that “he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” ONLY can enter. This IS keeping His words as we should clearly see in Jesus’ saying that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s” and in His telling us that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). If we can read and understand the expanded version of these words with the idea of illusion and glamour in mind, we can see the greater Truth of how that the Master IS speaking to ALL men and to ALL generations who may call upon the Lord but NOT DO such necessary things as to keep His words:
“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. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21).
It IS illusion and glamour that make men to believe that they ARE in accord with “the will of my Father which is in heaven” when the greater reality IS that they are bound by the strongholds of their own doctrines, their own view of what it IS to be in accord. And we should see here that this criteria IS the same as that we find in the Master’s words above regarding the Presence of God in one’s Life; we should see as well the quid pro quo, the reciprocal action, which most ALL doctrines deny. In these words from Jesus IS an acknowledgement that men can DO this and that as men in this world without being in accord with His words and while we will not get into the psychic reality of this nor the psychic power that some may possess, we will say that this IS, according to Jesus’ words, NOT a substitute for the reality of keeping His words. Perhaps here we can even see that having such abilities as prophesy, healing and other “wonderful works” can feed the illusion and the glamour and keep men from a True realization of the Presence of God.
This IS Life in this world and this IS ALL a very complex and difficult reality but one which requires a very simply stated idea to understand. ALL understanding and ALL knowledge of the Truth of Life and the mysteries of the Kingdom of God come in that simply stated idea which IS that we keep His words. And we KNOW the Way to this understanding that comes in our realization of Truth….this IS the Way of Love which we can easily see in the Great Commandments and the Golden Rule that we again repeat at the top of our essay. The reality of this Love IS offered throughout the Master’s words but this IS NOT clearly recognized by doctrines which put human and carnal criteria onto this deeply spiritual enterprise. It IS in Love for God that we keep His words and it IS from Love for God that we Love ALL men and, in the end, while ALL IS reduced to the simple Truth of Love, the greater idea IS that this IS the most basic way to keep His words. And keeping His words IS ever the KEY, the KEY to the Kingdom of God, the KEY to the Presence of God and the KEY to being a True disciple of the Lord. ALL of these have the same cause….that one keep His words as we read here again in regard to discipleship:
“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. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin” (John 8:31-34).
We should keep in mind here that ALL things spiritual come by measure to the man who strives to keep His words; by measure this man has the Presence of God and the realizations of Truth that this brings; by measure he IS the aspirant and the disciple who IS ever working toward more grace, more realizations of Truth; and it IS by measure that one can see the growth of the Kingdom of God Within as this Kingdom IS this same realization of Truth. It IS however in the fullness of this, in the fullness of keeping His words, that a man IS Truly free.
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.
Live in joy, in love, even among those who hate.
Live in joy, in health, even among the afflicted.
Live in joy, in peace, even among the troubled.
Live in joy, without possessions.
Like the shining ones.
The winner sows hatred because the loser suffers.
Let go of winning and losing and find joy.
There is no fire like passion, no crime like hatred,
No sorrow like separation, no sickness like hunger,
And no joy like the joy of freedom.
Today’s Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada (on JOY)5; a collection of the sayings of the Buddha. These words and ideas ARE much the same as those we discuss in our In the Words of Jesus essays. And what is this freedom but the release of our hearts and minds from loving this life in this world and attaining the Presence of God. This word Joy has many meanings as DOES the idea of Love, but in the context that it IS used here we should see the idea that Joy IS Love, Joy IS health, Joy IS peace and that Joy IS without the burdens placed on a man by the illusion and the glamour of the ways of the world. We should try to see that it IS the antithesis of these ideas in hate, in affliction and in troubles that ARE among the possessions of the carnal man, that ARE among the “evil treasure of his heart” (Luke 6:45) according to the Master.
And it IS in the second stanza above that we see the basic psychic ideas that can eliminate the harm caused by such “evil treasure” as a man looks past himself and at the welfare of others which IS the greater reality of Love as the Master teaches us. It IS in losing such possessions, losing such carnal thoughts and attitudes, that one can truly find the “joy of freedom“….this IS the Truth of deliverance.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
