ON LOVE; PART CMII
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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).
There IS much ado regarding the words from the Prophet Isaiah that we ended our last essay with found in the doctrines and teachings of much of Christianity and much of the prophets words are used to define the nature of Christ by some. That these ARE predictive words from the prophet should not be disputed as this IS the very nature of much of his writings; that they ARE predictive about the Christ as the Messiah however IS NOT seen by the Jews and IS subject to many different interpretations by Christians. Some, as John Gill does, believe that this section of Isaiah’s words begins at the end of the previous chapter and one would think here that if this were clear that those who assigned chapter and verse would have put the last verses into the next chapter. This however should NOT matter as the ideas that begin the fifty third chapter DO, in our own view, begin a new dialogue which can stand alone and because many see most ALL of the previous chapter as that it IS about the Christ as the Messiah.
While our point here IS that it DOES NOT matter that these words are about the Christ as the Messiah, we can see how the idea that this presentation may have been important in the early church to show a more certain idea of His identity. This aside, these ideas set forth by Isaiah ARE but background noise and DO little or nothing to address the Truth of the Master’s message. Here, while it IS clear that the majority of Jews believe that the Messiah IS yet to come, their view IS and has been clouded by the same vanity, the same illusion and glamour, that clouds the view of much of Christianity. While the Jews DO NOT believe that the Christ IS the Messiah, Christians DO NOT yet see the reality of His teachings but rather have built their doctrines upon the ideas of Isaiah compounded by the realities of the gospels and the interpreted ideas that come from the writings of the apostles. Perhaps then it IS in hindsight that we should see the prophet’s foresight as He asks “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?“; here he KNOWS that the Jews will not believe and that few will see the “the arm of the LORD” in those things that ARE to happen as the Advent of the Christ. We read the prophet’s words again:
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prisonc and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;d because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53).
In the reality of the Master’s time among us we should be able to see the more pertinent ideas that ARE presented by Isaiah above. This IS the story of Jesus Life, the story of the man Jesus who came among us in “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and, as a man in this world, He did endure much of the reality that the prophet attributes to Him. And this was Jesus’ chosen role, a role that was predicted and that was KNOWN by the Inner man whose outer appearance IS Jesus. It IS ever in the reality of the Christ and the God Within that we should try to see the Life of the man Jesus and our own lives as men as well; it IS for the expression of the Inner man, the thoughts and attitudes of the God and the Christ Within, that Jesus came among us and it IS this same goal, this same expression, that IS the goal of everyman. While we DO NOT yet see this Truth and this reality, the Master DOES. And while we CAN NOT say at what point in His Life His awareness of this fullness came to be His realization, we CAN say that it was always His and it IS this reality that we should see in the presentation of His virgin birth.
It IS however the ideas of His sacrifice that have overwhelmed Christianity and in the prophets words above the singular idea that “he shall bear their iniquities” has become the guiding Light for the Christian world as has the seemingly misplaced idea that “he bare the sin of many“. While these ideas have become fundamental in the Christian view of the atoning quality of the Life and death of the Master, the greater reality IS found in the simple words above, words that ARE not contradicted by the Master nor the apostles. How does Jesus the Christ “bear their iniquities“, how IS it that “he bare the sin of many“? In Christian logic this IS left as a rather nebulous idea that must be accepted through the equally nebulous idea of faith; in Christian logic the Master has ‘absorbed’ ALL of the sins of the world so as that men are relieved of their wrongs, and that this continues through ALL generations as the gift to men who will believe in Him.
There IS of course a greater logic and one what IS actually logical and not based in the nebulous ideas of the atoning quality of Jesus Life in this world, an atoning quality that IS deeply rooted in many doctrines and seen by some in the view that Jesus IS a sacrifice necessary for atonement according to the laws of Moses. That Jesus persecution and death ARE a great sacrifice by the Master CAN NOT be disputed; He willingly came among us to endure the predicted end but this IS NOT His purpose. His purpose IS to show men the Way to their own spiritual reality, to show them the Truth of the mysteries of Life and to lead them to Life as the expression of the Inner man, the Soul, the Christ and the God Within. And so we have His body of teachings which represent to us the reality of attaining the Kingdom of God, the reality of being called among His True disciples and the reality of the Presence of God in one’s Life in this world; a Presence which becomes the expression of the man as it was the expression of the Christ in Jesus.
It IS the doctrinal approach to God that men have created which has substituted the nebulous ideas of the atoning quality of His death for the commandments and the instructions that Jesus presented to us in His Life. While these doctrinal ideas ARE fed by the misinterpreted and misunderstood writings of the apostles, and most especially the writings of the Apostle Paul, the reality of men’s salvation remains in the most simple idea of keeping His words. And it IS this that should be the celebration at Easter: men should celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made as He endured the persecution and the harm inflicted upon Him for the purpose of first teaching us the Truth of our own spiritual reality and, second, to seal the reality of the importance of His words….that He was willing to die for them. This IS the greater Truth that we should find in His words saying: “I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17-18).
It IS with a True understanding of the nature of Life itself that the Master DOES this, that He willingly submits to the Jews and the Romans that He may “lay down my life“, and it IS in the True understanding of Life itself that the Apostle John repeats His idea saying: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). These words from John should show to us the same reality that the Master shows us by His death and His resurrection: that the Life and the death of this body ARE unimportant save as that they ARE the vehicle of expression for the True Life of the Inner man. Can we see here how that it IS the Master’s willingness to show the Truth, the Truth that IS contrary to the common ideas of doctrine and tradition, and to bear the True nature of the inequities of men which IS their reliance upon their own doctrines and traditions rather that the Truth of God? It IS in this sense that He DID “bear their iniquities” and it IS in this way that “he bare the sin of many” as these sins and inequities were the Jews rallying point which brought Him to His death. And it IS this same idea that the apostle IS encouraging in His readers….NOT that they die as such, NOT that they willingly give up their lives as men, but that the take on the mantle of the Christ and that they show forth the Truth by their words and by their example. This IS as He commanded them in the what IS called the Great Commission; that they should go forth and teach ALL men, which IS that they go forth and make disciples of men, by “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20)…..NOT doctrines and traditions but “all things whatsoever I have commanded you“.
In Jesus scripted and predicted death, a fate that He forewarned His apostles of, we have the ONLY end that was possible in those days where blasphemy was a crime and in which men’s lives mattered little. The Master’s actions were openly against the doctrines and the traditions of the Jews and while Jesus went to great lengths to show them the reality of God in His words and in His actions, those in power refused to see His expressions of Truth and of Love; they ONLY saw that His words and His actions were contrary to their established doctrinal beliefs. It IS their own illusions that built their doctrines into their sense of religion and it IS their glamour, their sense of being right and righteous in their doctrines, that caused their anger and prevented them from seeing clearly. In those days this illusion and glamour resulted in the persecution, the arrest and the death of Jesus. This same illusion and glamour persist yet today and IS prevalent in most every religion and, in today’s evolved Christian doctrines, there IS much the same sense of persecution of those who would disagree, those who would teach things contrary to one’s own interpretation of His words and His message. And this IS a sense of persecution that exists between doctrines as well much in the same way as the disagreements between the Pharisee and the Sadducee in Jesus’ day.
While it IS illusion and glamour that hold men back from seeing clearly in this world, these can be overcome; these can be shattered by the Truth of His words which comes to the True disciple of the Lord and by measure to the man who will strive toward that goal. Much of HIS Truth IS obnubilated by the persistently carnal view which interprets the Truth to the convenience of men rather than in the True sense with which the Master and His apostles have presented it. While men see the Master’s death as a sorrowful occasion, the reality of this sorrow should be placed upon the Souls that were so deluded by the ways of the world, those who acted in accord with such ways of the world in persecution and killing. And we should try to see here how that the ways of the Pharisees and the other religious rulers of the Jews, the ways of those who sought His death, were NOT really any different than the ways of the Apostle Paul who tells us of his own plight, his own experience with the illusions and glamour of carnal Life.
There ARE many lessons to be learned in the willing death of Jesus; there ARE many Truths encapsulated in His words and in the words of His apostles regarding His death that go without understanding as the doctrines of men concentrate upon the historic happenings of the day and the nebulously presented atoning quality of His death. It IS in His death that we should see the more horrible result of doctrines and traditions. Today we should understand that this fate has afflicted many in both religious and secular circles over the centuries as men ARE killed because of what they believe and what they teach by others who see things differently and who have the power. In His death we should realize the sheer importance of His message and understand that He willingly endured the wounding and His death to bring this sense of importance to men. In His death we should see as well how that the Master simply sheds a skin, a persona, as His Life continues….the True Life of the Inner man, the Christ and the God within.
There ARE many other ideas that can be gleaned from His death and perhaps we should see how that in His dying He shows us the Truth of the Proverb which the Apostle Paul repeats for us and expands saying “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21). These men, these Jews and Romans were hungry and were thirsty for blood according to the ways of the world; and it IS what they want that Jesus gives them as “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter“. It IS those who wound and who kill that ARE left empty, it IS these who must bear the burden of what they had done. In His quite acceptance of his fate the Master surely did “heap coals of fire” upon their heads.
And we should remember here how that the apostles DO NOT yet understand. Even after they proclaim “Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God” (John 16:29-30), they DO NOT yet fully realize the Master’s Truth. In this we should see the difficulty of overcoming the strongholds created by the beliefs of men, by their doctrines and their traditions; we should see the power of the illusion and the glamour. And we should see the deeper reality of Jesus words that say:
“Ye have heard that it hath been said , An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law , and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:38-44).
This IS how Jesus lived and this IS how He died and we should remember that in the end He proclaims: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
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
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
