ON LOVE; PART CMXXX

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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).

It IS in the greater reality of Love that ALL Truth IS found; that IS: it IS in our expression of Love as the Master teaches this that we can Truly realize the Presence of God in our Life in this world and it IS the Presence of God that IS the essence of ALL Truth. That Truth IS of course the ONENESS of ALL things in God and it IS one’s unfurling realization of this sense of ONENESS that IS the True impetus to Love ALL. To understand the deeper Truths behind the Master’s teaching on Love one must look past the carnal implications of the translated word from the Greek and try to see how that the very use of this idea of agape by the Master and His apostles conveys to us the sense of ONENESS that we must apply to the whole of our lives here on this Earth.

When we can see past the emotional and the mental attachments and attractions that form the carnal idea of Love, we can then see the depths of the Master’s words and see that sense of ONENESS that IS embedded in His message. And there IS NO clearer presentation of His idea than in His Sermon on the Mount where we read the True depth that agape must take in the Life of the man in the world. The Apostle Matthew Presents the Master’s words as:

“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; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:44-48).

What should be seen here as the realization of that ONENESS of ALL men in God has NOT been seen by the doctrines that suppose that this Love IS that carnal sense of Love that IS NOT clearly explained except by the word itself. And the word’s implications to the man in the world ARE based in his own nurturing and understanding and ARE framed by his emotional and mental makeup. Even in the doctrinal idea of ‘hate the sin but Love the sinner‘ the sense of Love falls far short of the Master’s intent in His use of the Greek idea of agape. It IS the reality of agape, the reality of this sense of ONENESS, that Jesus shows us as He explains how “your Father which is in heaven” applies this Love for ALL men and how that to be “the children of your Father which is in heaven” men must express this ONENESS, this agape, as Jesus instructs.

ALL of this IS lost in the doctrinal approach to God although the apostles write quite succinctly about Love, about its importance and about how that it should be applied “without respect of persons” which IS the way that “your Father which is in heaven” applies ALL things as the Apostle Peter shows us saying: “….the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work” (1 Peter 1:17). Agape IS, as we have said before, the very KEY to grace, the very way to the grace of God in one’s Life, and it IS this grace that IS the ever growing realization of Truth that comes to the man who will endeavor to keep His words…..His words of Love as agape.

It IS in the deeper ideas that must come to a man from the Master’s teaching of agape that the greater Truths ARE found and it IS per force by one’s expression of this agape that the True revelations of divinity will come. In the reality that to KNOW God one must Love there IS the deeper understanding of the Apostle Paul’s many words on the failure of the Law in the lives of men in this world. The Apostle John shows us this reality of agape as he tells us that “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” (John 4:20-21). In this idea we should read the author’s intent which IS NOT different from the Master’s own words saying “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). It IS when we can link these ideas, when we can see that His commandment IS essentially that “he who loveth God love his brother also“, that we can find the Truth of the role of agape in the Life of the man who Truly seeks God.

It IS men’s failure to see this Truth plus their doctrinal ideas of Jesus’ atoning death on the cross that likely gives rise to the misinterpretation of Paul’s words and to the contorted views that override the stark reality that IS found in the Master’s own words of Life. The twenty centuries of doctrinal promotion in ALL of its forms has cast a pall over the reality of Jesus’ words and while this covering of the Truth IS NOT seen by the majority of men, the reality of His words remains for ALL who can see and hear the deeper Truths which we present again as our trifecta of spiritual reality:

• “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).
• “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).
• “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).

In these words from Jesus we have the fundamental Truths of our spiritual Life as this becomes the realization of the consciousness in form in this world. This realization IS the Kingdom of God, it IS the reality of His Presence and it IS the reality of True discipleship….and the central part IS that we keep His words. It IS in this sense that we must see agape and understand that it IS in this “new commandment I give unto you” (John 13:34) that the greater Truths ARE found. While the idea of new in time IS NOT the idea presented here, there IS a newness to be found in the way of His expression and it IS in the failure of men to grasp the intent of agape that Jesus’ words have become a passing fancy. Vincent explains this idea of new saying: Another adjective, νεόν, is employed to denote new wine in the sense of freshly-made (Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37, Luke 5:38, Luke 5:39). The difference is between newness regarded in point of time or of quality ⁴.

It is this quality of agape that IS the intent of His words to His disciples here and it IS the sense of importance that agape carries in their lives that IS the Master’s emphasis as He reinforces His own words that bring the idea of this Love to the forefront of ALL commandments as we see in the Great Commandments that we repeat again at the top of our essay. And this message IS NOT lost in the writings of the apostles but it IS reinforced in such words as we have above from John and as we find in Paul’s saying that “if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:9-10). And this IS the greater reality of Paul’s words on the law and how that the law fails men in their spiritual pursuits; his message IS NOT that the law DOES NOT matter but that “love is the fulfilling of the law“. It IS in one’s expression of agape through his Life in this world that he keeps the law without ever thinking on the specific dictates of law.

It IS in the perceived difficulty of Love as agape that the doctrines have failed and, over the many centuries that have seemingly perfected the religious and doctrinal ideas of men, the greater Truths have been lost. It IS when the man in this world can begin to see the deeper Truths that ARE concealed in his own psyche by his own emotional and mental response to Life itself that he can then begin to find his own spiritual reality. It IS when the man today can see himself in Jesus’ words to the Pharisee and the scribe and to the Jews of that day, words that ARE generally understood only in their historical context by most ALL men, that the greater understanding of His sayings like “this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15) can take on their True meaning.

It IS this dullness of hearing that IS clarified in Love; it IS Love that will open one’s eyes to the Truth and it IS this agape that will open the heart, the consciousness of the man in the world, to the Truth that emanates from His own Soul. It IS this Love that must become the expression of the man in the world and it IS this expression of Love that grows in the Life of a man as the Kingdom of God….it IS this agape that grows as his realization of Truth. We close today with the ideas that we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day and with our added idea here that it IS by our expression of GoodWill that we can begin to express that agape that the Master teaches us. It IS in our expression of this GoodWill that we can come to see the reality of Love, of agape, and the significance of that saying that:

GOODWILL IS LOVE IN ACTION

This IS our reality and this IS the reality of the words of the Master and His apostles that we repeat here again. GoodWill IS the beginning of a man’s realization of the ONENESS of ALL men as it IS in the True sense of GoodWill that we offer to ALL men whatsoever we would offer to ourselves which IS the foundation of the Great Commandment and the essence of the Golden Rule which we repeat again at the top of this post and also with these words from the Quote of the Day; words that should show us the importance of agape in the eyes of the Master and His apostles:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well” (James 2:8).

“For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14).

Our Quote of the Day is a stylized version of the footer that has been a part of this blog from the beginning. It is in a few words our motto and our slogan and as we have posted so many times, it is the method par excellence of bringing about a world in Peace and in Harmony. The words of the Master that accompany our motto here are the source for our understanding of GoodWill and our method of practice and the words of His apostles are their echo of the second part of the Greatest Commandment as enunciated by the Christ. Let us all strive to do our part for in so doing we are doing as the Master instructed; we are striving to enter at the strait gate into His Glorious Kingdom.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	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.

This Quote of the Day is the antithesis of glamour and illusion. In this mantram are the thoughts about ourselves and our brothers in the world that can diffuse these forces that hold a man in the world of things and prevent his spiritual progress.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888