ON LOVE; PART CMLVII

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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).

We ended the last essay with our view of the realities of Life as these ARE revealed to the man who lives according to the Master’s words and, by measure, to the man who Truly strives to DO so. In this idea of striving we should see that this IS NOT according to doctrines but rather according to the Truth of His words which IS captured for us in our trifecta of spiritual reality where the ONLY message IS that to attain the Kingdom of God, to KNOW the revealed Truths, and to have the Truth of the Presence of God in one’s Life, one must keep His words. We read Jesus words again saying:

• “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).
• “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).
• “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).

There IS NO mystery in these words which ARE presented with a clarity that IS ignored by so many who profess KNOW the mysteries. In these words there IS simply the admonition that we keep His words and whether we can see this in the idea of “If ye continue in my word” or in the idea of “he that doeth the will of my Father” IS a matter of choice as the words ARE most clear to the man whose thoughts ARE NOT squandered by the views developed in the doctrines of his particular division of the Truth. In the last essay we cited the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthians regarding the mystery of that change that overcomes a man whose focus has turned to the Godhead and away from the concerns of the self in this world. That these words from the apostle ARE NOT seen in this Light IS but a function of the doctrines of men that obnubilate the Truths and blind him to the idea that this death IS NOT of the body but IS of the spiritual view. And that many attribute the apostle’s words to the end times IS the result of the same function of doctrines that DO NOT see that these words themselves ARE wrapped in parabolic terms that allow them to be yet a mystery to the man whose focus IS NOT True.

In the end of the apostle’s words he tells us that “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56) and while doctrines may relate this idea to the apostle’s words on the law, the grater Truth IS in the relationship between death and sin….that it IS in sin, as the focus of one’s Life upon the carnal rather than the spiritual, that men ARE dead to the spiritual promptings of their own Soul. We see the revelation of the mysteries to the man who can see through the parabolic tone and we should try to understand how that it IS True Repentance, in Truly changing one’s focus to be upon the things of God, that IS the way that one can “put on incorruption” as this IS but the expression of the Love that IS the Soul which overcomes the expression of the interests of the self in this world. And so the idea that “this mortal shall have put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:54) IS the same as the expression of the man and his realizations of the Truth ARE based in the immortal Soul and NOT the carnal Life any longer.

When we can see how that the doctrinal view of Life can assign definite values to these parabolic ideas from Jesus and His apostles while it DOES NOT see nor understand the clearly presented Truths from their words, we can then better understand the import of Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh” and understand that these ARE the result of that vanity, that glamour and that illusion, that IS a part of the Life of the man whose focus remains in this world. And it IS this focus that allows for the establishment of factions and sects and most ALL divisions of men which result in the hatred, variance, emulations and wrath that yet encumbers most ALL men. Perhaps here we can try to see how that this whole of the Master’s teaching, both the clear and the clouded, IS parabolic in nature from the perspective of the carnal minds of men who seek the easier way than DOING. Perhaps it IS in this parabolic twist of reality that men make their own sense of the obnubilated ideas that ARE hidden in Jesus’ obscurely worded ideas on Life while the more clearly stated Truths ARE not seen because they require DOING.

It IS here that we can perhaps see the depth of the Apostle James saying that men should “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and understand that this deception IS based in that same parabolic twist and IS covered by the illusions and the glamour that make the unreal seem True. And so with His words to His disciples where men deceive themselves and believe by their doctrines that they ARE among those to whom “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God” while NOT fulfilling the role of a disciple of the Lord. It IS in this sense of deception that they have come to believe that they see through the parables while the Truth IS that they DO NOT even see the parable at all, and that it IS they who ARE among those who “seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10).

These things ARE easy to see for the man who can Truly understand the whole of the idea of keeping His words and who KNOWS that despite the difficulty that one may find in this endeavor, that the Way IS in his striving which IS to: to make strenuous efforts toward any goal ⁷ . This IS the reality of the trifecta and this IS the message that IS to be found in Paul’s words that we have been studying. In his list of the “works of the flesh” we should see those human thoughts, attitudes and actions that can keep a man from “the kingdom of God” and we should try to understand how that regardless of how we discern his words, they ARE a part of the human problem. In the carnal understanding of sexual deviation and the doctrinal ideas attached to idolatry and witchcraft as well as the ideas of the things that men can DO against their fellowman and against doctrine, there IS the sense of sin. And, in the more spiritual view of these ideas that we have be discussing, there IS the very Truth of sin as these “works of the flesh” ARE those things that ARE contrary to the Truths of the Great Commandments that we have at the top of our essay….and they ARE against the essence of the Golden Rule. We repeat the apostle’s words again:

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:17-24).

We repeat our closing thought from yesterday: that we should see that the first segment of the apostle’s words depict the way that men look to the world rather that to God and that the second segment shows us those carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions that ARE the Life of the man who DOES NOT express the fullness of Love but rather expresses those thoughts and attitudes that he finds in his sense of division and in his own faction or sect. This should set the stage for us for what we see as the third segment of the apostle’s words which we see as representing those things that ARE self destructive but which DO NOT necessarily harm our fellowman. These ideas that ARE rendered as drunkenness and revellings ARE the depths of the man whose focus IS upon the things of the world and it IS in these ideas that we should try to see the carnal ideas that doctrines erringly attach to the first segment.

In the Gospel of the Apostle Luke, the Master uses the word Greek word methe which IS rendered as drunkenness as a thing to avoid saying that men should “take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares” (Luke 21:34). We should try to see how that this idea of methe IS reference to ALL things that a man can DO to drown out the reality of his Life including his thoughts that may lend toward his own spiritual wellbeing and, as most can personally testify, there ARE many reasons for men to seek this diversion. Luke tells us that these words, along with the rest of His teaching that day, was directed as His own disciples. We read this as “Then in the audience of all the people he said unto his disciples” (Luke 20:45) and in this we should be able to understand, from the perspective of his disciples and followers, that this idea of drunkenness and “cares of this life” can overwhelm a man and stall or even stop his progress upon the Path of Life.

It IS in this way that we should try to see Paul’s use here of this idea. As a part of the reality that “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would“, we should be able to see and understand his point and his caution that the True follower of the Master must avoid this pitfall which takes the heart, the consciousness, off of the things of God and places it back into the things of the world. And this IS regardless of how one may believe his thoughts may yet be of a spiritual nature. This idea of what men may believe to be true in their drunkenness IS even more important and apparent when one’s drunkenness IS the result of drugs rather than liquid intoxicants where some may believe that they can come closer to God with their use. In ALL ways drunkenness IS a diversion; for the carnal man a diversion from his Earthy Life and, for the more spiritual, a diversion from pain of losing one’s own sense of humanity and the presumed pleasures of the human experience.

While the ideas behind this word that IS rendered as drunkenness ARE more easily understood, the apostle’s intent in offering us the next word IS NOT so clear. The Greek word komos which IS rendered here as revellings IS seen as: a nocturnal and riotous procession of half drunken and frolicsome fellows who after supper parade through the streets with torches and music in honour of Bacchus or some other deity ² according to the lexicon and Vincent tells us that this view IS taken from ancient Greek writings and notes that such komos: also entered into religious observances, especially in the worship of Bacchus, Demeter, and the Idaeau Zeus in Crete. The fanatic and orgiastic rites of Egypt, Asia Minor, and Thrace became engrafted on the old religion ⁴. In this view we can perhaps see how that Paul IS cautioning the disciples as Galatia that they should NOT revert to their old ways and here perhaps his intent IS especially meaningful in relation to drunkenness. Paul uses this idea of komos, again with methe, in his Epistle to the Romans where we read his words in a different context:

“Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and 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. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:8-14).

The entirety of the apostle’s ideas here can be found in the last verse that tells men to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” and we should understand here how that such komos, which IS rendered here as rioting, and methe or drunkenness IS “provision for the flesh“.

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