ON LOVE; PART CMLIX

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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 have completed the Apostle Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh” and throughout our work on these Greek words we have tried to develop the apostle’s True intent in listing these for disciples and aspirants who ARE NOT so subject to the carnal instincts but who ARE striving toward their own spiritual reality. As disciples and aspirants, they KNOW the reality of the carnal ideas that doctrines have rendered from Paul’s words and we should try to understand that it IS for disciples that Paul shows the deeper ideas of those everyday carnal attitudes, thoughts and actions that can keep them from “the kingdom of God“. Again, they KNOW that adultery and fornication as sexual deviations ARE wrong and they KNOW the perils of uncleanness and lasciviousness in this same context. We should try to see that these to whom the apostle writes have escaped from these according to the Apostle Peter’s saying that the disciple and, by measure, the aspirant ARE “partakers of the divine nature” because they have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (1 Peter 1:4).

It IS in this view that we have been searching for the right ideas to go with the Greek words that ARE rendered by most ALL translations according to the preconceived ideas and doctrines that DO NOT see to whom the apostle IS writing. It IS in these preconceived ideas that the illusions and the glamour of religion take hold and make men to believe that it IS to them that the apostle writes about the doings of others who ARE NOT yet saved according to their own doctrines. For us the greater reality comes first through the words of the Master who shows us and tells us how one can achieve the Kingdom of God. In His words there ARE NO doctrinal precepts, as we KNOW them in Christianity, that accomplish this goal, there IS ONLY that a man keep His words and, until that goal IS reached, that they should strive. This idea of keeping His words IS NOT parabolic nor IS it written in such as way that men can merely believe that they ARE DOING so; His words are clearly stated for us in our trifecta of spiritual reality which we repeat here again:

• “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).

And this trifecta then leads us back into our view of Paul’s words that ARE speaking to men who ARE keeping His words or else ARE striving toward that goal albeit in a way that IS confused by the doctrines of others which we read in the way that the apostle opens his epistle to the Galatians. While we can only imagine what teaching it IS that could “pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:7), we could reasonably assume that it IS the introduction of moral doctrines that where followed by the Jews, doctrines that Jesus railed against but which DID NOT include the common ideas that have been attached to Paul’s words on “the works of the flesh” by religious ‘authorities’. We list these here again in our subject sayings from Paul’s Epistle.

“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).

It IS when we can understand that carnal thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE more than those common ideas that have been attached to Paul’s use of the Greek words, that we can rightly see into his intent and understand what must be DONE in order to be among those who ARE “partakers of the divine nature“. That one must be free of the base carnal ideas that we find in the common understanding of the rendered words IS readily apparent but it IS when we can see the Truths that lie beneath the doctrinal illusions that we can be Truly free as the Master tells us. This IS a freedom and a deliverance that comes to the man who will “continue in my word“. It IS when we can understand that there IS more to the “the corruption that is in the world” than the gross offences that ARE generally attributed to Paul’s list, that we can Truly appreciate the ideas that ARE clearly shown to us in the Great Commandments which we have again at the top of our essay. And when we can see how that it IS in keeping these Great Commandments of Loving God and Loving our neighbor, our brother and the stranger who qualifies as both in the reality of agape, we can then see what it Truly means to keep His words.

This IS ever the KEY to our own salvation and our own deliverance “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) and when we can see this in accord with the Apostle James’ saying that men must “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22), we can then better understand the depths of the illusion and the glamour in which men live….the vanity to which ALL men ARE subjected. It IS this illusion and this glamour, this vanity, that IS the “the corruption that is in the world through lust” and it IS this vanity, which IS rendered from the Greek word mataiotes, that IS the affliction of men that Vincent tells us IS: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends ⁴. It IS this that must be overcome; this IS the corruption that keeps men in bondage to the world and to the deeper reality of sin which must eventually be seen as ALL things that ARE NOT in accord with the Great Commandments.

This IS ALL a part of the great mysteries that the gospels and the epistles can reveal to the man who Truly seeks, the man who sees past the doctrines that men have constructed for their own convenience and which ARE based in this same illusion, this same glamour….this same sense of vanity which IS ONLY resolved in keeping His words. We should try to see here how that the reality of the Great Commandments IS shown to us by the Master and His apostles, how that this IS shown in Jesus’ words on Love and the importance of Love and how this IS shown through the clarifying and amplifying words of His apostles. It IS in seeing this that we can better understand Paul’s many words on the failure of the law, how that the law IS superseded by the reality of Love that was taught to the Jews and NOT seen, and which has been further taught to us and again NOT seen as the KEY to keeping His words. It IS keeping His words that IS the KEY to our attaining the Kingdom of God and KNOWING God and it IS Love, as agape, that IS the KEY to keeping His words. This IS clearly shown to us in such sayings as we list here:

• That these ideas on Love ARE an integral part of the teachings and commandments that Moses brought to the Jews seems lost. It was lost to the Jews before the captivity and it was lost to them in Jesus’ day but it IS clearly shown in the many commandments on how a man should treat his neighbor, his brother and the stranger. In Leviticus we read: “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD” and while men may believe that this applies ONLY to fellow Jews, this IS further clarified for us in sayings as “But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18, 34). This idea of Love for the neighbor or, better, Love for ALL as one would Love himself, IS NOT seen in its right light yet today where the conversation often becomes of people who may NOT have any great satisfaction with themselves and their own lives but this IS NOT the intent of this idea; this is but the vanity of Life at work.
• This idea of Love for others IS rather clearly stated albeit not understood apart from the emotional and mental attachment and attraction to others and to things. And so too the idea of Love for God which we read in Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) IS NOT rightly understood. In this we have the crux of most ALL of Jesus’ subsequent teachings on Life and on Love as He shows us the way. We should see here the Jew’s failure as their culture interpreted the commandments according to the convenience of that culture and took the ideas of the Promises in a strictly carnal way. In this they made a way of Life that NEVER rightly understood what it means to “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might“, that in this there IS NO room for their Love for their own way and their comfort.
• It IS Jesus that took these two ideas of Love as agape and planted them as the Great Commandments which we repeat at the top of our essays. These Great Commandments ARE the Master’s Way of showing us their importance in the spiritual lives of men but, just as the Jews DID NOT see the reality and the intent of these words, neither DOES the Christian today. This is despite the clarifying and amplifying words that we get from the writings of the apostles who, as we see in our subject sayings from Paul above, show us the dichotomy between the things of the flesh and the things of God. We should see here how that the idea behind “he 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” IS NO different than the idea that men should “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might“. And there ARE many such sayings including that from Peter that we cite above and James’ saying that “know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (James 4:4)
• While we may have to Truly seek in order to understand the relationships in our ideas in this dichotomy between the spiritual and the carnal, the Truth IS rather clearly stated for us. That this Truth IS NOT seen IS again the product of the illusion in which men live, an illusion that keeps a man from seeing past the carnal and into the Truly spiritual aspects of Life. Likewise the ideas from the second of the Great Commandments ARE clearly offered for us by the apostles in their many words on the relationship between Love and keeping His words and the very idea to be taken from agape IS given us by the Master’s own Golden Rule and James’ depiction of the Truth of Love as one having NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9). Both of these ideas IS lost in the doctrinal approach to God: the Golden Rule IS NOT nearly understood and James’ words are attributed ONLY to the ideas of the rich and the poor if they ARE recognized as the Truth of Love at ALL.

It IS these ideas that ARE presented in the Great Commandments that ARE the subject of Paul’s list of “the works of the flesh” and it IS when we can see these spiritual ideas as spiritual ideas that we can begin to break free from “the bondage of corruption“. This bondage IS the lives of men whose focus IS yet upon the things of the world rather than fully upon the things of God as the Master shows us; it IS NOT as men have created in their doctrines.

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