ON LOVE; PART MLXXI
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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 some thoughts on Love as agape. That one’s expression of this Love, a Love that IS neither emotional nor mental, IS the paramount feature of the Master’s teaching IS NOT understood by most men. Nor IS the reality of the meaning of this Love understood as men DO NOT parse Jesus words from the Great Commandments or effort to see the basic reality of “love thy neighbour as thyself“. In the last essay we discussed the first part of the Great Commandments to show how that the idea of Love for God and for the Christ IS intimately tied to keeping His words and we should remember and understand here that these commandments ARE His words and ARE the words of God. While this idea that Jesus’ words ARE essentially God’s words IS often misunderstood, this Truth IS an important part of our trifecta which we repeat 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).
We should see here that it IS in the communion of the Father and the Son that the thoughts, attitudes, ideas and actions of the Son ARE those of the Father and we should try to understand how that this same dynamic DOES apply to the man who has the fullness of His Presence which comes, according to the trifecta, to the man who will keep His words. The reality of how this communion applies to man IS found in Jesus’ words and in the reality of the Christ Within. In the simplicity that shows us that His Presence IS one’s realization of the Christ Within and the glory that this brings, we should be able to understand our own sense of communion which IS achieved by measure until one attains the fullness of being “led of the Spirit“.
Jesus shows us that “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), which IS rendered by some as “I and the Father are one“, and in this idea we should see the essential communion of these aspects of God. This Oneness however IS NOT clearly seen by the doctrines of men that separate the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirt into separate and distinct ‘persons’. Similarly the doctrines of men DO NOT see the essential unity of the Spirit and the Soul that ARE the True man as these relate to the Father and the Son even though this idea IS presented by scripture. Paul shows us the mystery “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) and he tells us that “the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:17). In the combination of these ideas we should see that it IS the fundamental totality of the Godhead that IS the True man and that it IS he that uses the mortal body in this Life, in this world.
And the apostle goes on to tell us of the Holy Spirit and how that this third aspect of the Godhead IS within man as well. Paul shows us this by question saying “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Here we should see how that this reality IS True of ALL men but unrealized by most; the reality that the True man IS the microcosm to God who IS the macrocosm. This IS the point that we make through the chart below which we include with every post. There IS an essential Unity between God and the True man, the combination of the Spirit, the Soul and the Life that animates the form, that IS shown to us by Paul’s saying that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), and in our own saying that we ARE, as spiritual beings, part and parcel of God.
It IS in the realization of these things that men come closer to the Truth and an understanding of the mysteries of Life. It IS by measure that men come to see the essential Truths which DO free us from that “bondage of corruption” (Romans 8:21) and it IS in their measured realization of these Truths that men can come to see and to understand the deeper reality that Jesus shows us in the reality of His words that men “shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. It IS in understanding the Oneness of God that we can understand Jesus’ words saying “I and the Father are one” and then see how that the combination Paul’s sayings which we cite above show us this same essential Unity within the Life of everyman.
It IS in the doctrinal teachings on the Trinity that much of the Truth IS missed as doctrines DO NOT see the True relationship of man and God. It IS this relationship that we should see in the sayings above that show us that God, Christ and the Holy Spirit ARE ALL within a man; and while doctrines teach that this IS ONLY True of Christians, the greater Truth IS found in our understanding of the dynamic of Love and the rewards of keeping His words according to the trifecta. It IS in the fullness of one’s revelations and realizations of Truth and of His Presence that the communion Truly comes and it IS this fullness that Paul shows us that he himself awaits as he tells us “we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).
When we can see this idea of adoption as Vincent shows us; that: the adopted son of God becomes, in a peculiar and intimate sense, one with the heavenly Father 4, we can then understand what it IS that the apostle waits for. And when we can see this waiting as one’s continued active pursuit as the Apostle James shows us as he tells us that “the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it” (James 5:7) we can get a better glimpse at the reality of measure. It IS in “the redemption of our body” that the fullness of realization IS KNOWN as the form becomes naught but the vessel and the temple of the Lord whose Life IS expressed through it. And this expression IS Love.
This Love however IS NOT that emotional and mental attachment and attraction that men have for others or for things; this Love, this agape, IS the reality the Jesus shows us as He tells us of the Great Commandment that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. This IS a universal Love for everyman that IS based in the Truth that ALL men ARE part and parcel of God. It IS in this view that the True man, the Inner man who IS the Soul, can be seen apart from his own phenomenal appearance in this world. It IS when we can see that Paul’s words above on the “Christ in you“, “the temple of God” and the “temple of the Holy Ghost” pertain to everyman, that we can then see the basis for this universal Love.
But these ideas must be seen in the reality that God IS in man and man IS in God and that this DOES NOT ONLY apply to the the Christian as they presume and their doctrines teach. We must see that this IS the essential Truth of our existence and that it IS one’s realization of these Truths that allows for a man’s expression of them. And while the Christian may believe that this Presence of God IS ONLY True for them according to their several doctrines, they still miss the greater point that this Presence comes ONLY to the man who will keep His words as we read in the trifecta. It IS in the illusion and the glamour of Life in this world that the doctrinal sense IS created and held and it IS in the illusion and the glamour of Life that men DO NOT see the True basis of agape.
We have Jesus words on Love and we have His apostles’ clarifying and amplifying words that show us both the importance of agape and the way that one’s expression of this Love fulfills the reality of keeping His words. It IS this that Paul shows us in our selection from Galatians as he tells us of those thoughts, attitudes and actions of men that ARE contrary to this reality. Again, in “the works of the flesh” we have those thoughts, attitudes and actions of men that ARE contrary to the Great Commandments and, to our point, it IS the ideas that ARE rendered as “hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings and murders” that ARE contrary to the commandment that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. It IS the divisions and the factions that ARE the reality of this list which cause men to see others differently and to oppose them; it IS the divisions and the factions created by men who DO NOT or will NOT try to see the essential Unity as the basis for Love and that ARE the root cause of so much of the problems of humanity.
And it IS “the fruit of the Spirit” that IS the expression of the man who DOES see the essential Unity of ALL men. It IS in expressing “the fruit of the Spirit” that one IS expressing agape as this IS intended by the Great Commandment and clarified by Jesus in the Golden Rule. It IS when men can see themselves and others as Souls, as spiritual beings, who ARE ALL working our their own Redemption through Life in this world, that they can also see the reality of agape as the responsibility of ALL men. It IS in having some measure of this Truth that a man can heed the apostle’s words that tell us that as a disciple and as an aspirant one must “use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another“. It IS ONLY in this that one can Truly “Walk in the Spirit“. Repeating our selection from Galatians we read:
“For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 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).
If men could but see how that it IS in their essential Unity with God that they too ARE Unified, perhaps they could understand that whatsoever one man will DO against another IS DONE against ALL. Whatever divides one group from another carnally effects the potential for Unification for ALL and so long as men hold onto their factious behaviors which ARE the fuel of glamour, the progress of ALL men IS hindered. It IS in the illusion and the glamour of Life that the Truth of Love IS NOT allowed to flourish and it IS in this that we find the roots of lust which IS men’s focus upon the me and the my of their lives. The Apostle Peter shows us that it IS this sense of me and my from which men must escape saying “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4).
This IS the essence of lust and of desires founded in the things of this world; it IS the sense of me and my that overwhelms the minds and the emotions of men and obnubilates the Truth. In a recent post we showed how that these words from Peter correspond with those words from Paul that tell us that we “shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:18-21). We should see that the “exceeding great and precious promises” ARE the reality of this deliverance and that it IS in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” that men ARE “partakers of the divine nature“. We should see as well that “the bondage of corruption” IS “the corruption that is in the world through lust” and it IS this from which we must be freed….a freedom that Jesus shows us IS ONLY possible for the man who DOES “continue in my word“.
We should also try to see and to understand that it IS by measure that we escape and that it IS by measure that we gain the Truth which will set us free, the Truth which IS our deliverance from our bondage to sin. It IS when a man begins to Truly seek the Lord and to follow Him through striving to keep His words that the ideas of me and my begin to dissipate and it IS in the dissipation of one’s focus upon the self that the reality of Love will flow as the man’s focus turns evermore to the things of God. And this can ALL be hastened by a change of view; a change that sees the Unity of men across the diversity of forms, of religions, of cultures and of any possible sense of division; a change that begins with one’s ability to see the reality of man as the spiritual being that gives Life to the form.
The Master and His apostles tell us that God IS “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) and this idea IS broached from several different perspectives that should show us that these same factions and divisions that men create ARE NOT seen by the Lord who “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). We should remember here that this idea of division applies to ALL men and, as we have discussed in our commentary on “the works of the flesh“, Paul IS addressing his comments to men who have mostly overcome the more carnal aspects that divide men. Paul’s warning here IS to the aspirant who IS yet striving toward discipleship and the disciple himself, and it IS a caution that they beware of the ease with which these ideas of faction and division can overtake a man.
Paul points this out rather graphically in his first Epistle to the Corinthians where we read: “For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 11-13). It IS in this context that we should understand “the works of the flesh” which include the ideas of factions and division as the causal factors for the hatred and the wrath and, for the man who Truly seeks God, these ideas can be the same burden as they ARE for those at Corinth to whom the apostle writes. We should remember here that the Greek words that ARE rendered as seditions and heresies can also be rendered as divisions and sects and that Vincent shows us that the word rendered as strife should be rendered as factions. We should also remember that the rendering of these words varies along the lines of division and faction among other translations.
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.
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.
We repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
