ON LOVE; PART MXC
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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).
In the last essay we continued with the theme of diversity and how that the idea of Unity in Diversity plays its role in the lives of men. The True man, the Soul or spiritual man, IS ever in Unity and Oneness with ALL men as the Soul’s vision IS NOT obnubilated by the vanity that IS Life in this world. It IS the illusion and the glamour in which men live here in this Earth, “the vanity of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17) as Paul shows us, that keeps the man in form from seeing the Truth above his own carnal desires and his thoughts and attitudes regarding them. That Jesus shows us the way to see past one’s carnal tendencies, which ARE fed by one’s nurturing, his indoctrination and his experience, IS NOT seen by the doctrinal church which steadily teaches men that this little existence in this world IS their Life and after that heaven or hell.
Most ALL of the Master’s teaching IS intended to lead men away from their carnal focus and toward a focus upon the Truth and it IS this that His apostles clarify and amplify in their epistles. Men and their doctrines however ARE stuck on their little issues which in the long term have little or NO importance. Many focus ALL their efforts on proselytizing for their particular view as they claim that they ARE following the Great Commission which DOES NOT say to teach doctrine but DOES say that they should be “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Some focus upon their view of grace, others on the ideas of confession and communion, still others focus upon the idea of the atonement that clears ALL sins past, present and future, and others still focus their ministries on the end times and offer ill conceived ideas based in ‘prophecies’ which ARE NOT comprehensible.
Few, if any, focus upon the Truth of Jesus’ words and the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles. Few, if any, realize that the KEYS to Life ARE in His words and NOT in the doctrines drawn from the words of the Apostle Paul who NEVER intended that his writings should be used as such. Few if any realize that they use the words of scripture that ARE actually against their sense of doctrine to support their doctrines which only increases the vanity in which they live. Solomon writes in Proverbs that men should “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5) and many DO teach this in their doctrines yet few, if any, see themselves as an offender.
It IS in Jesus’ words and in the words of His apostles that the Truth of Unity IS easily found and it IS behind this Truth of Unity that we find the reality of the Soul, of the spiritual man, whose Truth must become the expression of the man in this world. It IS sometimes difficult to separate the ideas that ARE addressed to the carnal man from the ideas that ARE addressed to his spiritual reality but this difficulty IS part of the whole reality of the realizations of men. For men to understand the deeper ideas they must be somewhat focused upon the Truth of His words and especially the Truth of agape around which ALL spiritual teaching revolves. It IS NOT the parabolic way of speaking that the Master and His apostles employ that deflects the Truth, it IS the focus of men who CAN NOT yet see past their own carnal understanding and approach to the Lord.
None of the mysteries ARE plainly spoken of by the Master but the Great Truths that lead to one’s understanding of them ARE quite clear. It IS the habit of men however to ignore the clearly revealed ideas while they seek to interpret the more obtuse in purely carnal terms. And the same IS True of the words of His apostles. While Paul goes to great lengths to show the Truth of agape and how that ALL of the law IS covered by one’s expression of this Love, men cling “unto thine own understanding” of his words on grace and faith as they use such sayings as “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” to teach that one need NOT be “doers of the word” (James 1:22).
The dysfunction IS sometimes deafening as most DO KNOW what the words DO say yet they teach and believe that this IS impossible or DOES NOT matter against their doctrinal belief that they ARE ‘saved’ and “born again“. Such IS what happens with these words from Romans which epistle IS the primary source of the doctrinal teaching on faith versus works; we read:
“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 13:10-14).
While many DO cling to the teaching on faith and works, they DO NOT understand the meaning of faith nor how that the missing component in their ideas IS Love. True faith IS that KNOWING of some measure of the Truth and here, in Paul’s words, that measure IS agape and the expression of it. It IS in Love that ALL things work for good as Paul also tells us in this same Epistle to the Romans saying “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). Here, if we parse the apostle’s words, we can perhaps see the indelible links to Jesus own words that ARE our trifecta; perhaps we can see that “them that love God” ARE those that “hath my commandments, and keepeth them” as Jesus tells us as part of the trifecta:
- “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).
Paul’s message above IS that men should “awake out of sleep” and it IS in this awakeness that one will see the reality of Love, that it IS NOT the emotional and mental attachment and attraction to others and to things but it IS rather an intimate understanding of that Unity in Diversity that IS Life in this world. Agape IS an intimate realization of the Oneness of ALL men as Souls, as spiritual beings, that sees past the diversity of forms and ideas which separate men and ARE contrary to the the ultimate Truth of Love….that one can have NO “respect to persons” (James 2:9). It IS when we can see past the diversity of forms that we can begin to see that ALL men ARE Truly equal in the eyes of the Lord, equal as Souls who ARE their own cause for the diversity found in this world.
And this diversity IS NOT a bad thing; it IS the result of the progress and the spiritual collateral of each Soul who incarnates into this world compounded by the ways of the world into which one IS born. How a Soul chooses where and when he should take his place among men again IS beyond our ken but we should understand that this IS essentially the Soul’s own DOING. And while we DO NOT KNOW the whys and hows of babies born with physical deformities nor whether this carnal anomaly IS a chosen Path for a Soul to use, we DO assume that most always such anomalies ARE happenstance and likely of little consequence in the eternal Life of the Soul.
And we DO KNOW that it IS NOT the work of nor the responsibility of God that such children ARE born nor where or when they ARE born. It IS NOT God that puts some in a place of splendor and others in abject poverty nor it IS the purpose of God that many die of sickness or disease or accident or due to intentional harm by others. These things ARE merely the way of Life in this world where men fail to see their own reality. We can say however that in the panoply of Life in this world that men ARE more or less on their own as men as they live according to their focus of Life. Regardless of one’s position, save perhaps for those who lack mental capacity, there IS ever opportunity to seek the Lord and to DO so according to one’s own sense of religion; it matters NOT that one approaches Jehovah, or Krisna, it matters NOT that one seeks communion with the Buddha or the Christ and it matters NOT that we call God Allah or Shiva….there IS but One God.
There IS little True understanding of reincarnation but, as we have been discussing, there IS little understanding of other approaches to Truth either. The ideas of heaven and hell that ARE based in the Life and death of men in a single Lifetime ALL fail against the Truth that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). The doctrinal approach also fails when the whole idea of Love IS understood; not ONLY in regard to “no respect of persons with God” but also in the Great Truth that “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Paul tries to lead us to see the dichotomy between the carnal and the spiritual in many of his sayings and this dichotomy IS perhaps the larger point in his words to the Corinthians that we have been discussing; the apostle says:
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).
If we can see that the apostle IS trying to show spiritual ideas in carnal terms, we can perhaps grasp his meaning which we see as the reality of that dichotomy. We should try to see that “our earthly house of this tabernacle” IS NOT ONLY the physical form but rather ALL things that can be seen under the idea of the flesh….the form, the thoughts and the attitudes which, should they be dissolved, would allow for one’s realization of the “building of God“. Speaking to men who have some measure of Truth, Paul acknowledges their strong desire to wear this “house which is from heaven” which IS the Soul; we should see here how that to wear this “house which is from heaven” IS to have and to express some measure of the revelations and realizations of Truth.
We should see as well that in his words “being clothed we shall not be found naked“, his reference is to spiritual nakedness and that the earnest desire IS “not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed“….”with our house which is from heaven“. There IS a simplicity beneath the apostle’s words that perhaps ARE used NOT to deflect the Truth but to enhance the whole reality of what follows. Can we see how that to be “at home in the body” IS to NOT be clothed “with our house which is from heaven” and therefore to be “absent from the Lord“? And can we see that “to be absent from the body” IS in regard to one’s focus, that it IS NOT upon “our earthly house of this tabernacle” nor its ways and to be free of this IS “to be present with the Lord“.
This however IS NOT the way that doctrines present Paul’s words. Most see the dissolution of the tabernacle as a: a mild word for death, in the case of believers according to John Gill who also tells us that while one’s present body IS also from God, that Paul’s meaning IS our resurrection body . To read Paul’s words in terms of Life and death IS to see the apostle “earnestly desiring” to die but a doctrinal twist IS applied here which we read in Mr. Gills words saying: earnestly longing to have ourselves clothed upon, namely, by being found alive at Christ’s coming, and so to escape dissolution by death ( 2 Corinthians 5:1 2 Corinthians 5:4 ), and to have our heavenly body put on over the earthly 8. Can we see the illogic of this idea?
That men have expected the immanent reappearance of the Christ for nearly 2000 years plays a part here in this doctrinal approach to Paul’s words and we should try to see that it IS the doctrinal failure to see past the carnal Life that has resulted in these type views. While the desire to have our heavenly body put on over the earthly IS our True goal, it IS NOT according to Mr. Gill’s context but according to the revelations and realizations of Truth that come in striving to keep His words. And perhaps we can see here that it IS the doctrinal refusal to even entertain the reality of reincarnation that has ever led those who have taken doctrinal authority to find clever ways to interpret such sayings as we have here from Paul.
Our view of Paul’s writings here IS founded in the right discerning of the ideas of death and Life according to Jesus’ own use of them. As the Master tells us that “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39), so Paul tells us “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord” and then conversely that he IS “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord“. The intent of both these ideas IS largely the same. It IS the focus of the Life of the man in the world that determines his Presence with the Lord or his presence here in this world; the physical body ever IS the same but, for the man who seeks the Lord the expression of that body becomes that of the Soul.
We DO understand the difficulty of looking away from the Life of the man in the world which IS ever a carnal Life until such time as one comes to a True understanding of Repentance as Jesus shows us early in the gospels. It IS with Repentance that one’s journey on the Path to Truth begins and this IS followed by the Transformation and then the Redemption and both of these latter ideas ARE expounded upon by Paul. But men DO NOT see the reality that IS shown to them as they continue to believe that they can live as the double minded man of whom the Apostle James tells us that “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).
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
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
