ON LOVE; PART MCCLXXX
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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 the carnal nature versus the spiritual nature of men. We should try to understand that the carnal nature IS the product of a combination of many factors, most of which we DO NOT Truly understand but which we can watch working out in our own lives and the lives of others. First there IS the body nature itself, the physical equipment if you will, and its ability to perform in this world. Many ARE born with deformities and for some of these there ARE specific physical reasons as in the case of the Thalidomide Babies of the late fifties and early sixties; for most others however there IS NO reasonable answer to why such children ARE NOT born ‘normal’. Then there IS the psychic nature through which many ARE born with deficiencies that CAN NOT be explained; again there ARE some cases where there IS a statistical statistical answer as in the case of Down-syndrome babies where the chances of producing such ARE related to the age of the mother. Much of this however as well as other psychic abnormalities seems more randomly placed.
While many cases of physical and psychic abnormalities can be seen in through tests in the womb, most ARE unpredictable and while some can be traced to DNA abnormalities, there IS seldom and answer as to the cause. Our point here IS that in this world that IS governed by God, by a Supreme Being that the religions of the world see as Loving and Good, these abnormalities DO occur and in this we should see that the cause IS either happenstance or that the Soul that IS destined to use a particular body in a particular setting has some degree of control, or lack thereof, over the condition of the fetus, both physically and psychically. While the idea of God’s involvement should detract from ideas of His purposefulness for such a child being born, many yet see the hand of God at play and for a variety of reasons and this over as well the haphazard nature of happenstance.
Jesus addresses some of what IS thought to be the reason yet today as He answers His apostles’ question regarding one that IS born blind; we read that “as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:1-3). This answer should take away any Christian idea that there IS a cause of sin in regard to deformities and here the reality of the answer IS NOT Truly understood as it places the blame upon the Lord and feeds the doctrinal ideas that God causes such. We should take Jesus answer as Truth of course but then where ARE we left? Believing that a Loving and Good God purposefully causes such deformities for some hidden religious reason?
If we can understand that the Soul preexists one’s birth in this world and that every Soul DOES have its own spiritual baggage and spiritual collateral from any previous excursions in this world, we can then perhaps understand the depth of Jesus’ answer in a way that excludes the ‘hand of God’ as the direct cause. We should ever remember that the very idea that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) comes into jeopardy whenever the ‘hand of God’ IS used as a reason for something happening for or to a singular person or a group of people in this world. In the doctrines of men this idea that “there is no respect of persons” (Colossians 3:25) IS NOT a concept that IS properly understood against the backdrop of their ideas of grace and prayer; much of the church believes that the individual has access to favors from the Godhead, a belief that makes this aspect of the nature of God moot.
The spiritual force that governs the Life of everyman IS his own Soul which IS ever part and parcel of the whole which we humbly call God; it IS this force that IS the reality of the Holy Spirit….it IS this force that IS the unction by which we can “know all things” (1 John 2:20). And it IS this spiritual force that IS the Life of everyman as an individual Soul that IS travelling the very same road as every other Soul, and this regardless of how the appearance of that Soul in form in this Earth may be. While the idea that the Soul and his spiritual collateral have some measure of control over the creation and even the parameters of his birth may seem odd to the doctrinal thinker whose view of God IS steeped in the rites, the rituals and the experience of a particular denomination or sect, there IS a solid idea of Truth that runs through this concept.
The most important to note here IS the way that if the ‘hand of God’ has a part to play in picking and choosing who can or will DO what, accomplish what or have whatsoever favor of the Lord, then the whole idea that “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34) falls apart. It IS the chaos that streams from such ideas that fuels the nebulous ideas of faith and believing in the church yet today and it IS this idea that IS singularly responsible for any uncertainty in the lives of the believer who DOES NOT receive whatsoever IS his particular prayer and who IS perhaps told that he DOES NOT have sufficient faith. The greater reality IS that men ARE here to work out their own salvation and that the doctrines of men have tied this to their rites and rituals, their affirmations and confessions, DOES NOT make it so. Add to this their doctrinal view of eternal Life and we have then a situation in which NO man can Truly win.
Many ARE told that if they simply believe as their doctrines prescribe, that they ARE assured of a place in ‘heaven’ when they die, others ARE told that they need to live righteous in addition to their believing and yet others ARE told that they must perform the sacraments of the church to be saved while others still teach that so long as one IS ‘absolved’ of their sin by a priest before they die that they will NOT suffer hell regardless of what they may have done. In ALL these congeries of the one Christian faith, it IS difficult to find much common ground and so ensues partisanship and division as it has from the beginning of the church. There ARE likely several things that these denominations and sects have in common; one IS their belief in Jesus the Christ as their Savior and another IS the near universal disdain for the concept of reincarnation, a disdain NOT based in scriptural Truths but in man’s fixation on himself as the True being despite the many scriptural Truths that show that everyman IS indeed the Soul living through a form in this world.
We will NOT spend our essay here preaching reincarnation but we will make use of the way that the doctrines of men have decried this idea based solely upon the teaching of those who decried it before them. There ARE likely few ‘authorities’ that have ever properly studied the the issue apart from the dogma of other religions which accept it and most ALL ignore the body of testimony that has existed for centuries in favor of their own believer’s testimonies of their visions in a near-death situations or in their dreams and visions regarding a heaven which they believe IS True. Naught can be proven however on either side of this issue and perhaps we should try to see here how that the Christian’s most basic desire to continue as the ONLY person that he Truly KNOWS overrides any ability to look forward in a more logical way.
If men can accept the idea that heaven IS a part of tradition rather than scripture perhaps there could be a Truly great awakening in the ranks of Christians, many of whom DO NOT understand the confusion within their own church on what such a place IS or means. In such acceptance there can be a greater seeking for the most basic Truths of Jesus’ words and the words of the Lord that preceded Him. It IS of course the vanity that IS Life in this world that IS preventing men from seeing the greater Truths and it IS ONLY in breaking through this sense of accepting what one IS told simply because it IS the easier way that such Truths can be approached. While we have ofttimes said that the doctrinal thinker, especially the ardent among them, ARE the least likely group to change, to overcome their own glamour and illusion into which they ARE indoctrinated, there IS perhaps a large group withing the church that can be reached.
This group IS the everyday man who attends church and who somewhat believes in what he IS being taught regarding heaven, hell, salvation and other aspects of the Christian religions. This man IS NOT so ardent in his beliefs and we should try to see here that he IS likely NO different than the majority of those ardent believers insofar as his Life’ activities in this world. His difference IS that he IS NOT convinced and IS thereby more open to other points of view that may differ from the doctrinal ideas; he may be more open to the greater Truth that must eventually supplant the singularity of Christ as He IS taught in most ALL Christian doctrines that interpret His words saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6) into that singularity.
In the last essay we discussed several ways that this single verse has separated the Christian from the world and has caused much division over the centuries. In the context in which this idea IS found the point of the Master’s words ARE to depict that Unity and that sameness between Himself as the Christ and the Father as the One God; this however IS overlooked against the religious value of the most literal interpretation. In context we should understand that Jesus IS building a case for their belief in the greater Truth and it IS apparent that the apostles DO NOT understand His words nor DO they understand the most intimate relationship depicted in His prayer where we read “as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us” (John 17:21) .
From the perspective of the man in this world, the physical and psychic man, such ideas were hard to understand for the apostles as they ARE for men yet today; many accept that Jesus, or God or the Holy Ghost has come to live in them at their point of being “born again” but DOES anyone Truly understand this? While the idea behind such sayings as “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) and the words from our trifecta that say “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” ARE shown us throughout the New Testament, few Truly understand their significance especially when compounded by His teaching on the branches and the vine and such words as “I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one” (John 17:23). ALL of this points to the spiritual unity of ALL men with Christ and with God and that doctrines have placed their emphasis upon the man Jesus IS more to DO with their carnal sense than a spiritual understanding that could show the greater Truth.
That “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) IS a fundamental Truth as IS the Apostle John’s revelation that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and it IS in the combination of these ideas that we should see both the nature of God and the nature of everyman. For most ALL the True relationship goes unrealized and this IS True of the man seen as the ‘unbeliever’ as well as most ALL believers whose views ARE stuck in their doctrinal approach to the Lord. It IS in the reality that everyman IS Spirit, manifest as Soul and living a Life through a form in this world that shows us also that as that Spirit, that Soul, everyman IS Love. No man can be separated from the reality of God; Paul tells us that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28) and this we must understand to be True on every level of existence.
As Spirit “we live, and move, and have our being” within the singularity that IS God and if we can understand that naught IS added to nor subtracted from the Godhead, we can perhaps comprehend the idea that has been adopted in the doctrines of men….that God IS unchanging. As Souls “we live, and move, and have our being” within His manifest creation, a creation that He brought into existence and which exists NOT in the forms of men and the Earth but in the True reality of KNOWING the whole from the view of every part. Finally, as we exist here in this world “we live, and move, and have our being” within His physical nature, His body of expression and here we should understand that the attention of the Godhead IS NOT directly upon this physicality but rather it IS the combined effort of ALL Souls who see the Truth that attend to the DOINGS of this planet. The fate of the world has ever been in the hands of men and while there has been some guidance by those who can Truly see, most ALL of this fate IS in the hands of those who DO NOT, those yet caught in the vanity of Life in form.
The greatest reality of this IS found in the spiritual realm, a realm of which we KNOW very little as men but which IS our most natural state of being; it IS here that we ARE closest to God….One with Him to be sure. The next level of Truth IS the realm that we call the Soul realm; this IS an active realm of thought but NOT thought as we have through the limited brains of men. It IS here that we KNOW ALL things and it IS here that we find the reality of the unction of which we read “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20). This idea of chrisma, of unction or anointing, IS as it IS seen by the man in the world who can realize such input from the Soul and we should understand here that there may be physical limitations regarding just what any individual can KNOW. It IS here that we ARE Truly in Christ who should be seen in the greater relationship that encompasses ALL. As ALL that exists spiritually IS within God and as ALL can say as Spirit that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” so can they say the same as Souls in relation to Christ….”in him we live, and move, and have our being“.
We should try to see here that without some measure of True revelation and realization we can NO better understand such things as could the apostles from Jesus’ own framing of such ideas on Unity and Oneness of the Creator with the created. And this IS a most basic failure of the doctrines of men which seek to hold the Lord as a Supreme Being who merely oversees His Creation as a Father and who view the Man Jesus as the ONLY idea of Christ and as His Son. We should try to understand that it IS language that fails us as there ARE NO easy to understand terms that can adequately define the spiritual relationships between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and while we have tried to show this relationship from several perspectives over the course of our blog, we too have struggled to find word ideas that can gather together the Truth. Even our most esoteric ideas garnered from years of study are steeped in a view of the Truth that that fails to see the sense of order and of agape based in the Oneness of ALL.
In addition to these ideas on God, that God IS Spirit and so IS essentially ALL other manifestations which gain their Life from the One Spiritual source, there IS the reality of agape which IS also the very nature of God. We should try to see here that agape IS NOT a secondary idea separate from “God is a Spirit” nor IS this separate from the idea that God IS Truth. When we can understand the reality of Jesus’ words saying “I and my Father are one” from the perspective of that Oneness, that the Christ IS the expression of the Godhead in this world, we can then understand how that His words saying that “I am the way, the truth, and the life” place the reality of the Truth into the very nature of God. ALL of these ideas exist as one and here we should try to see that Spirit IS Truth, Spirit IS Life, Spirit IS Love and that this idea should be seen from every perspective….Truth IS Spirit, Truth IS Love, Love IS Life and so on.
We should try to grasp these ideas in relation to both God and man, NOT the man here in this world who IS yet bound by the vanity, by the illusion that he IS this man in the world and by the glamour by which he promotes this idea and himself, but by the man who has gained some measure of Truth according to Jesus words which tell us clearly that “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“. This man IS by measure the expression of Spirit in this world and thereby the expression of Love and the expression of Truth; expressions which he has gained through the revelations and the realization from his Soul, the unction by which he can “know all things“.
This IS the True man in this Earth and while this may be a rare thing, it IS nonetheless possible for everyman to gain in his ability to first grasp this reality and then to put it into practice; the end IS NOT some nebulous idea of heaven versus hell as the doctrines of men hold True, the end IS a Life in which one has fulfilled a part of his own destiny and built for himself a measure of spiritual collateral upon which to base his future. There IS a song by Jackson Browne where the lyrics read:
I don’t know what happens when people die
Can’t seem to grasp it as hard as I try
It’s like a song playing right in my ear
That I can’t sing
I can’t help listening
While this IS just a song, these lyrics DO sum up a reality of death against which most ALL doctrines seek to see a better understanding. We should understand however that this IS reality; we should understand that NO one Truly KNOWS what IS on the other side of the veil of death….what spiritual reality one will Truly face. Our point here IS simply that if one can come to some measure of realization of the Truth in this Life and be expressive of that Truth, he can become that Truth in whatsoever part of his psyche survives the death of the body and it IS perhaps in this awareness that the remnant of the man, his Soul inspired personality if you will, has some conscious ability to see his own Truth rather than be in a dream like state or perhaps NO conscious state at ALL. We should remember here that Jesus shows us that death IS NOT an end but rather a beginning for the man who KNOWS and expresses the Truth in Love as He did 2000 years ago.
In the end we DO NOT now KNOW what happens when people die through our limited carnal experience of Life in this world; ALL that we Truly KNOW is of this world. However, when we can access the Light of the Soul and live in that Light we can have the promise of the unction which IS that we can, by measure, “know all things“. While this may be as nebulous a view as IS the doctrinal view of heaven and hell, it IS NOT based in any mystical human creation of a paradise versus a hell where the current lives of men continue for eternity; it IS rather based in the reality that the carnally oriented man in the world IS NOT the spiritual man. It IS the spiritual man, the Spirit manifest as Soul, that IS the True man and it IS this True man that survives carrying with him whatsoever spiritual collateral he has garnered in his worldly Life; and it IS this spiritual man who survives both the death of the body and then the fading away of the personality, a point at which he can be Truly in the Presence of God.
In this state where ALL remnants of one’s Earthly Life ARE gone, the Soul IS Truly free but we should try to see that there IS a caveat here and one that IS shown us by the Apostle Paul. Paul tells us about the vanity and the freedom from that vanity as he also tells us of the reality that must be achieved, a reality that IS possible in one’s Life in this Earth and a reality that becomes the state of being as the Soul awaits the next part of his journey. We should try to see here that when a Soul can express a meaningful measure of the Truth and Love that IS God through his form in this world, it IS this that his personality embraces making his time in the afterlife one of a shorter duration if we can use that idea here. The carnally grounded personality IS effectively the same after death, it IS carnally oriented but has NOT the wherewithal to act while the spiritually minded personality NO longer carries the same degree of carnal baggage.
In this we should try to see a reward of keeping His words: as the Life in this world changes toward an ever greater focus upon the things of God we have the reality of NO longer being “conformed to this world” but rather a process of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:1). This Transformation IS of the personality and in this state of KNOWING some measure of the Truth the personality IS first better able to cope with the loss of the physical Life and then better able to proceed past what holds one back from a True realization of being the Soul. There IS however a need, inherent in being a Soul, to continue in this Earth until the objectives of the Godhead ARE completed and here we should understand that this IS a combination of the individual and then the corporate completion of the Plan. Paul shows us this saying:
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body“(Romans 8:20-23).
The reality of these words can be accomplished in two ways; one way IS rather permanent and puts a man, as the Soul, into a position where his spiritual collateral will allow ever better chances of greater realization of the Truth with each and every excursion into this world, culminating in that point where he IS Truly free in “the glorious liberty of the children of God“. The second way IS NOT permanent; it requires that the afterlife of a man proceed for the duration of time necessary for the personality Life to fade away and here we should try to see that the more carnal a Life had been, the more focused upon the self, the longer this IS likely to take; it IS at the end of this time that one IS then again free in “the glorious liberty of the children of God” sans any significant addition of spiritual collateral based upon the Life in form.
ALL of these ideas ARE just that, ideas. They ARE however based in a continuum of Life, the reality of eternal Life, with a sense of our essential Unity with the Lord; our ONLY separation IS found in our carnal lives and the afterlife that one must endure as his sense of vanity wanes. We should understand that the ONLY place where one IS able to consciously control his own spiritual evolution IS here in this world; the afterlife serves ONLY to reap the results of one’s time on this Earth. The ONLY place to sow IS here but we should understand that what IS sowed need NOT be reaped here only and here we should try to see a purpose for the afterlife which word should be understood to mean the continuation of the personality; a continuation which IS NOT one’s final stop on the long journey of Life. Paul tells us this on sowing and reaping:
- “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
- “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6).
Neither of these sayings precludes our reaping in the afterlife and here we should ever understand the complexity of the idea of the flesh. Perhaps this IS more easily understood with the idea that the carnal Life of a man DOES NOT end with the demise of the body but that he continues to live on as a personality in the afterlife with thoughts and emotions and the lack of any ability to satisfy them. In this we should try to see a motivating principle in our living according to the Truth rather than the illusion and the glamour which vanity brings. Here we should try to see how that the carnal Life lingers and continues while the spiritual Life Truly DOES make one free as Jesus tells us in our trifecta which we repeat again in closing:
- “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 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 |
Quote of the Day:
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
