IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1162

ON LOVE; PART DCCXLXI

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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.

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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).

From our current selection of the Master’s words which we have been repeating almost daily as we finish up our thoughts on the intersection of Love and grace and how that these ideas reach into ALL spiritual ideas, we have been highlighting Jesus’ final statement before they depart. We have been doing so to show that His final words ARE intended to show us that as He IS instructing us to do in His parabolic tone, He Himself IS DOING. Furthermore, we should see the added reality that it IS based in His DOING; that He continues in the grace of God and in “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) which this brings into His Life. While doctrines may NOT agree based in some sense that Jesus IS NOT as we ARE, the reality IS that we ARE told that “as he is, so are we in this world” which we read in our other selection below from John’s Epistle. And the Master tells us this also as He shows us and teaches us of the great spiritual Power that He commands and that we can also command if we follow in His Way. In a sort of prelude to His words in our current chapter, the Master tells the people that “he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Then, in the fourteenth chapter Jesus tells us that “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” and then that “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10-11).

In this IS the reality that “the Father hath not left me alone” which IS the Presence of the Father in Jesus Life and the reason fro this which the Master states as “I do always those things that please him“. In the deeper words that are offered to the Eleven here in our current chapter we also find our own relationship to Him and to the Father, a relationship which IS clearly framed for us as “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). While this IS NOT seen clearly by those same doctrines, the greater difficulty for their understanding IS found in the misinterpreted idea behind the phrase “believeth on me” which John uses interchangeably with the reality of keeping His words and His commandments. This way of viewing the Greek idea comes from Vincent’s commentary on the phrase which he tells us should be seen as to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life ⁴. A more complete explanation of this idea can be found in In the Words of Jesus part 1101 but the greater reality is found in our own linking of His words on “greater works” to Jesus’ words that follow and which show us the reality of the Presence of God in one’s Life in this world; we read this again as: 

• “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” (John 14:21).
• “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. (John 14:23).

When we can put ALL of these ideas and sayings into the same context of DOING the Will of the Father, we can come to a greater understanding of our own Truth as men in this world. And our Truth IS NOT unlike His, save for the fact that He came among us with “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” while we must develop into this state based upon our focus and upon our ability understand and to keep His words, which IS the subject of our many recent blogs. This IS the reality of the fourteenth chapter: if we keep His words we will have His Presence, the Presence of God as the God Within and the Christ Within, active in Life and it IS this Presence that IS His grace, that IS His Love, which gives us the ability to KNOW and to progress upon the Path to the Kingdom of God. In this IS the revelation and the realization of the Truths that come to us as we journey to the strait gate that opens into the Kingdom of God. And it IS this journey that we should see as He tells us that this idea of  DOING “always those things that please him” IS the KEY. Reading our current sayings again we have:

“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:26-31).

The KEY for us here IS of course Jesus’ words above which tell us that as He IS showing us that what we should DO, He does also. It IS this idea that must resonate in the mind of the man who Truly seeks God, that the commandments that He gives to us that will show our Love for God ARE the same commandments that He Himself follows in His show of Love, and as His own reality of DOING so as to stay in the grace of God. Can we understand here that if the Master defaulted, if Jesus took interest in His own self and the things of the world, that the flow of grace, His conscious realization, would stop in the same way that it stops for us? This IS the reality of this message from the Master at the end of his discourse and before they leave for another place. Most ALL commentary that we have seen DOES NOT see this as we do but rather relates his words to doctrinal themes and to His impending death as we discuss in some detail in In the Words of Jesus part 1157. Our view here IS according to the flow of His words, it IS according to the ideas that He IS teaching them and us to DO, to keep His words as the defining Truth behind Love for God and, in this particular saying at the end, Jesus shows us the deeper meanings of this Love for God….that it IS DOING ALL that one must DO to please God, DOING “always those things that please him“.

And this IS the reality of that intersection of Love and grace. This IS the underlying reality of Jesus’ message: that we keep His words which IS our Love for Him and that in return we will have the necessary revelations and realizations which ARE His grace; and this IS the reality of His Presence which He promises us in His words above that ARE rendered as manifest and abode. The greater message however IS in the reality of Love as both the inflow and the outflow of grace and to understand this according to His words here in John’s gospel, we must understand as well the importance of the Great Commandments, an importance that IS sorely missed by most. It IS this outflow of Love which IS a man’s expression of grace, his expression of the Power of the Soul, the Christ Within, that the Apostle John speaks about in that part of his First Epistle that we have been discussing and which we repeat here again:

“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect , that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is , so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen , how can he love God whom he hath not seen ? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:7-21).

We should try to see how that the apostle links together the idea of grace with the idea of our outflow of Love and the greater reality of the Kingdom of God; for us, these ideas ARE clear and are contained for us in the very first verses of our selection. As we read above, the apostle implores us to “love one another” and shows us that it IS in so DOING that we can be “born again“, that we can be “born of God“, and it IS in this that we should see the reality of the Kingdom of God. This idea from the apostle should be seen as an amplification of the Master’s own words which tell us that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). And we should be able to see the idea of grace at play here as it IS through the revelations and realizations, which ARE the grace of God, that we are able to “knoweth God“. John here is speaking in terms of the end point, the ideas of KNOWING God and the idea of being “born again” ARE the culmination of our journey and we should see the in this the purpose of the apostle’s imploring us to “love one another“. Here we should see that it IS when one can Love ALL men as the Master instructs us, that he IS able to KNOW the fullness of the realization of divinity and find the Truth in the Apostle Paul’s words saying “the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). While from a different perspective and in a different style, Paul’s words have the same effect as those that ARE offered by John. Paul shows us the unity of faith as a corporate reality which IS the same idea of KNOWING that John offers to us individually and, in this understanding, we should be able to see the Truth that the “perfect man” IS the man who IS “born of God“, the man who IS “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6) which IS the equivalent to being “born again” in the Master’s words; This IS the man who IS expressing the the grace that makes him a KNOWER through his Life to the world of men.

It IS because these ideas are so diluted by 2000 years of doctrine that men generally CAN NOT see the Truths that ARE offered by the Master and His apostles. It IS because doctrines have made the Kingdom of God a thing that IS accomplished by any man who can believe according to a particular doctrine; and the same idea IS incorporated into being “born again“. ALL of this IS contrary to the words of the Master who tells us clearly how that we can be accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and that the reality of being “born again” IS that this IS an equivalent idea to this accomplishment. In our words from John’s Gospel above we have the reality of His Presence as the reward for keeping his words and the Master’s saying that “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) should be seen as an equivalent to His Presence. Both require the same from the man in the world who Truly seeks God. And, as we have shown in previous posts, we can see the idea of discipleship as yet another equivalent term as we read His words saying: “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). Here we have that same intersection of Love and grace; Love as the outflow of grace by the man in the world, the outflow of the measure of grace received which, in its fullness, IS His Presence. And we should see that if this idea of keeping His words results in His Presence and that this results as well in being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God and in the Truth of discipleship….ALL of these ARE the same

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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.

We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.

Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita

It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888