IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1163

ON LOVE; PART DCCXLXII

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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).

In the last essay we continued with our view of the Master’s words from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, a chapter that reveals the Unity of God and the Unity of man with God. This latter Unity IS of course a revelation and a realization of the Truth of Life, that men ARE part an parcel of God on every level of existence and this Unity IS the grace of God as well. Globally this grace IS in the reality that we ARE part and parcel and individually this grace IS the realization that we ARE so, a realization that IS revealed to the man whose focus IS upon the things of God. To understand this we must first understand that man IS NOT this body and personality in the world, that man IS the Life and the consciousness that animates this form. We must also understand the reality of illusion and of glamour, the vanity of which the Apostle Paul speaks, as these so obnubilate the Truth of Life and ARE the cause of mankind’s materialistic view. When we can see the Truth of Life and understand that we ARE the Life and the consciousness that animates the form in the world, we can then see the deeper Truths in the Master’s words and it IS this understanding that comes in the revelations from one’s own Soul, his God and Christ Within. Millions of men may be versed in these ideas of Life but the greater realities escape many because there IS that one missing ingredient: Love, which IS the reality of keeping His words. And millions of men believe that they are close to God and that they are saved in their allegiance to doctrines; the greater realities escape them as well because of that one missing ingredient in their lives: Love, which IS the reality of keeping His words. And this idea of keeping His words transcends religion as it IS the Master who tells us that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:24) and this IS the same One God that we should see in ALL religions.

This IS the lesson of the fourteenth chapter and the overall reality of this IS found in His sayings that we have been repeating in most every essay, His words that show us that it IS in Loving Him, which IS Loving God, that we can have His Presence and the Presence of the Father in our Life, and that this Presence IS the Love of God, and the grace of God, which IS our realization of the Truth by measure. And the measure IS according to our focus, according to our Love for God which IS itself measured in our keeping His words. It IS when we can see clearly, when we have some measure of His grace, that we can see and understand the deeper Truths that ARE behind the Master’s words saying:

• “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).\

In our ideas IS the reality of Repentance and the Truth of the growth of the Kingdom of God Within the man in the world and, while the latter ideas sets the scene for us of our idea of by degree and by measure, the former idea IS the gateway to our realization. ALL of these ideas appear to us in the Master’s words from this fourteenth chapter and, while much of His meaning IS covered in His parabolic tone, His explanation to His own apostles seems clearer here than in any other place and it offers us a deeper view into the realities of Life. We should understand here however that even His apostles DO NOT understand His ideas; they seem alien to them as they are perhaps the first time that the idea of God Immanent had been revealed. And this IS the problem yet today, here, 2000 years later, men still DO NOT have the understanding that He teaches us; not only on the Immanence of God but in the reality of keeping His words and the greatest reality of ALL…Love. Doctrines that teach that men need NOT DO have NOT advanced the Master’s teachings of Truth, they have suppressed the Truth into the same idea of vanity that Paul shows us saying:”the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20). Whether we see this in the reality of the Plan of God or we see this as the doctrinal view of the fall of man, the reality IS the same: that men in this world DO NOT see the realities of God and man through the vanity, through the illusion and the glamour, of Life in this world. This IS the Apostle James’ point as well as he tells us “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22); here we should see the reality of our deception as it IS founded in the vanity, in the illusions and the glamour, that cloud men’s vision and from which his many doctrines are expounded.

It IS in Repentance that we can come to see the Light and it IS in following that Light that we ARE Transformed. It IS in this process of living with an ever shifting sense of focus that moves a man to see through the illusion so that he can come to ever an greater measure of grace. The Immanence of God IS clearly stated in the sayings above as the realization of the man who Truly seeks God but this DOES NOT preclude the same Immanence in the Life of the man who DOES NOT keep His words nor strive to DO so as the reality for ALL men IS that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) and it IS in His Kingdom that we will find the Father and the Son. These words are spoken to the Pharisees, men who DO NOT see the Master’s Truths, men who have only their own sense of doctrine and traditions, and it IS in these words that a great Truth was revealed, a Truth that IS still NOT seen clearly in doctrines that separate God from man and from His creation even in view of Paul’s saying that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). In this we see ALL men and we see ALL realms of existence and, while this IS the reality of our Transcendent God, it IS also the Truth of our Immanent God; while we ARE in Him we ARE a part of Him and thereby of the same essence as Him. We come back then to our idea above; that to understand this we must first understand that man IS NOT this body and personality in the world, that man IS the Life and the consciousness that animates this form.

This IS the reality of the God Within as the Inner man, the True man, the Soul which IS the Life and the consciousness that IS a part of Him and IS the same essence as Him and it IS this Truth that IS realized by the man whose focus IS upon the things of God. It IS this realization that shatters the illusion and allows a man to see clearly the Truth and this IS found in keeping His words; the Master tells us: “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). And it IS in this that we should see the journey of men along the Path to God, the Path to his fullness of revelation and realization, which IS the culmination that Paul shows us saying “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And this bondage IS found in  the vanity from the previous verse, and in the illusions and the glamour of Life in this world. The whole of this journey IS spiritual, it IS a journey of realization and of revelation which IS the grace of God and the Love of God which IS His ever growing Presence in the Life of a man; and, according to the sayings above there IS a price to pay for this grace and that price IS Love, it IS keeping His words.

In the last essay we also continued with our point regarding the Master’s own actions in this world of men; that in His Life as Jesus, He too sought the continued Presence of God in His Life. The meaning here IS NOT that He had to see through the illusion and the glamour, He came among us without such vanity as afflicts mankind, but rather that He had to remain in the grace of God to continue on His own Path and of His personal journey we KNOW very little. Jesus IS born among us possessing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) and yet we read about His experience in the wilderness “Being forty days tempted of the devil” (Luke 4:2) as Luke paints this for us; in the combination of these ideas we should see both His humanity and His divinity. Our point here IS that had he succumbed to this temptation, He would have fallen out of God’s grace and would have lost the intimacy of the Presence of God in His Life and, we should try to see here that this unlikely event IS to show us of His humanity and of His ultimate ability to keep His words. In this IS the further reality that “the Father hath not left me alone” which IS the Presence of the Father in Jesus Life, and the reason for this which the Master states as “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). We should note here that this saying IS a part of the total Truth that includes the ideas above regarding discipleship; Jesus shows us here that to keep His words IS discipleship, that in discipleship IS the reality of our freedom from the illusion and the glamour found in the Truth and that on His own level of divinity, He also keeps the word of God. And this message IS the same as we see in our current selection below; how that when Jesus IS finished telling us how we must keep His words to have the Presence of God, the Presence of the Father and the Son, and our realization of this in His grace which IS the Holy Spirit in one’s Life, He then proceeds to tell us that He DOES the same; we read:

“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).

It IS in this last part that we see the idea of His own Life in accordance with the Truth of God, DOING the Will of God as He teaches us to DO. The Father gave the Master commandments and of these Jesus takes two and elevates them to their right place as He frames His words on the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. This should be our reality, it is Love as it IS framed in these words that should be uppermost in the hearts and minds of those who Truly seek God. A simple question can be asked of ALL who purport to be His disciples, not one that requires an answer and not a question from any….this is a question that one must ask himself: If these words on Love are the greatest in the mind of the One we call Lord, why ARE they NOT of equal importance to me? It IS the answer to this question that we should see in these words that the Apostle John offers us in our other selection from his first epistle. In recent essays we explored the first verses from our selection below and we should be able to see how that to “love one another” IS to Love ALL men and that this Love “is of God” and here we should see that this Love IS of the God Within as well. From this it follows that to Love ALL men as the Master teaches us, which IS NOT that emotional and mental attachment and attraction to others, IS the reality of being “born again” (John 3:3) and of having the revelations and realizations, the grace of God, to make it that the man “knoweth God“. The apostle goes on to show us the global grace of God that IS found in the Advent of the Master, His teachings and His death, so as to show us that “if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another“. We read our selection 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).

While we have often cited the blunt and straightforward nature of the words of James, how that he shows us in human terms the Truths that men generally ignore, John’s words here ARE equally straight as he efforts to show us the Truth of Love. He tells us that “God is love” and that this Love that IS God “was manifested“, was made to appear to men in the person of Jesus the Christ. And NOT this ONLY, but in the fullness of His teaching and His example and it IS in these that the grace of God, the Love of God, IS offered globally to ALL men “that we might live through him“. While doctrine makes the whole of this idea as to be in regard to the crucifixion and the supposed atonement offered by the Master, the Truth IS much deeper and goes to His mission among us which can be seen in His words saying “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32) and we should remember here that the message of Repentance IS His first message and one that should be seen as the thread that runs throughout ALL His words. We read His words saying “the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15) which IS His call to ALL men and we read in the words of John the Baptist the reality of Repentance which we should see as the idea of Love and of keeping His words; the Baptist tells us to “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matthew 3:8) and this fruit IS Love and men’s expression of it in keeping His words. Doctrine has however hijacked these ideas and placed the idea of atonement in its place, an atonement based in the Jewish traditions and the illusion and the glamour of Life that points men to the easier way to please God rather than the Master’s way that we read above as He tells us of Himself that “I do always those things that please him“. And this IS the same message that we find at the end of the Master’s discourse above where we read “as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do“.

In one of our earliest posts, In the Words of Jesus part 250, we address this idea of propitiation which IS a word that is scarcely used and should be taken in the light of reconciling, that He and ALL that He represents IS our way of reconciling our Life, our way of Repenting, which IS to change the focus of our lives from being upon the things of the world, which IS the greater Truth of sin, to our focus upon the things of God. We said in our earlier post that: The common understanding here is that propitiation means that God sent forth His Son to be a sacrifice for our sins and this can be seen as a valid perspective when we look at it from a strictly physical viewpoint. Jesus did come among us and His destiny was to die on the Cross and to suffer and, we can either see this as the vicarious atonement that it is made to be by doctrine or we can see this in the Light of the reality of the event. The Master came among us to teach us the Way of Love and to show us the Truth, that ALL can be done in Love, that a man can be “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). He also came to show us, to teach us, of the reality of Life being in the world but not of the world; Life as a Son of God, as the Master who like the Father is equal to all, to the sinner and to the saint. This propitiation IS the grace of God made manifest to men in this world as the teaching and the example of the Master.

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!