IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1169

ON LOVE; PART DCCLVIII

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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 several essays we have been trying to close out our discussion of the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John which we have been studying. We originally came to these words from John’s Gospel to show the dynamic link between the concept of grace and the Holy Spirit as we saw grace as the flow of revelation and realization of Truth from God and the Holy Spirit as our use of this in the world of men. This use IS our expression of divine ideas in the world of men and it IS so much more than the noticeable acts of the apostles, and of men yet today, in healing and in effecting in some way their Life upon this Earth; this expression IS the reality of ALL divine thought as this flows forth through the man in the world. In the Life of Jesus this same idea; it IS the Spirit of God that He Truly IS that effects the changes that He wrought and this includes His teaching and His words and, in addition, His miracles. His acts of healing, His multiplying of the loaves and His withering of the fig tree ARE ALL the most noticeable of His ‘feats’ while the very nature of His Life and His teaching and example ARE the more revealing of the Spirit of God in the Man who has “overcome the world” (John 16:33). This IS the reality of grace as the ability, through revelation and realization to the consciousness, of the man Jesus who came among us “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14); for “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). And this IS the reality of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God through which the expression of His grace shows us the Truth of Life in His example and in His teaching to us which includes the promise that we repeat again 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. 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).

While we set out to show the relationship of grace and the Holy Spirit, we came upon much more revelation from His words; first there IS the promise that we read above, the promise of His Presence which IS our own realization and revelation of Truth, and we came upon the idea of His Love as the greater reality of the Love of God, the Love that IS God, flowing forth into the Life of the man in the world from his own Soul. This Presence and this Love ARE the reality of His grace; it IS in our realization of these ideas that we can come to KNOW the Truth of Life and can see the revealed mysteries of the Kingdom of God. As we discussed in the last essay, the Truth of the Soul of ALL men IS the Truth of the Christ Within which the Apostle John shows us saying that this IS, that He IS, “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:1-9). In the complexity of these ideas we must try to understand that it IS the Soul that IS the True man, that it IS the Soul that IS the Christ Within and that the Soul IS part and parcel of the Truth of God. In this we should see the idea that as a spark of the Divine Flame we ALL share in the same reality as DOES the Christ; we ARE ALL Souls expressing Life in form. Jesus came among us with the full ability to DO so, to express “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” and it IS His words and His example, it IS His promise as we read above, that will allow the rest of the human family to achieve this same expression.

The promise here IS of course His Presence which we should see as His grace, the grace of God in the lives of men; the promise IS also His Love and the Love of the Father which, as we see in the totality of His words, IS the same Love and the same Presence in the Unity of God. This IS the promise of His grace and it IS in the fullness of this Presence, this Love of God, that the promise of our own expression of this grace IS shown to us as He says: “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). We have then the promise of His grace which IS our realization of His revelation of His Love and His Presence and we have the promise that we too can express this grace in the world of men. We must however remember and understand that there IS a price to pay, that to have the fullness of His grace and the fullness of its expression we MUST keep His words. We should understand here that words limit our ability to express the depth of these ideas and that this IS ALL in the natural action of Life for the man whose focus IS Truly upon the things of God, the man who keeps His words. And, in this idea of keeping His words we must see the deeper ideas that ARE embedded in the Great Commandments that we have again at the top of our essay. First that there IS NO thing in one’s Life of more importance than God which IS found in the reality that ALL care for the self has been relinquished….that one’s thoughts, attitudes and actions ARE centered in the Truth of God; this IS the reality of “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“: in this there IS no room for any other thing in Love. Here, as we briefly discussed again in the last essay, we have the problem of defining this Love for God that IS ALL consuming and here again we must try to see the reality as this IS expressed in the Master’s words from the fourteenth chapter of John above. In His words there IS an equation of Love for Him and keeping His words and this IS repeated twice in a positive way, once from a negative perspective and again as the general statement “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:5) which we could view as His requirement for our expression of His grace as the Holy Spirit.

It IS in this equation created by the Master that we should see the definition of our Love for Him, that this Love IS that we keep His words and, in the circular reference that He creates, we have the reality of this Love in the Life of man as that it IS His words as stated in the Great Commandment above. We have then this idea of Love: that we keep His words which He frames as “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” in the first instance and “If a man love me, he will keep my words” in the second instance; these, combined with His saying that “If ye love me, keep my commandments” should be enough to show us just what Love for God Truly IS. When we combine this idea with the idea of His Love for us as Souls and as Souls in form, which IS the reality of His Presence as we discussed in the last post, we have the reality of Love as the Presence of God, His grace, in reciprocal exchange for our Love for Him which IS keeping His words. If we can look at this idea of reciprocity and see reciprocal as it IS defined for us in today’s dictionary as: something that is reciprocal to something else; equivalent;counterpart; complement ⁷, we can likely understand the divine idea that IS presented here. First that there IS an equivalency between the Love that God gives men and the Love that a man should express and second we should see our own idea of degree; that it IS by the measure of our Love for God, the measure of our keeping His words, that we can receive an equal measure of His grace and His Presence as the realization by the man in the world. 

Here then we should see that to keep His words IS our Love for God and that to Love God IS His commandment, it IS His words. We should see here that it IS in the fullness of this that we have the fullness of His Presence  which IS our realization of the divine nature of the True man, the Soul, in his Life in this world. We should see as well the reality that it IS by measure, by degree, that we grow in our realization by the same measure by which we focus upon the things of God; and in this IS the reality of the Master’s parables regarding the growth of the Kingdom of God which we must understand IS within. ALL of our spiritual lives then ARE tied to our expressing our divine nature and ALL of this expression IS tied to the grace that we receive by this expression and it IS here that we can see the deeper Truths of the second part of the Great Commandment: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”. This precept IS as much a part of keeping His words as any other thing that the Master has said and, while this IS lost in the minds of many, this IS the HIGH Truth of Loving Him, the HIGH Truth of keeping His words, which IS the price to pay for His Presence and His grace. And perhaps it IS because of the nature of the world and the self centered attitude of most men who are lost in the vanity, in the illusion and the glamour, of Life in this world, that makes the commandments of God so specific in this idea of Love. This idea of “love thy neighbour” IS a part of the overall Old Testament teaching on the relationships of men with one another; this idea of “love thy neighbour” IS the second of the Old Testament ideas that ARE elevated by the Christ to be the Great Commandments. Here we should see that this second IS included in the first as to Love Him IS to keep His words of which this idea of “love thy neighbour” IS second only to the first. And this idea of “love thy neighbour” IS shown to us by the apostles who clarify and amplify the Master’s words as 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” (Romans 13:8-10).
• “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Galatians 5:14).
• “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11).

While these are among the more specific amplifications of the second of the Great Commandments there ARE many other places where these Truths are elucidated including our selection from John’s Epistle below where, while the idea of neighbor may be missing, shows us these same Truths. The Apostle Paul builds for us an equivalency between the Truth of the second part of the Great Commandments with the first part and shows us that to Truly “love thy neighbour” IS to keep ALL of His words. It IS unfortunate that much of the apostle’s intent IS washed away in the doctrinal misunderstanding of Paul’s sayings regarding the law which ARE in reality more to say that if one Truly Loves God he will keep His words without need for the law as such. The Apostle James goes yet further in His words; while showing that to “love thy neighbour” IS good, he shows us that this is simply NOT enough if we Love one neighbor more than we may Love another; James shows us that there must be an equanimity in our Love for others as there IS equanimity in God’s Love for us. James shows us as well that a Love that shows favoritism IS as much against His commandments as any other precept and we should try to see this as it IS embedded in the commandment that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“; that we should Love ALL in this same way. This IS of course the same idea that IS offered by Jesus in what we have come to call the Golden Rule; in that we ARE to Love ALL and DO to ALL what we would want done to us. There IS no selection in this rule as ALL men are included in this idea of others and this should be seen to include the real Life ideas that we can see in the Master’s words that we: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).

John takes this message of Love from a different perspective that tells us that to claim Love for God IS impossible for the man who DOES NOT Love his neighbor; that John never uses this word neighbor should not be seen as evidence that His subject IS different….it IS the same idea. To Love one another has been construed to refer only to one’s Christian brothers while the Truth IS that one must Love ALL….the brother, the neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both. We should understand this by the Master’s words above where we can see that even the apostles must keep His words and His word IS that we “love thy neighbour as thyself“. We should understand that the apostles DO keep His words and this reality IS clearly seen in the Master’s own definition of discipleship as He tells us that “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). And this IS NOT ALL that Jesus says on this idea of discipleship as He tells us in most certain terms that we must Love God above ALL things as we see in the Great Commandments above. It IS with this that we close today, that His instructions on Love ARE clear and concise to ALL who choose to see His Truths over the doctrines that dilute them and as the apostle shows us in these words from his epistle which we repeat 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 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!

• ⁷ Dictionary.com Unabridged based on Random House Dictionary – 2011