IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 1177

ON LOVE; PART DCCLXVI

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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 discussion of how that these ideas of grace, Love and the Presence of God work our in the Life of the man in the world. In our ideas we should try to see that this Presence and this Love IS represented to the man in the world by his own Soul, his own God and Christ Within, which IS his own divine nature that IS ever one with God. This Presence IS found in the revelations of Truth that ARE realized by the man whose focus IS upon the things of God. It IS from the Master’s words that we find the reality of the reciprocal Love of God which IS His Presence and the idea of focus which is our understanding of striving to keep His words; it IS in His words that we see the quid pro quo of DOING and receiving. This idea of reciprocity is rather clearly stated in the Master’s words from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John which we repeat here again and this IS also alluded to in what we have come to call the Parable of the Faithful Servant which we discussed in the last post where we read “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing” (Luke 12:43). It IS the clarity of the Master’s words below that we have been repeating however that show us His Truth:

• “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. 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 14:23-24).

We should try to see here that it IS in the natural action of Life here in this Earth that we receive the revelations and realizations of Truth, the reality of the Presence of God; the man who keeps His words Loves God and to this man comes the Love of God as His Presence which IS His grace and His Love. In this we have the defining quality of Love for God which IS that we keep His words and the defining quality of the Love of God which IS His Presence; it IS in the combination of these idea that we have the reality of Love that the Apostle John shows us in our selection of sayings from his epistle….Love for ALL men. Here we should be able to understand that it IS by the Presence of God that we Love ALL men as men in the world as in this Presence IS the revelation of Truth; here we should also see that it IS our expression of this Love for ALL men that brings us ever greater measure of His Presence. In this we should see that each IS both the cause and the effect of each other and that both work together to bring this Love that IS God, and that IS then the God Within, as the natural expression of the man who IS Truly focused upon the things of God. And we should see in the Master’s other words saying “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) that we have the wherewithal to express this Love as the Master did and in this IS the True sense of “the works that I do“. ALL that Jesus did in this world was done as an expression of His Love for ALL men. While common usage paints this idea of Love as the emotional and mental attraction and attachment to others and to things in this world, this IS NOT the reality of the Master’s intent nor of the Great Commandments. And, while the doctrinal ideas tend to see the Masteer’s words in John’s Gospel and the apostle’s own epistle that we repeat again below as that these are offered to fellow Christians, this idea IS NOT at the heart of the Master’s intent nor the intent of the Great Commandments. This idea of Love must be taken out of the nebulous and into the real; much as we have seen Love for God and the Love of God defined for us in Jesus words, so we have the Love that IS offered to men, as part of keeping His words, defined for us as well. We read the apostle’s words on Love 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. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we now that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 4:7-5:5).

John offers us the same link between the idea of Love for God and keeping His commandments as he combines this dynamic with our Love for “one another” and shows us that this, as the greater Truth of keeping His words, brings one the Presence of God in his Life. The apostle also shows us the reality of the Love of God, His grace, on a global scale, while he holds out for us the idea of individual grace as well in this same reality of keeping His words. The same quid pro quo that we read in Jesus own words is here in these words from the apostle; it IS “If we love one another” that we have His Presence. Nowhere however is there a stated defining quality for this Love; not in these words from the apostle nor in the words of the Master in John’s Gospel; this quality must be discerned from the totality of the message. This sense of Love however IS made clear in the synoptic gospels where we read of the Great Commandments and the application of “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. It IS in this repetition of the ancient commandment by the Master and His elucidation of this that we find the reality of and the quality of this Love. Jesus attempt to clarify this for us, while clear as day to those who Truly seek God, IS NOT seen by the many millions of persons who claim to Love the Lord yet fail to Love “one another“. From our perspective, this IS the result of the failure of men to see the reality behind the idea of Loving another as “as thyself” and this despite the Master’s offering to us of the Golden Rule which we have again at the top of our essay as it IS recorded by the Apostle Matthew and in this from the Apostle Luke: “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).

It IS in these words and the other words on Love from the Master that we can see the reality of the Love that He teaches us; that this IS NOT the mental and emotional Love that IS men’s attraction and attachment to people and things of the world. We see the equanimity of this Love in Jesus words that this MUST be offered to ALL men regardless of how we may feel about them; this we clearly read in His sayings:

• Luke offers us the Master’s ideas this way in his version of the Sermon on the Mount; we read: “I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them. And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good , and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:27-35).
• Matthew, in his longer view of the Sermon, offers us this rendering of the Master’s words on this idea of Love: “I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law , and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, 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; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye ? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?” (Matthew 5:39-47).

While Luke includes the Golden Rule in these words on Love, Matthew includes this later in the Master’s monologue as He speaks to the disciples and the gathered people about giving and as He compares the equality of the giving of God to those who ask with the way that men should give. In this idea of giving we should see the greater reality of Love. And this IS perhaps the most difficult part of discipleship and of being Truly accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God: giving. We should remember here that these words from the Master ARE His word and in keeping His word we MUST keep these as well. In this, we find the greater reality of forsaking, of looking away from the things of the world and onto the things of God which, according to the first of the Great Commandments, MUST be in the fullness of “all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength“. And this IS the problem for doctrines that see this as an impossibility without ever realizing that one must grow into this reality in his expression of Life in this world; this ability IS found in the growth of the Kingdom Within and in the measure of grace that comes to the man who Truly seeks and strives toward the realization of that Kingdom. It IS here that we find that deliverance from “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“ (Romans 8:21).

We should try to see here that it IS the Soul, the Christ and the God in the Kingdom Within that IS the True man whose own desire IS to overcome the ways of the world by attracting his own consciousness away from the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world. It IS in this idea of vanity, this idea of illusion and glamour, that we have the reality of Satan and of the devil….these ARE the forces of the world that delude men and keep him bound in the corruption which IS Life in form. Here we must understand that the Soul’s objective IS deliverance from this state of being and that the way to this freedom IS found in attracting the attention of the consciousnesses and to pry it away from its formed link to the carnal mind and emotions. While this may seem an odd way of framing this, this IS the essence of the plight of man in the world. As the incarnation of a Soul into a Life in form is complete, the former Truths of Life are lost in the Life of the growing child and it IS this new Life and the nurturing and the experience that follows that hold a Soul captive in a carnal existance. While this may sound strange, this IS the essence of the Apostle Paul’s words saying “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” though the deeper ideas of why and how ARE NOT within our ken. We can KNOW what happens but we can not KNOW how this works out nor why this happens as it DOES but, in this uncertainty, we ARE closer to the reality of Life than ARE the nebulous pronouncements of doctrine.

Following our ideas here we should see that it IS in the ability of the Soul, the spiritual man that stands behind the Life in form, to prompt and to get the attention of the man in the world and to bring the man in the world to Repentance. It IS in Repentance that the man in the world, the consciousness that is heretofore lost in the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world, lost in the nurturing and the experience and in clamor of daily living, makes a decision to change the focus of his Life from the things of the self to the things of God. We must understand that this change of focus works our by measure and that there IS often no permanency in the man’s ability to hold to the new way. This IS however the gateway and the entrance to the Path that leads to that strait gate and should a man be able to stay on this Path, this becomes for him the Path of Transformation. It IS here on this Path that the ideas of Love that we discuss above take over the Life of the man in the world as he realizes more and more of the Truths that ARE offered in those revelations that come from his own Soul. While the words of the Master show us the end point of discipleship, we should try to see how that our striving toward the goal of keeping His words brings us a greater and greater measure of grace and more and more Transformation; we read: “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).

We did not get to our ideas on these words from Paul below and we leave them for the next essay:

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

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