ON LOVE; PART MCCXX
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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 exploring the ways that men can find the Truth according to the two seemingly different Paths to it. We should add here that the two Paths, one’s expression of True agape in this world and keeping His words, ARE in essence one Path as whensoever one DOES accomplish one he also accomplishes the other. We began with the idea of striving and this IS an important key in both approaches to the Truth which IS in reality one’s approach to the Lord. Striving IS defined for us as: to endeavor with strenuous zeal 9 by Thayer’s in regard to our words from the Master according to Luke and as: to struggle, literally (to compete for a prize), figuratively (to contend with an adversary), or genitive case (to endeavor to accomplish something):—fight, labor fervently, strive 9a by Strong’s as a more general idea of what agonizomai means.
The Master tells us to “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24) and there should be NO doubt that Jesus IS speaking of the Kingdom of God which IS confirmed by the Apostle Matthew’s version which more clearly alludes to His Kingdom. Matthew frames Jesus’ words saying that men should “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13). We should understand here that contrary to the ideas of most doctrine, the Kingdom of God IS NOT a place but rather a state of being by which a man comes to live as the Soul who IS ever in the Kingdom.
Jesus shows us this in simple words saying that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) but these words ARE disputed by most doctrinal teachings; here we should try to see that if we have God Within, Christ Within, and the Holy Spirit Within the Life of a man, then their Kingdom must be within as well. It IS the objective of every Soul that IS born into this world, born into a Life of vanity, of illusion and glamour, to escape that condition and here again we repeat the words of the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter. Paul tells us that “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because expectation that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21).
When we can see that it IS the Soul, the spiritual man, who IS so subjected, we can then begin to understand the Truths that underlie the Genesis story and see that it IS by one’s birth into this world of illusion and glamour that the Soul becomes lost in the vanity and the corruption which IS then reinforced by his years of nurturing and indoctrination. And this IS the purpose of the Path: to bring a Soul out of the recesses of one’s consciousness which IS under the control of the mind and the emotions, the personality if you will, that IS fed by that nurturing and indoctrination and then the steady human experience, and into possession of that consciousness through which the Soul can then express his nature of Truth and Love. This new state then IS one’s freedom “from the bondage of corruption” and realization of “the glorious liberty of the children of God“.
Against this doctrines paint the idea of the Soul as that personality; doctrines paint the idea that the Soul DOES continue after death as the personality of the man and it IS here that the idea of hell can make some sense as there ARE personalities that have crossed through Life in this world that can be understood as Truly evil. If however we can see the Soul apart from the personality, we can then see the greater Truth that IS before us. To DO this we must look past the doctrines of men, the Christian doctrines particularly, that refuse to even consider the ideas of reincarnation or rebirth in favor of their more mystical view of heaven where some go so far as to teach its riches….even its streets of gold.
Our point here IS NOT reincarnation however; our point IS simply that the Soul, the True man in form, DOES continue and likely for a time with the personality intact. It is for this reason that men should ever try to heed the prompting of the Soul as in this prompting IS the wherewithal for spiritual growth; here we should try to see that the more enlightened a man IS in Life, the more enlightened he will be in the afterlife, so called. We should try to see here the idea of spiritual collateral and try to understand that while some measure IS garnered in most every Life, it IS to the man who can express a measure of Truth in this Life, the man who has some measure of True revelation and realization, who will approach the afterlife in a greater awakened state which we should see in terms of Jesus words saying “with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38).
Death IS ever the great unknown and while it IS easy to believe the stories of those who have touched it, we should understand that there IS NO common thread in their stories and that the reality of each ‘near death’ experience IS based in the dream state of the personality. And it IS in the reality that death IS a great unknown that the whole Judeo-Christian view of heaven IS based….it IS founded in the desire for one’s Life to continue and it IS here that the scriptural idea of eternal Life is changed into a doctrinal view. If we could but understand the spiritual relationship of men, as spiritual beings, with God, we could then begin to understand the Truth of eternal Life….that it IS NOT something earned or given but that eternal Life IS Life as God.
The ideas here ARE difficult to understand in human terms and this IS True even of the scriptural presentations of the idea of eternal; by definition the Greek word aionios IS: without beginning or end, that which always has been and always will be according to Thayers which then goes on to define the word according to its presumed uses in the New Testament. This IS certainly the definition that must be attributed to God, to that “One Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“***. The reality of God IS NOT a difficult vision and this although He IS “beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression“; with our physical senses we can see the manifestation of God; we can see Him in the night sky and according to these ideas from the Hindu religion saying:
To the God Who is in the Fire and Who is in the waters;
To the God Who has suffused Himself through all the world;
To the God Who is in summer plants and in the lords of the forest;
To that God be adoration, adoration.
Sh’vet Upanishad, II.17.
That the Judeo-Christian religions have personalized the Godhead to such a degree that many view God as a man DOES NOT detract from the Truth that IS expressed in Jehovah’s saying to Moses that “I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:14). The most simple Truth of God, that He IS everything spiritual and that He IS manifest through the physical universe which, as of the latest scientific theory, consists of and estimated 1 septillion stars (this IS a 1 followed by 24 0’s) and this IS ONLY in the observable universe. Here, in addition to to the idea of eternal being “beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression” we must also see the related idea of infinity which can take this observable universe far beyond what today can be measured or seen. To these ideas of eternal and infinite we must then add how that both ARE effected by our sense of time which is likely NO True sense at all.
The point here IS that with ALL the complexity that can be seen as God, doctrines choose to reduce this to the Judeo-Christian ‘understandable’ ideas of heaven and hell with the idea of eternity being on a going forward basis ONLY. Further, the ideas of heaven and hell ARE contrary to the very defining idea of God….that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) and the added Truth that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11). As many, many millions await the reality of heaven after their death based in their doctrinal beliefs, they miss the reality that ALL IS happening in Life here and now. While so many see heaven and hell as final destinations after the death of the body, they fail to see that even their beliefs DO NOT agree across denominations and sects which take their view from the very same scriptures; for some heaven IS immediate, for others there IS an afterlife of sleep until the ‘resurrection of the dead’, while others offer a variety of scenarios.
While there IS NO certainty regarding the common ideas as heaven and hell, there IS a reality of eternity and infinity, a reality which IS but a mystery to the human mind. If however we can understand that God IS both the eternal and the infinite and can see ourselves as part and parcel of Him, as NO thing can exist outside of the reality of what IS, we can then perhaps see the existing eternal Life of man. NOT the body and its attendant personality which we can see failing and dying, but the spiritual aspect of man which idea Paul presents to us in his saying that “we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1).
The idea here IS simply put but it IS confounded by the doctrinal ideas of men who see this “building of God” as one’s resurrection body 4 as Vincent tells us. To accomplish this idea he uses an analogy regarding having; he says: It is just as we say of a minor, before he comes into possession of his property, that he has so much 4. Other commentators offer much the same ideas but if we can see the ideas of a building and a house in the context of the full meaning of eternal, we can then see that this doctrinal idea must give way to the reality of the Soul which IS the manifest state of the True man….the Spirit. In other words men DO NOT need the body, the “earthly house of this tabernacle“, as he also has “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens“.
In this view the eternal man IS the spiritual man, the Soul, and from the perspective of his “earthly house of this tabernacle” we have the Life of a man in this world. It IS this Life that IS lived in the vanity, in the illusion and the glamour, and if we can see that the reality of Life IS NOT the body but the personality, the mind and the emotions, we can perhaps understand that it IS this personality that IS the tabernacle. What we ARE saying here IS simply that it IS the personality that IS the man in this world; it IS the personality that differentiates the man from other animals whose lives ARE governed by their own sense of Soul.
There IS NO easy way to explain nor understand these things so long as one IS bound by his doctrinal approach to the Truth. To be freed from this IS bondage IS to KNOW the Truth and here we should try to see that the many references to the body as the man ARE references to the personality which IS the actual means by which the Soul can express that Truth. It IS then the personality that can express agape and it IS the personality that IS the idea behind the Greek word sarx which IS rendered as flesh. Similarly it IS the personality that chooses; it IS the personality that can differentiate between the Paths to God and it IS the personality that must become the expression of Truth in this world. We should understand here that the personality IS NOT physical….it IS NOT tied to this world; it IS psychic and it can therefore survive the body nature with ALL of its constraints.
Perhaps it IS in this that the personality IS confused with the Soul in the doctrinal view of man. We should understand here that the personality IS tied to a particular Life here in this world, it IS the personality that IS the actor in every Life and it IS the personality that IS either under the influence of his nurturing and indoctrination or else IS under the influence of the Soul. We should remember here that Soul and Spirit ARE but words used to express the Greek ideas of psuche and pneuma, both of which refer the non-physical Life of man. The defining ideas for these words ARE based in their presumed usage but this can be confusing and leads to the doctrinal confusion that ties the Soul to the personality. If we can look at the ideas of Spirit and Soul together we can perhaps see the underlying idea that Spirit IS as God IS while the Soul IS a manifestation of the Spirit in what we see as time and space.
This idea DOES NOT mean that there ARE any physical attributes to the Soul; just as there ARE NO physical attributes to the psychic personality which exists in the psychic world of mind and emotion, so exists the Soul albeit on a higher plane if we can use the term here. What then IS the point of ALL of this? Simply to try to show in understandable terms the unexplainable nature of Life: that Life IS Spirit manifest as the Soul for the purposes into which Life IS born in form. The Soul IS eternal and lost in the process of being born while the personality IS developed through being born, nurtured and indoctrinated into the ways of the world. Eternal Life IS the Life of God and so also the Life of the Spirit of man; and the Soul partakes of this eternal Life because the Soul IS the Spirit….that IS, the Soul IS to the Spirit as the Son IS to the Father or as the Christ IS to God.
In our terms then it IS the Soul, the True man and the Christ Within, that IS destined to be freed from “the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“; freed from the vanity, the illusion and the glamour, which IS the Life of the man whose focus IS upon the things of the self in this world. And the New Testament IS our guidebook, our instructions on how to make this so. It IS in this freedom that men can realize the “exceeding great and precious promises” and become “partakers of the divine nature” consciously and this by escaping “the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). This IS True on both Paths; the Path that takes men through living in accord with His words and the law whose paramount point IS that men Love; and the Path of Love which, in a more direct way, shows us the importance of agape through which men NO longer have the wherewithal to live outside of the law. This IS Paul’s point as he shows us how that these two Paths ARE equal and essentially the same; we read the apostle’s words again saying:
Owe no man any thing, but agapao one another: for he that agapao 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 agape thy neighbour as thyself. Agape worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore agape is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:8-11).
And this IS the essence of the New Covenant versus the Old Covenant; the first IS built upon the law and the covenant IS clearly that to keep the law IS to have the blessings, the grace of God, which was interpreted to the Jews in terms of being so blessed as a nation in a barbarous and superstitious world. While the essential parts of the law revolved around Love, this was NOT the view of the doctrines that men’s interpretations of the law produced and, while this idea of Love was understood by some as the lawyer tells the Master saying “there is one God; and there is none other but he: to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:32-33), this was never Truly reflected in the doctrinal practices of the Jews.
Fifteen hundred years later the Master brought us the New Covenant which IS more directly Love and which IS intended for the individual rather than the nation. Here again, while there ARE those who DO KNOW the importance of agape as the paramount New Covenant principle, this IS again NOT reflected in the doctrinal practices of the Christian. The doctrinal thinker wants and expects the grace of God but who DOES NOT equate this with the part that must be played by the man in this world. As DID the Jews, the Christian has interpreted the New Covenant into a simplistic idea that IS far removed from the Truth of Jesus’ words; an interpretation that IS NOT based upon Jesus’ words but on the misapplied and out of context words of His apostles. The New Covenant IS clearly stated for us in our trifecta which we repeat here again saying:
- “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).
The blessings here ARE the Truth and the freedom that the Truth can bring, the Kingdom of God and the True Presence of God in one’s Life as the revelations and the realizations that the Soul will impart to the personality; revelations and realizations that will displace the nurturing, indoctrination and experience of the personality by which the man formerly lived. For his part in this New Covenant men must become “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22) and it IS here that we must see the idea of striving and of measure. This IS NOT a black and white issue; one DOES NOT abruptly change his focus off of the self and onto the things of God. This IS a process of striving and of achieving by measure.
The path of least resistance IS to live as men in this world, to live according to one’s desires and to measure success in carnal terms. The Path of the New Covenant was ever intended to show a man that even in his religious Life, throughout his doctrines, that he IS living in carnal terms if he IS NOT expressing Love. Agape IS the way par excellence to True salvation; True freedom “from the bondage of corruption“, which IS everyman’s vanity by which he, as the Soul, IS found in: a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends 4; that IS, pursuing the desires of the personality in this world. We close today with our selection from Paul that shows us the importance of agape against men’s presumed religious ends as well as the defining ideas of agape which we have been studying according to the Greek words:
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not agape, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not agape, it profiteth me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
“Agape suffereth long, and is kind; agape envieth not; agape vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Agape never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
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 |
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 change our Quote of the Day today to the words from Solomon on Wisdom along with our thoughts on them from the original postings of them in In the Words of Jesus parts 46 and 556. These words ARE a testament to those things that we should be asking of the Lord and which are representative of the Holy Ghost. Wisdom, understanding and knowledge which will lead us to understanding the fear (reverence and respect and awe) of the Lord and the knowledge of God so that in this world we can understand righteousness and judgement and equity and be preserved by discretion and understanding. Thus are we in a position to treat everyone as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Since we are centered on the ideas of Wisdom today we offer the following from Proverbs as our Quote of the Day. Solomon, who is KNOWN for his Wisdom, which we read in the story of his Life was His gift from God, a gift that he receives because he does not want for the things of the world. But Solomon gains as well the things of the world in plenty and as his Life story proceeds we can see clearly that it is his Life in the world that is to his detriment. The wisdom however produces for us the writings of the Book of Proverbs and it is this that he is remembered for. His Life is interesting reading and is well documented in the Books of Kings and Chronicles.
….incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee (Proverbs 2:2-11).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- *** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
