Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part CI
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 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 4:1-21).
As we have said in prior posts, this chapter from the Apostle John’s First Epistle is a treatise on Love as is most of this entire epistle and we have spent and will continue to spend much time on showing the proper intent of the apostle’s words as they MUST correlate with the words of the Master. We have discussed many times how the doctrines of the church have made or attempted to make many of the sayings found in the New Testament on Love seen as that they are for Christian brothers or fellow Christians and not the Love that we see in the Master’s words that is Love for ALL. When we remember that “God is love” as John tells us above and realize that ALL men are the children of the ONE FATHER as regards their True identity as Spirit and as Souls, how can we believe anything other than Universal Love for ALL. When we properly understand the meaning of neighbour, that it is a reference to ALL men how can we estimate that His apostles are speaking only about themselves as relates to other Christians. This is one of the largest and perhaps THE LARGEST PROBLEM with doctrinal Christianity and has been for a very long time. The lexicon tells us this of the Greek word plesion which is translated as neighbour: a neighbour; a friend; any other person, and where two are concerned, the other (thy fellow man, thy neighbour), according to the Jews, any member of the Hebrew nation and commonwealth; according to Christ, any other man irrespective of nation or religion with whom we live or whom we chance to meet. Do we see anything in this that would relate His sayings to Love for fellow Christians? Why then does doctrine teach such from the pens of the apostles whose words should only serve to amplify the words for their Master and ours, the Christ. This phenomenon is the result of illusion and of glamour and the deception that we incur from these is based, as we discussed in the last several posts, fear.
How is it that we should know that we are being deceived or rather that we are deceiving ourselves? For any who are above the mental and emotional levels of the uneducated masses of humanity, our brothers who have not yet progressed as far as we have, there should be a firm reckoning that the only deception is self deception as we allow ourselves to be deceived though our own illusion and our own glamour. So then how can we know? Simply by the same guidelines that we have posted regarding Wisdom, and that Wisdom from above. Wisdom is to deception as Love is to fear; as we noted yesterday that Love and fear can not coexist neither can Wisdom and deception coexist. True that until we, as men in form as conscious personalities, are firmly “rooted and grounded in love” (Ephesians 3:17) there will be a duality in which we may go from one to the other and then back again, there is yet the fact that these opposing factors can not exist at the same time. We speak here not about worldly wisdom and worldly love, but we speak about these ideals of Wisdom and of Love from above, or more accurately put from within. It is in the Power of the Christ Within that we have this Love and this Wisdom which “casteth out fear” and deception and this is that “perfect love” that we defined in the last post according to the apostle. On Wisdom then the Apostle James tells us: “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:13-17).
Can we understand what the apostle is saying here regarding both Wisdom and deception? Do we see in his words that all that is of the world, of envy and of strife; all that is sensual and devilish is deception which James frames for us so well as a “lie…against the truth“. Whatsoever it is then that we perceive is coming from God, from the Christ Within, is measurable against these criteria and everything that is of the world or of and for the separated self is deception. Can we see here also or at least get a glimpse of the ardent struggle that we are in to shed illusion and glamour and how it is these very factors that keep us bound in deception? By their very nature we live as men in the world believing that we are doing His words through the doctrines that we create and never realizing that these very doctrines ARE the very things of the world which we believe protect us from the fear and the deception that they in reality ARE. This is a most difficult thing to express and even harder to see and to understand.
Thus is the state of Love today as men are deceived by their own doctrines that do not express and promote all that is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy“. It has been a long time since the words of the Master have had the bite that they were intended to have. For a long while man has used his doctrine and his feeble interpretations in place of the words of the Master and His teaching on Love is but one of these areas where His instructions are strongly worded but, by doctrine, they are made to fit the ways of man. Would the Master tell us today regarding out doctrinal treatment of Love that “Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition” (Matthew 15:6). Of the Truth of man’s attainment of the Kingdom of God and of becoming His disciple we again have strong words by the Master and a specific list of criteria for these but here again man has put forth doctrine which teaches a man the ease of this attainment by the saying or the doing of some ritual of doctrine. What would the Master say about this? Would He tell us this same saying above or would He add that “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). Can we see this in the world today and for the many centuries that have elapsed since the Master left us?
Granted that there have been and likely still are people in the church who need this type of understanding for their sense of salvation; however the reality is that this doctrine is believed and taught by the churches as the only way, a way which varies by denomination. It sometimes seems that there are none that look at the Master’s words as we see them here and many, as we have said before, will look at what we have to say here as heresy and as blasphemy. The world however is changing and is likely now more ready to see and hear Truth than ever before; millions there are who are searching but not finding what they need in the church and at the same time the church is changing as well and bringing newer interpretations to the public at large though it is unfortunate that some of what is coming is decidedly materialistic. Again we should remember that regardless of what the teaching that the people are attracted to, if its intent is toward God, to bring man closer to Him, then is can not be all bad and we can find therein some redeeming qualities and if these bring men closer to the Master and the spiritual impulses emanating from the Christ Within, they are of some value to the world.
We who read this blog and understand these posts and the reality of the Words of Jesus however should be seeing more clearly; seeing the state of affairs in the world and seeing the goals and the objectives both individually and for that group call man. First and foremost in our view must be the Master’s teaching on Love and we should understand that this is the single surest way to Him Kingdom and His Presence Love is the very Power that IS God and it IS us as well when we view mankind as the Soul and not the Soul’s appearance in form. We have moved the Master’s words from the Quote of the Day section into the main section today and we will discuss these here yet again.
KEEP HIS WORD
“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 12:30-31).
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.
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 speak much about keeping His words and this is where this should and must begin, at that place that the Master calls the greatest commandments. Since He says above that “There is none other commandment greater than these“, should these not play a more important role in a man’s Life? We have noted in previous posts that there was some understanding of these as the Greatest Commandments by the Jews in the time of Christ; these are cited by the lawyer in the Gospel of Luke, affirmed by the young ruler in the Gospel of Matthew and repeated as fact by the scribe in Mark’s Gospel plus being said by the Master twice in Matthew’s Gospel and once in Mark’s. So the Master tells us to Love the Lord with everything; heart, Soul, mind and strength which is in essence the same thing that He implores us to do if we wish to be His disciples and to be worthy of Him. He says:
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” which we have interpreted as to love less which is then in better agreement with the similar sayings in Matthew. Jesus goes on to say that “And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” and then He says that: “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath , he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33). Can we see in these words the same ideas as to Love the Lord with everything; heart, Soul, mind and strength? Can we see that in doing this thing that we must Love others less and bear whatever we must for that Love and forsake all to accomplish that Love as it is to be the ONLY thing in one’s heart, Soul, mind and strength. This is the price of discipleship but a price only from a worldly perspective.
- “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:38-38). Can we see the sameness of the criteria here and can we sense that the idea of forsaking is implied here in the symbol of the cross as it is above and that it is likely repeated again for clarity by Luke.
Does the idea of Loving the Lord with everything make any more spiritual sense when viewed from this perspective? The second part of this Greatest Commandment is that we should Love our neighbour and while this idea is lost among most Christian denominations, this was not the intent of the Master who put it at the TOP of the list of commandments. We speak of mans actions as regards the other of the Ten Commandments though at times other outside things are placed even above these and we at times do not understand the depth of what the originals actually mean. This however is not the time to get into a discussion on the Ten Commandments other than to say what we did and to emphasize that these two Greatest Commandments are given exalted status above them. So how do we Love our neighbour as the Master implores and, again, who is our neighbour? We can see who is our neighbour as we explain above from the lexicon which, in its broadest sense, we should see as everyman without distinction and without exception for this is as the Master Himself would approach this. We are left then with how do we Love our neighbour and we have here a two part answer from our texts: first, we need to understand what this Love is that we are intended to express and for this we have compiled a definition from the older Webster’s dictionaries. Basically this Love is GoodWill and the Will to Good; that we treat every man with grace and with respect in our understanding that the appearance is NOT the man by the Christ Within, the Soul behind the appearance is the man; in this view we can look past what we see, what we hear and what we may believe that we know about a man as we KNOW that this is not the reality. In this perspective we can find that Unity in Diversity that we have been discussing and in this Unity, we can find that Love which we define as benevolence, GoodWill and favorable thoughts….respect to ALL. Let us look at some of these words:
- Benevolence: The disposition to do good; good will; charitableness; love of mankind, accompanied with a desire to promote their happiness.
- Respect: To take notice of; to regard with special attention; to regard as worthy of special consideration; hence, to care for; to heed. To consider worthy of esteem; to regard with honor.
- GoodWill: There is no realistic definition of this as it is regarded of old as two words and more recently in a rather lite way which does not approach our understanding of it which is that GoodWill is Love in Action and thus the activity of benevolence and respect.
Love in this respect is NOT that love that is commonly thought of in the world. It is not that attraction of the sexes or the closeness of parents and siblings; this Love is that which the Master tells us that we must have, Love that is more valuable than all else, as the Love that we must have toward God. We said before that there were two parts to our answer on how to Love or neighbour and the second part is found in the Golden Rule which we can see as the method by which one can understand the idea of to Love oneself as well as the method by which we can see how it is that we should Love our neighbour. Can we see the reality here from the perspective of the man in form? He wants all to treat him well and this is self Love and the Master tells us that whatsoever a man may want for himself, that He should DO for others. Note that this does not say want for others but it say DO. Our last point is one that we already made and that is to use the Golden Rule as the way of understanding as we say above but also as the way par excellence of interacting according with our neighbour, each and every one of them, as the Master has instructed.
We did not get to our text today and we will pick up here 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.
Today’s Quote of the Day is from the sayings of the Buddha, the Dhammapada.
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act upon them? Are you a shepherd who counts another man’s sheep, never sharing the way? Read as few words as you like, and speak fewer. But act upon the dharma (law). Give up the old ways – passion, enmity, folly. Know the truth and find peace. Share the way. Dhammapada (on Choices)5
Can we see the ideas of the Apostle James in this saying? James tells us that “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 5 Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
