ON LOVE; PART DCCCXXVII
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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)
In the last essay we concluded our look at the words of Jesus from the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of John with our thoughts on the idea behind the Eleven’s claim that “Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God” and the Master’s response saying “Do ye now believe?“. We should try to see here how that the word that IS rendered as believe IS in regard to their claim of KNOWING the Truth and that it IS in this same context that the Master replies to them. This IS NOT the more common understanding of this idea of believing but rather the firm conviction which should result in the action of seeing Him as Lord and seeing this through the Master’s own rhetorical question asking “why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
If we can understand that the True sense of believing IS KNOWING and that this ability to KNOW IS the result of the grace, the revelations and the realizations of Truth that come to the consciousness of the man in this world, then we can better understand their response and the reality that each of them has this sense by measure. This measure IS based in the individual measure by which they ARE keeping His words and this IS including the reality expressed in the first of the Great Commandments above. We should understand here that without their keeping of second of the Great Commandments which we repeat again at the top of our essay, that there IS NO sense of discipleship as this IS the outward reflection of discipleship; this IS the outward expression of the “fruit of the Spirit” which IS that fruit of which the Master says “Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8). It IS the first of these Great Commandments that IS the True KEY to the fullness of discipleship; it IS the first that brings a man into full accord with the word of God and the teachings of the Master.
And this IS what the Master waits for in the Life of the Apostle Peter who we see as being set for us as the example of the fullness that IS required, the fullness that IS the Perfection of man and the fullness that IS the Life of the man who “doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). As we have discussed, Peter IS NOT in accord with this fullness in the gospels and this we can clearly see in the many words that the Master speaks to him regarding his thoughts and his attitudes as a man in this world. It IS in this context that we should read Jesus’ words to the apostle saying “Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men” (Mark 8:33). It IS in the fullness of the first Great Commandment, the True KEY to one’s divine nature, that we should see the reality of Perfection as this effects ALL men who Truly seek to follow the Lord. This Perfection IS found in the fullness of our focus which IS the reality of our being able to “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 we should see that it IS the divine that must become the constant focus of the man in the world and that this True KEY shows us that we must look away from the affairs of the self in the world and see ONLY the Truth of our spiritual self, our Souls, our own God and Christ Within….and that we express this divine view of Life according to the second of the Great Commandments.
We must understand here that this sequence we show above IS NOT necessarily the way of the aspirant and the disciple, that the first IS NOT fulfilled before the second in the Life of the man in the world, and, we should try to see as well that the second IS NOT complete, that the second IS NOT in its fullness until the first IS Truly accomplished. It IS ONLY when men can Truly “Take no thought for your life” (Luke 12:22). when men can fully understand the distinction between “God and mammon” (Luke 16:13), that they can fully see the way of the first Great Commandment. And so it IS the man who Truly seeks God from the perspective Jesus’ words which we repeat again below that will Truly find him by measure, that will Truly have the realization of His Presence in his Life; and it IS the man who can look past himself and the things of the world who can bring this realization to its fullness. In this we must understand and accept that the divine ideas found in the Great Commandments ARE a part, a most important part, of the reality that the Master shows us in 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).
And this IS the fullness of the idea that we have above, the fullness of “the will of my Father” and the fullness of and the reality of being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. ALL of this IS diluted and distorted by the doctrines of men which try to paint His words according to the thoughts of men who DO NOT see the reality of the Great Commandments against their own interpretations of the words of the Apostle Paul; neither DO they see the import of Jesus’s words above. Nor do they understand the dynamic relationships that ARE shown to us by way of their being results of the deeper reality of keeping His words; they DO NOT understand how that discipleship, the Presence of God, and attaining the Kingdom of God ARE ALL the same in their effect upon the Life of the man who will keep His words. And it IS NOT simply because of the parabolic language of the Master which we have been discussing over the last several essays and throughout this blog; Jesus parabolic tone and the similar presentation of His apostles ONLY serve to cover the mysteries of how ALL of these divine and spiritual ideas work out in the world of men. While the parabolic tome of the Master and His apostles cover the ideas of the Presence of God in one’s Life and how that this works out as the reality of the God and the Christ Within and while the Master covers the Truth of “whither I go……and the way” in showing the Eleven that they KNOW these things as Souls without explanation saying “whither I go ye know, and the way ye know” (John 14:4), they DO leave the Way to these revelations and realizations open and clear but men DO NOT see them.
Similarly the Master speaks to the Eleven about the Holy Spirit, telling them that they KNOW Him and have Him with them and calling Him the Spirt of Truth and the Parakletos without further explanation. And similarly He shows them the reality of the Presence of God in words that ARE rendered as manifest and as abiding. These ideas ARE also covered from view by the parabolic nature of the Master’s words and by the lack of a True and complete explanation of any of these divine ideas, they and we ARE left then to discover the Truth by the revelations and realizations that come in the Presence of God of which they speak….that come by measure to the man who will keep His words. In the quid pro quo that the Master offers above as He shows them how that He and the Father will manifest to and abide with the man who keeps His words, we have an appealing situation for the Eleven. We must understand however that they ARE already in accord with most ALL of what Jesus says. For them the idea is that they continue in His words as they approach their own Perfection and, as we see in exchanges between the Master and the Eleven, they DO NOT understand these ideas completely…..they DO NOT see the reality of the Presence of God through Jesus parabolic tone.
This reality of how that the Master has covered the Truths and the mysteries IS also NOT seen by those who followed the apostles, those who composed and who teach the doctrines of men. From the earliest of Christian times men have believed that they DO KNOW the Master’s meanings and that they have received the revelation of the mysteries; and men believe this while they DO NOT yet see the KEY criteria for this KNOWING and for this revelation….that they must keep His words. And, at the same time these same men who compose and who teach these doctrines of men DO NOT understand the most clear presentations of Truth that the Master presents to us; the Truths on Love, the clarity of the Great Commandments and the injunction that to Truly seek God, to Love God, one must keep His words. Even in the light of the Truths that ARE set forth in our current selection which we repeat here again, these men DO NOT see how that if the Eleven, men who were Jesus’ constant companions and who were privy to so much more than the gospels reveal, could not understand the depth of His meanings, that they CAN NOT make such claims in their doctrines as they have DONE and yet DO. We repeat our selection:
“These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold , the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:25-33).
Can we understand the point here? and can we see the validity of this point in the way that His words are splintered by the multiplicity of doctrinal interpretations of His singular Truths? And this same point applies here to us who write as though we KNOW the fullness of His intent. Here while we may KNOW a deeper Truth than the many doctrines presume to KNOW, we DO NOT KNOW anything beyond that which has been our own revelation and realization of these Truths. We do however rely upon the Master’s words….His words on Love and His admonishment to us that we keep His words and, while the wranglings and the machinations of the various doctrines can paint for us an easier way to glory, we understand that this glory IS ONLY real to the carnal mind and that this carnal sense of reality IS but an illusion. It IS in this context that we should see Jesus words asking “”why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” and the Apostle James amplifying idea telling us to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). And while the Apostle Paul paints for us a rather clear picture of this Truth, the doctrines of men DO NOT see this clarity as they interpret individual verses according to their sense of doctrine rather that the Truth of his whole thoughts. So much that IS doctrine yet today was founded in the doctrines and the traditions of the Jews and then compounded by men’s desire for the easier way to glory, a desire that overlooks the tenets of the Master and the True KEY found in keeping His words.
While it IS interesting to talk about the ideas that the Master closes with here as He begins His own prayer which covers the whole of the seventeenth chapter, ideas like the Eleven being “scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone” and persecuted; and while it IS interesting to speculate upon the Master’s words at the end which ARE written as “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” and interpreted against Jewish writings as “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), the more interest should be given to the Master’s closing words here as He tells us that “I have overcome the world“. It IS in these words, especially when they ARE coupled with Jesus saying that “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 men should see their destiny and should see as well the very fabric of spiritual Life as this IS opposed to men’s carnal lives in this world. There IS NO shortage of sayings in the New Testament that show us the intended dichotomy between the things of the world and the things of God and we have discussed this idea frequently in our posts. From the Master’s words above which show us the Truth that we should “take no thought“, to the reality of His words on that choice that we have between God and mammon….that men CAN NOT serve both, we have His Truth. Truths that ARE misapplied in doctrines that DO NOT see clearly this separation and which believe that men can be spiritual while yet attached to their desires and their lives as men in this world.
Jesus tells us that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24) and it IS in the lack of vision and men’s inability to see the completeness of the Master’s thoughts that this idea IS relegated to the idea of wealth and riches; and it IS in this way of man that even this wrong idea IS virtually ignored. It IS in the reality of the Master’s words that “I have overcome the world” that we find His and our deliverance; it IS this which Paul shows us as our being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). And as Jesus, in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” from His birth, tells us of this overcoming here, we should NOT presume that this IS His current accomplishment nor apply the many different doctrinal interpretations; we should see this as a part of His encouragement to the Eleven….that they should “be of good cheer” and KNOW that this IS their destiny, that they too can DO this as they continue in His word.
We close today with an interesting point regarding the words we cite above, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?“, and the very idea of destiny. According to the Peshitta, the ‘authorized’ bible of the Church of the East (which IS claimed to be the more original text) which IS written in Aramaic, the original language of the Master and His apostles and the language in which these words are recorded, the English rendering IS “My God, my God, for this I was spared!” while in the footnotes we read that this can be rendered as “this was my destiny“
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.
Repeating a Quote of the Day from the past that has some significance in relation to what we are discussing here, that the Kingdom of God and therefore God is within us ALL and that it IS His Presence which a man realizes by measure as he begins his journey to the Kingdom of God. Here Lord Tennyson poetically tells us just how close God Truly IS and how it is that we touch Him
Speak to Him, thou, for He hears,
and Spirit with Spirit can meet
Closer is He than breathing,
and nearer than hands and feet.
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–1892)
From the poem The Higher Pantheism which puts forth the authors spiritual belief. Whether we agree with him or not, the quote if spiritually perfect for all of Christianity as well as any other world religion.
The thought behind the idea above IS NOT unlike that which we have been carrying as our Quote of the Day for many essays; It IS in the closeness that Lord Tennyson shows us that we should see the idea that “God dwells in the inner part of every man” which we read in the previous Quote of the Day. For us this saying and the previous one show us the closeness of the spiritual self to the Father and then too the closeness of the spiritual self with the personality of man. Men may like to think of God as something outside and above but the reality, as we have seen in so many of the sayings of the Master, is that God is with us and in us and we need only to let ourselves be drawn and to focus upon Him. And, if we can use these words from the Gospel of Thomas here we can perhaps see much: “When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father“
