IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 207

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

The Miracles of Jesus (continued; part xix)

Our post banner is the general theme that we seek to enhance in the Christian world and we are more that two hundred posts into this effort. Our belief is that by the writing and the reading of this blog plus whatever other positive information is at the same time being written, read and listened to, that the thoughts that the Master intended for His human family to understand and to keep will be brought to the forefront of religious teachings and supplant that fixation on the doctrines and dogmas that do not properly express His ideas. There is of course much to overcome here as much of what we have to say is likely considered heretical by the mainstream of Christian thinking. We know however that this is not the case and that we seek only to emphasize the basic ideas that the Master gave us; much of it in straightforward talk and some hidden in His parables. Our sub-heading, Love is the Fulfilling of the Law, is the Apostle Paul’s way of saying to us all that the Master’s teaching on Love is, in the reality of Life, the key to one’s spiritual success. Paul has written many of the words that are taken out of their context and used to support the doctrines and the dogmas that much of the church expresses as the will of God but of which also much is simply the interpretation of men that does not square with the teachings of the Christ.

We posed the question a few posts ago asking: Do we ever wonder why the Commandments of the Lord and of the Master are all about Love? Love for God and thereby for the God Within and Love for our fellow man? and it is in this question and its answer that we can measure for ourselves our True devotion to the words of the Master. So much of His teaching is about Love and about the positive action of a Life of Love and of brotherhood. We have posted the Great Commandment of the Lord many times along with its key in the Golden Rule and we have offered as well our own key to the understanding of both away from the everyday human thoughts of what Love is. Since these ideas never get old and reading them again can only help us to understand the message of the Christ we repeat them here again today:

“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)

We should remember always to link to this Greatest Commandment that other saying of the Master that gives to us the practical understanding of how to love one’s self plus the practical instruction on how it is that we CAN Love our neighbour; He tells us:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“

(Matthew 7:12)

Unlike so much of the Master’s sayings that come to us in the form of parables and for which we can only surmise that we have the spiritual presence to understand, these sayings are very straightforward and they are the key to many of the promises of spiritual life; they are the very key to the Kingdom of God. To these sayings we  add our adopted definition of the Greek word agape (agapao)  which is translated into the English words Love and Charity and which is:

‘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’

We have promoted many of the sayings of the Apostles in our Quote of the Day section and two of the more profound and most ignored relate to LOVE and our response to our fellow man. It is from one of these sayings that we took our sub-heading; the entire text goes thus:

“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).

Can we see the simple logic in Paul’s understanding of the Great Commandment and of the other sayings of the Master? If one Truly Loves one’s neighbour then it is impossible to do those things that are noted above and when we consider the reality of the defining term of neighbour as being everyman, then there is no where that we can do these things that offend. The reality that “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour” then becomes the overriding influence in one’s Life and puts one well on the way to the Kingdom of God. We should remember here the words of the Master to the scribe that asks about eternal life and which question leads to the saying above from the Gospel of Mark. The Master tells him, after his acknowledgement that what Jesus spoke are Truly the Greatest Commandments, that “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34) thereby confirming for us the importance of His saying. Paul is not the only one that seeks to convey to us the importance of and their own understanding of this Great concept of Love; the Apostle John also has much to say although some of his sayings are misinterpreted to mean Love only for one’s Christian brothers. This interpretation however takes much away from the intent of the Master and belittles His sayings. The resolution of all of John’s sayings on the topic of Love is found in this saying:

“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 4:16-21).

Again, here is  the essence of the Master’s teaching set forth for us in a cogent and simple statement. We should note here too that one of the sayings that we rely upon to know that we can be as and do as the Christ is included in this dialogue on Love: “because as he is, so are we in this world“. The Apostle Paul makes our response in Love ever more critical in his saying to us regarding the idea of having all of the tools of one’s doctrine but not having Love  for all:

“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. 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“

This saying is much used in the church and parts of it are emblazoned on posters and plaques but the meaning is generally seen as that emotional love that one has for family and friends, for wives and children. The reality of this however, the reality of the idea embodied by agape, should be seen in our own statement on Love in which is embodied much of the Master’s intent of “love thy neighbour as thyself“. If we read into the word agape in the above saying by Paul the essence of our statement that: ‘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‘ we shall have a much clearer outlook on the necessary direction of our lives. The Apostle James calls this idea of Love the Royal Law and he tells us that:

“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” (James 2:8-10).

Measure if you can the strength and the objective of the statement above saying “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin“. What do we see here? Can we see the idea of treating on person above another? In the whole of his saying, James is pointing to one’s preference toward the rich and the powerful over the poor and the downtrodden; is he not telling us that to have such preference in our lives is sin? Is he not telling us that sin in this area is sin in all? The writer of Hebrews tells us a bit about Love from a unique perspective and with a True reason for why, if one desires spiritual advancement, he should Love all:

“Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body” (Hebrews 13:1-3).

We should note here that the idea of entertain strangers is rendered as “Forget not to show love unto strangers” in the Revised and the American Standard Version and Vincent tells us that it should more readily be rendered as be not forgetful of hospitality⁴ . Between these two renditions we should be able to see the precepts of our own understanding on Love as cited above and should be able to see that within hospitality is found a True measure of GoodWill. Part of the uniqueness in this saying is found in the end of this sentence in regard to angels which we should see as messengers of God. Is this a good reason to treat all with GoodWill? The rest is to say that we should have concern for those that are in bonds, not those deservedly incarcerated but those in bonds of slavery or persecution, religious or political and the same thoughts should apply for adversity. We should see no boundaries in this statement, neither religious nor political nor any other basis as the stranger is just that, a stranger.

Seeing all of this regarding Love and seeing as well the conduct of men who profess to be Christians in the world still today, we should know that we must, at some time, come to answer the question of the Master “Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word” (John 8:43). There is no greater message  in the entire New Testament and especially in the words of the Master than LOVE. It is and should be seen as the overriding principal of Christianity and the Supreme Commandment of the Christ. We can parse His words and the words of the apostles, we can analyze them and interpret them in the Light of what we believe as people or in the Light of what we have been told but none of this changes the intent of the Master, an intent that should be screaming out at all of us. It is time that the world look past the doctrines and the dogmas to which we give allegiance and see the reality of the simple message of the Christ.

GOODWILL IS LOVE IN ACTION

We did not get to our subject matter for today; perhaps in the next post. We will leave the Quote of the Day as it was yesterday and pick up from those thoughts on baptism in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day