Monthly Archives: February 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part IX

We spent our time yesterday on our adopted project and one that is Truly of the utmost importance insofar as our world is concerned. A we have always said, the concept of GoodWill incorporates within its meaning the Truth of the Love of God. In our last post we set forth some scripture that testifies to this understanding and which says that our Love of God is known by our Love of our neighbor but there is still more depth to this idea that we have not yet touched upon, the crux of which is found in the single saying of the Master as recorded by the Apostle John. We, as well as much of the Christian world, recognize that the Christ and the Father are the same and this is the general theme of the series that we are on. ON GOD is an exploration of the concept of God and thereby the concept of the threefold man as well. The Master tells us plainly that: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) and in this we should understand Him to mean the Father and the Christ, the Father and the Son, and not the physical incarnation of the Christ in Jesus. In saying this He gives validity to our understanding of divinity and our understanding of this gives us the fuel to know that if we Love God the Father of ALL then we must Love the Son as well as there is no separation. In this understanding comes the Master’s profound instruction as to the nature of GoodWill and our responsibility to it as well; as least for those of us who would say that they Love God.

It is in what the Master called the Great Commandments that we find His commands to us that we Love our God and that we Love our neighbor as well. Yesterday we looked at this from the Gospel of Matthew and today what follows is the same saying as recorded by Mark in his Gospel. In Mark’s version we find a bit of a difference as it relates additional understanding to the idea of God. We should here note two things. First is that the common understanding that we had thought true is not so true; that we had said that this first part of the Great Commandment was from the original Ten Commandments and that the Master married to this a more obscure idea from the later and the lessor commandments thereby elevating the saying regarding the Love of one’s neighbor to the level of the Ten. The reality is that the first part is not a part of the Ten Commandments although the context of it is included in our understanding of the Ten. This first part of the Great Commandment is from the Book of Deuteronomy, the sixth chapter and this is after the repetition of the Ten in chapter five. This may seem like it is unimportant but it is necessary to correct the error that we had published and, to our second point, it is rather interesting to note that both parts of this Great Commandment are from commandments of the Lord that are not part of the first Ten. It is apparent that the Jews saw a different order in the commandments as well and this we see in the response of the scribe to Jesus iteration of the two parts of the Great Commandment and we will list this response below. Let us look:

• From Mark’s Gospel the Great Commandments are framed and said this way: “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, 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 12:28-31). Here we find an clarity to the nature of  God that we do not have in the version from Matthew and this is in the saying that “The Lord our God is one Lord” and in this we should get an understanding that God is NOT divisible, He is ONE. We also get the idea here from the Master that “There is none other commandment greater than these“; that these are the HIGHEST of ideals and commands of the Lord.
• The scribe answers the Master in a way that gives us the impression noted above, that there is a different understanding by the Jews as to the the order and the relevance of ALL the commandments although there is no scriptural record of this. The scribe says: “….Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And 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). The response by the scribe is not just that these are two of the commandments but rather it is in agreement with the Master that these two are the Greatest.
• We note that the scene here starts with the question which is framed in Mark as “Which is the first commandment of all” and framed in Matthew’s Gospel as “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36). In either view and regardless of the motivation of the questioner who Matthew says is “tempting him” (Matthew 22:35), the Master is clear in His designation that these are the GREATEST and that they are TWO and that they can be seen as one based on His words “none other commandment greater than these” showing their unity and in His words in Matthew that “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:40) creating a singleness of thought.
• Our last point on this is that the Master acknowledges the straightforwardness and the sincerity of the scribe’s answer; Mark tells us that: “And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God” and in this we should see the understanding that the Master intended. Here is a man, a Jew who by class of trade was opposed to the Master’s teaching, who gave a True acknowledgement to the Master which was steeped in the very teachings that the scribe generally was thought to oppose. Here is a man telling the Christ that Love is ALL and Love is the most important of commandments and here we have the Master saying to this man, this Jew, that “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God“.

All of this is to prepare the groundwork for us to understand the dynamic Power of Love; Love for God and Love for our fellowman, our neighbor, and to see in these words the idea of the level to which these words rise as Commandments of God and of the Master for, as we see above, they are ONE. Now to bring this all back around to our starting point which is that  GoodWill incorporates within its meaning the Truth of the Love of God. We find ourselves in a place where we profess to Love God and we may even do things in Life that we interpret as signifying that this is True. So this profession is in accord with the first part of the Great Commandment and this is good; however, John tells us that if we say we Love God that we must Love our brother, our neighbor, as well and here is the disconnect for so many who profess Love for God. John tells us that: “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?” (1 John 4:20) and in this we see two ideas; first is the use of the word hate and this is an extreme of not loving but one which is found in the heart of all who hold prejudices against others because of race or creed or religion or whatsoever else. Second is the more positive understanding and the one that should be our driving point and that is the idea of one who “loveth not his brother“. In this combination of the words Love and hate we should see the same ideas that come forth in the varying of the saying of the Master in Luke’s Gospel telling us that “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” (Luke 14:26) as opposed to Matthew’s Gospel which records the Master’s words as: “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” (Matthew 10:37). Can we see here the confusion and the understanding of these terms? Can we see that the overriding idea in John’s saying is Love and that if you cannot Love your fellowman you per force then cannot Love God? Can we also see the idea from the Master that says if we do not Love God more than we Love our family or ourselves then we are “not worthy”; that is then, from the Master’s perspective that “he cannot be my disciple“.

Can we see also how this all ties together, that the first part of the Great Commandment is more important than the second and that we cannot accomplish the first except we accomplish the second first? Hence the requirement of GoodWill which we define as Love in Action and which can be seen as the activity of Love for one’s neighbor. There is no escape from this reality and there is no better way to achieve His Kingdom as we note again that He told the scribe above that his simply knowing this Truth put him in that lofty place where the Master will say of him that “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God“.

The Master’s words here are of the utmost importance to all that desire to be counted among His disciples and it is in regard to Love that we see His Great emphasis; not on believing nor on faith nor on worship nor on our understanding of His Grace. His emphasis is on Love. We see above His commandments and we should see in most all that He says that this idea of Love is flowing through His words and, as we close today, we will look at another part of this great circular reference that we highlight above. Remembering the saying of the Master that “I and my Father are one“, let us look at what the Master tells us from the Gospel of John:

• “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
• “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” (John 14:23).

Without getting into the other sayings from the Master regarding Love in John’s Gospel which have a tendency to narrow one’s interpretation in saying that they regarding disciples only, we will stand for now upon these three sayings. To Love God is the first Great commandment and here the Master confirms for us that if a man Loves Him that the man will keep His words, His commandments, which brings us to the second Great commandment with is that we Love our neighbor as we Love ourselves. Can we see here again the same type of circular pattern as we see the first example above? Can we see that to Love the Master is to Love God and to do so we must keep His words? Can we see that the Master tells us that the second of the Great Commandments is that we Love our fellow man and that if we do not do this we cannot say that we Love God nor can we say that we Love the Master. Can we see here that GoodWill is the key and the answer?

And can we see also the idea above insofar as His manifesting Himself to those who keep His words and who Love Him and how this has a direct relationship to the ideas incorporated into the title of this theme; ON GOD. This is the Christ and this is the second aspect of man as well; this is the Christ Within that manifests itself to the conscious personality when we are in tune with our Inner Self, our Soul. And can we see that the way of ALL is in Love and that as a man expresses this Love to All in GoodWill that he is heeding the call of his Soul, the call of the Christ and the call of God.

We will continue with these ideas in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day