Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCLXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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Of all that the Master told us, He considered this as the Greatest of Commandments. So much of what we are to understand as aspirants or as believers is found in the precept that we must KEEP HIS WORDS:

“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).

We ask ourselves 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.

We add to this THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST which can serve to both give us an understanding of what it means to Love oneself and how it is that we can Love our neighbor:

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them“ (Matthew 7:12).

In the words below from the Apostle Paul we have his posting of the relative importance of Love and to this we have been adding the words of the Master above that reflect this same importance. Yet still today, more than 2000 years after the Master’s teachings, mankind still does not understand this reality while at the same time laying claim to the ‘saving grace’ of being a Christian. And, as we have been saying over the last several essays, there IS still not a real understanding of just what this Love that the Master teaches us IS and there IS no real teaching on this that can be readily found from the doctrines of the churches that carry the Name of the Christ. In English we tie this word Love to that emotional attraction and attachment that we have for others, for pets and for the things of pleasure in this world but this IS NOT the reality of the Love that we should be finding in the many words of the Master and His apostles. Again, our understanding of Love is based upon but not finalized in these words that define Charity in Webster’s 1828 version and we should remember in reading this that this word Charity is from the same Greek word agape (agapao) and the rendering this as Love or as Charity in any particular passage is merely the translators’ choice. Paraphrasing Webster’s we have: 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.¹ 

In our words this Love becomes Active GoodWill and Right Human Relations and these ideas practiced from the heart, from a conscious awareness of the Truth of the words of the Master above and the apostle below, tell us that there IS NO THING MORE IMPORTANT IN THE LIFE OF THE MAN IN THE WORLD. As we discussed in the last post, the human failing that gets in the way of one’s expression of this Love is the sense of self and the desire to promote one’s self above other selves in their same general social and educational level as well as one’s level of affluence in the community. As these factors change the sense of self changes with them but in every degree the carnal mind and emotional response to the world and to others is to promote oneself above and this even if only in one’s own mind. And it is in the failure of a man to justify his own carnal self that we can find so much of the problems of humanity, and the result can be disease, both physical, mental and emotional, or a sense of uselessness that can result in one just giving up or entering into a life of substance abuse or even crime. The solution to ALL the maladies of humanity and its problems as well can be found in these ideas of Love but these must be properly presented and not merely put into common language nor into misunderstood phrases like ‘God Loves you’ which is so often interpreted to mean that based upon this Love of God one will be taken care of in this world.

Active GoodWill and Right Human Relations ARE the fulfillment of the Golden Rule which IS the everyday practice of the much repeated phrase “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself“. In Paul’s words below we see this from His perspective as regards religion and the short story to what we discussed in the last post is that it matters not how religious one may be, it does not matter that one can speak in tongues nor prophesy, it does not matter that one believes he KNOWS the mysteries or that he has the faith spoken of in the gospels, and it does not matter what one does philanthropically in the world or the station that he may believe he as reached spiritually: without Love, without living one’s Life in the willing practice Active GoodWill, treating ALL men as they should be treated, as one would want himself treated, then ALL that one does or believes is but illusion; none IS True. We should understand here that from the philanthropic perspective there IS always some benefit to the world and there is likely some karmic reward for this even if the motives are selfish but if in so giving the man believes that he has the greater reward, he will find that he still needs Love. The apostle clarifies the nature of these religious ideas that may occur in one’s Life in the absence of the True sense of Love as he tells us that “whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away” and we can see this two ways. First that these are Earthy things of the personality in the world which when they are real are fed by the Soul and in the absence of Love they will on their own vanish and be replaced by some carnal version that is not real or secondly, based upon the same premise of the personality, that these are no longer of any use to the man who can become the True disciple and that in this state ONLY Love remains. We should understand here that much of these religious phenomenon is personality based to begin with as a man follows his selected doctrine and his psyche follows along believing that the tongues, the prophecy and the knowledge are from God and in this the apostle is clear….without Love these are not only useless but that are likely an illusory belief as well. In this combination of thoughts we should be able to see both the man who does achieve spiritually but who cannot accept and achieve the Love that the Master teaches thereby making these ‘gifts’ of no moment and of no use, as well as the man who merely believes from the perspective of doctrine and his own personality in the world that he can do these things and here, this is but illusion and they are of no True effect.

But earnestly desire the best gifts.

And yet I show you a more excellent way.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love,

I have become sounding brass or a clanging 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,

but have not love, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and though I give my body to be burned,

but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease;

whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;

but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;

but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1-13

Now we have looked at the apostle’s words on faith, hope and Love and we have discussed his thoughts on the importance of Love from the perspective of what one can do in the world, that ALL is for naught spiritually without Love and today we have seen the temporal nature from two perspectives of the so called ‘gifts’ and we should take from ALL of this the ONE main message which IS the importance of Love and the reality that without Love ALL that we do and accomplish, whether real or imaginary, affords a man NO spiritual collateral. It IS Love as the Master teaches us, Love as IS the nature of God and the nature of the Soul, that we MUST express in this Life in this world if we are to realize our own Truth and our own divinity.

Paul also takes us into a discussion of the meaning of this Love, which in the final analysis, tells us of the Wisdom from above and the fruit of the Spirit as both of these come to and through the man in the world from the Soul in free flowing Power and Love. Here we must look again at the dual perspective of the accomplishment of one’s spiritual pursuits; that one can force this Love into one’s Life by the conscious adherence to the words of the Master because they ARE His words and the man IS hearing the prompting of the Soul to action and this at times without KNOWING just what this prompting IS. Or he can come to a point where he KNOWS the Truth, or as much of it as he can comprehend and realize, and consciously continue along the Path in conscious cooperation with the Plan. It matters not how one arrives, it matters only that one arrives in Love. The apostle then tells us that Love IS longsuffering and that Love IS kind and indeed these are qualities that we must show to ALL men regardless of our own personality reactions and it is these reactions that we must as recognize as originating in world and as attitudes of the carnal self. Now in longsuffering we have the Truth of patience and not momentary patience but enduring patience; a patience that comes in our own realization that the other person or group of persons is basically just like us and we should, as the Buddha tells us, “See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? He who seeks happiness By hurting those who seek happiness Will never find happiness. For your brother is like you. He wants to be happy. Never harm him” (Dhammapada, on Violence)⁵. And here we should see as well the reality of the Golden Rule; as we at times need the patience of others, we need to offer this same. What then do we see in kind? Is this not the physical attribute of that Love that we must offer, that it results in treating ALL in ‘kindness‘ which Webster’s defines for us as  Disposed to do good to others, and to make them happy by granting their requests, supplying their wants or assisting them in distress; having tenderness or goodness of nature; benevolent; benignant ¹. We should not rely here on the idea of making others happy by granting requests as some can be of no concern to us but we should be able to understand and to see the rest in our own understanding of Love and its intent as Active GoodWill.

Paul goes on to tell us three things that Love IS NOT and we should be able to see in these that sense of self, that sense that IS contrary to the reality of Love as the Master teaches. The first IS envy which we can see as it is commonly understood which IS to see the accomplishments or the possessions of another in the light of wanting the same or begrudging that other person these things; in this we can also see covetousness in this same range of wanting the same or begrudging others. As we have discussed from the Apostle James words on Wisdom from above, this idea of envy can also bring us to thoughts of emulation along with that connotation that one would be striving to be like or to have what another IS or has and in ALL of these ideas we should see the sense of looking at the self through the accomplishments or possessions of others instead of seeing the Truth of the man as the Soul with whom one is already equal and where the sense of accomplishment of another would be in right expression and in Love and understanding. The next phrase is that Love, or the man expressing Love, does not parade himself which in the original King James Version (KJV) is rendered as “charity vaunteth not itself” and in both of these we should be able to see the similar idea of promoting oneself above another to the psychological benefit of the self in the world and this can be in any and ALL things. The next phrase, “is not puffed up” should be seen as explanatory of the previous ‘fault’ so that the vaunting or the parading are seen in the reality of Webster’s definition: inflated with vanity or pride; praised ¹ and we should here see the same reasoning as we offered for the idea of envy above and which the read above from the Buddha. When we look at Life as the Life of the True man, the Soul, we are all equal, it is only our expression that varies against the same goal which is the eventual expression of the Power and the Love of the Soul through the form in the world. When we can see men in the world in the way that the Buddha teaches saying “See yourself in others and that  your brother is like you” we will see this equality in the world as well and we should understand this as the objective of the whole of the apostle’s lesson in these sayings on Love.

The next phrase contains another group of ideas that Love IS NOT and this begins with what we read above as rudely and what the KJV renders as unseemly. Now rudely is not an accurate description from our perspective; in unseemly, although not a popular word, we can find a better understanding of what the apostle is telling us. In seemly we should see the ideas of proper and appropriate behavior, nothing outlandish, and since Paul is here referring this word to the idea of behavior perhaps we can see in this a touch of the Golden Rule where our behavior to others in Love would be as we would that others would be to us…..dealing with others as equal under God. Paul’s next thought is that Love, or the man expressing Love, “does not seek its own” and in this we should see clearly the idea of self and selfishness. The man then expressing Love does not envy, does not promote himself, is not filled with pride, treats others as he would himself be treated and this is that ALL resolved in this single thought of taking no thought for the self which should bring us back to the Master’s admonition that tells us this same thing albeit from a different perspective.

The next group of thoughts from the apostle are of a different nature; where these previous are in regard to the expression of the self in the world as to how he should interact with others in Love, this next group is the actual response to others which, based on the one’s expression of the former points, one would not consider nor do. Paul however sees the necessity to list these and likely for those who CAN NOT readily understand the more esoteric psychic ideas of patience, kindness, envy and pride. In concrete terms he tells us that the man who is expressing Love or, as he says it Love itself, does not allow himself to be provoked and we should see this in the vein of the Master’s words saying “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39) or, as above, in the exercise of patience or longsuffering in such dealings with others and perhaps here we can see kindness as we understand it above. Our last words for today are the idea of “thinks no evil” and here we should see a twofold approach; the one is as it says, think nothing evil about anyone and this from the perspective of KNOWING the True man IS NOT the man who is acting in the world; the other is as Vincent paints this for us which is that we reckoneth not the evil ⁴ which is related more to the understanding of provocation and says not to see the evil that is provoking us of even some other act against the man expressing Love. We prefer here the former as it is more progressive which IS the intent of the apostle in this list of what Love IS and what it IS NOT or DOES NOT do.

Now looking at this can cause much angst as regards how one may act in the world and the common understanding IS likely that this type of Love is difficult even in regard to those to whom we are attracted or have family relationships. How then can a man be expected to Love this way in relation to others? is likely the question asked and the answer of course will vary person to person and looking around us at the state of affairs in the world today we can probably judge this for ourselves. What IS important here is that these words are directed at us, at aspirants and disciples who MUST see Love in this way and understand Love as it is taught by the Master. In doing so and in our attitude of service we will practice our expression of Love in this way and by our example we will bring others to greater realization of this Power and Nature of God.

We will continue with out thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	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 should ever understand that the purpose of our aspiration and of our discipleship is to bring into the world our expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul both as an example of the righteous Life and as a ready aid to our brothers, our neighbors and the stranger who qualifies as both. Our intent should be to serve and in our service to instill in others that same sense that we have; from a spiritual perspective to the spiritual man, and from a worldly perspective to the man who is yet grounded in the world. The Apostle Paul puts it this way for us from his own Life and personal experience:

“for if I may proclaim good news, it is no glorying for me, for necessity is laid upon me, and wo is to me if I may not proclaim good news; for if willing I do this, I have a reward; and if unwillingly — with a stewardship I have been entrusted! What, then, is my reward? — that proclaiming good news, without charge I shall make the good news of the Christ, not to abuse my authority in the good news; for being free from all men, to all men I made myself servant, that the more I might gain; and I became to the Jews as a Jew, that Jews I might gain; to those under law as under law, that those under law I might gain; to those without law, as without law — (not being without law to God, but within law to Christ) — that I might gain those without law; I became to the infirm as infirm, that the infirm I might gain; to all men I have become all things, that by all means I may save some. And this I do because of the good news, that a fellow-partaker of it I may become;  have ye not known that those running in a race — all indeed run, but one doth receive the prize? so run ye, that ye may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:16-24).

With this in mind we redo a past Quote of the Day and one that we have been using from very early on in this blog. The sentiment here is the fulfillment of our duty as aspirants and disciples and our duty it to instill these ideas in the hearts and minds of others.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888

• ⁵ The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom