Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCLXXII

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

GoodWill IS Love in Action

ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

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).

We closed our last essay with our ideas regarding these words by the Apostle Paul on Love. Knowing the difficulty of performing in Love according to Paul’s describing words below as regards that which man believes IS Love; that carnal attraction and attachment to family, to close friends, to wife and child and even to the family pet and those things that give one pleasure, we posed the question: How then can a man be expected to Love this way in relation to others? and here of course we mean ALL others as IS the intent of the teaching. We posited as well that this difficulty is likely the reason why mankind yet today CAN NOT accept this True meaning of the Love that is taught us by the Master and of which, if we look to conscience, we will KNOW IS the ONLY Way. Now this idea of conscience IS a part of, or better an effect of, the prompting of the Soul to the consciousness in form, a prompting that for us as aspirants MUST become a steady stream of accepted thoughts, attitudes and actions that qualify under the test of the Wisdom from above that the Apostle James gives to us, and which can be seen as the qualities of fruit of the Spirit that Paul gives us; both of which we have discussed several times insofar as our use in daily Life. We should find similar precepts in these writings on Love and by this we can KNOW if our Love for others is according to these ideas that basically take the carnal self out of the Love equation, and that these will work out in most any form of Love imaginable. Love IS in its essence the way that we relate to others, carnal Love IS to selected others while the Love that the Master teaches IS ALL others. It is important to understand that there IS NOT an either or situation to add to our confusion but that we can accomplish both; the former with the carnal devotion that True Love requires and the latter in that Spirit of GoodWill and Right Human Relations that the True man requires of himself.

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

We should understand as well that this sense of conscience to which we refer above is not understood by so many or else it IS largely ignored or, perhaps some combination of these ideas for the common and near normal man in the world. In a previous post we discussed this idea of conscience as many may view it saying that: We often see cartoon references to the conscience of man as the little, rather holy looking, chap on the right shoulder who is in constant contention with the little red guy with the pitchfork and arrow pointed tail who is on the left shoulder. This is a good portrayal of the situation of man who as a conscious being is standing in the gap between the Good of the Soul and the evil of the personality or the carnal self. The Soul is represented by the little and rather holy looking chap on the right shoulder and the vanity of the world, the illusion and the glamour, are represented by little red guy with the pitchfork and arrow pointed tail who is on the left shoulder. That we can understand this is testimony to the fact that many are aware of this relationship in the consciousness to the duality and the struggle but few relate this to the promptings of the Soul that is ever looking toward the Good, the Beautiful and the True. We should understand here that it IS NOT for ALL people today to understand the working out of the Inner man, the Soul, through the Life in the world and for many this idea of conscience will suffice until such time as they should seek additional understanding; but for those who do desire to move forward in their spiritual pursuits these ideas of the Constitution of Man as presented in this chart that we repeat daily can help and assist not only in our understanding of ourselves but our understanding of others as well and it IS in this sense of understanding others that we can better express the Love that the Master teaches.

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

As we have often discussed there is a simplicity in this chart in terms of the Trinity and we should note that it clearly tells us what the Old Testament, the Master and His apostles tell us; simply put this is that man, the True man, is created in the image of God as we read in Genesis: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27). This of course we see as the Trinity of God being the image of man, that man too is a Trinity of Aspects which, when considered from the perspective of Life beyond this Earth, can be see as ONE. For our understanding there IS naught in this chart that pertains to the Life of the man in the world, the form Life of the human. ALL of this is spiritual and this IS what we are; if we believe the Master who tells us that “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24) then we must also believe that we are Spirit as we ARE in His image and in this understanding we can look away from the form Life entirely. These ARE ideas that ARE difficult to understand and it IS likely due to this difficulty that these are not taught and this even though what IS taught is really no more clear except  perhaps from the perspective that it is easier to speak of that which we can see. So then we KNOW these realities in principal if not in the flow of that Wisdom from above and in this we can find that understanding of our brother upon which we can base this Love of God; we KNOW that we are, ALL of us, the same in essence, that we ARE Spirit and that we ARE that same Trinity albeit on a lower wrung if you will as the idea of God here can be seen to encompass ALL. What of the man then who CAN NOT or WILL NOT understand these ideas upon which the Truth of brotherhood is built? how does he learn this same Love?

The answer here is in the words of the Master and His apostles and in the position of a man’s conscience in regard to his basic recognition of it and in this we are saying that because of the ability of the words of the Master to be seen from the carnal and the spiritual point of view, that this Love can be taught and likely with no more difficulty than is seen in the teachings about God and Christ from the doctrines of the churches. But the key here IS that this MUST be taught and it must be taught continually through the churches and through the secular society as well and this in place of the dog eat dog mentality that we currently teach our children. This IS of course a long and slow process and we should understand here that there are those men in the history of the world who have seen and have tried to teach this same understanding but to no apparent avail except if we look at the individual lives that have advanced out of the clamor of the self in the world. And here we can likely count ourselves as aspirants, and we likely did not just wake up one day in aspiration, and we likely did not suddenly realize the Truths the Master’s words or even our sense of disagreement with doctrine; we are more likely the product of that spiritual collateral that we had amassed in prior incarnations which allowed us  to build clearer and more divinely inclined forms and personalities which are more attentive to the promptings of the Soul and here we have a greater effect because we are able. This is of course aided by the influx of the Energies of the New Age as the entirety of this piece of the Great and Awesome Creation of God is being moved ever more steadily toward Love and brotherhood and harmony. We ARE, ALL of us, the product of ALL of our past experiences and this IS a recognized fact in the individual Life of the man in the world and one that can aid the race if properly understood from the perspective of the long Life of the Soul, the True man, to whom these individual lives are but segments of the whole. And while it may be difficult or even impossible to see the spiritual state of those around us, it is likely that there are many who ARE in a similar state as we but who have no relevant way to express this as they are yet captivated by the illusion and the glamour to which we ARE as a race subjected.

And this IS our point here as we look at the reality of the requirement of Love as our expression in the world of men; how many like minded men can we bring to the reality of Love by our example and how many can we awaken by our words and our prayers? How can we help to awaken our brother is most accurately answered in the example that we live according the words of the Master and our view of Love as we see it in the apostle’s words above and, as we have said, these words and the words of the Master can have effect even upon the carnally minded man if we can but teach him the reality from his perspective, from his own view of Life. And perhaps this is the purpose of World Invocation Day which is tomorrow; perhaps it IS in our sincere application our own Love to invoke the hearts of others who CAN see but DO NOT because they have not yet been awakened in this Life on Earth. It IS by our own expression of the Love that the Master teaches us to ALL men, it IS in our thoughts about this Love, thoughts that permeate our daily thinking according to the words of the apostle above; It is by these things that we are the example of righteousness that others who may be close will follow and it matters not if they agree with our perspective; it ONLY matters that they can appreciate and express this same Love to a greater degree than before and eventually to ALL men. Unseen, this will have a cascading effect on the whole of the race of men and we can begin this or, we can continue in earnest, on the Festival of the Christ, World GoodWill Day or, as it is KNOWN as well, World Invocation Day; we can, in whatsoever way we like, invoke the Love of God to stream forth in greater glory into the hearts, the consciousness, of ourselves and of men around the world and, in so doing help to prepare the way of the Christ who IS the Love of God made manifest to men.

Returning to our discussion on Paul’s rather extensive list of things that Love IS or DOES and the things that Love IS NOT or does NOT DO, we com upon one of the more important as it regards Truth. ALL to often Truth is allowed to be defined by how it affects a man or a group rather than in its essence as uncompromised Truth. There is no place where it IS more important to take the attitude of self OUT of the equation than in Truth and the apostle says it for us this way: Love….”does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth“. In this word rejoice we should see many ideas that are oriented toward the self and in this idea should also ring True in the other ideas as we have been discussing; that IS that the way of Love, the expression of Love, does not have at its heart the self. There is no self devotion, no self promotion, no self aggrandizement, and it is not self centered nor selfish. In these ideas we should see the apostle’s intent which is that we will not be happy in or take any comfort in a thing that may happen that benefits us over others except that thing is the Truth. This IS a very broad and wide saying that we are apt to come into contact with from many perspectives and takes us down that same avenue that we have been discussing in recent posts of taking the Master’s words in their broadest possible sense as it IS in seeing His teachings in this way that we can eliminate so many claims to the Truth by those who see His words in whatsoever narrow way that may benefit them alone.

Paul goes on to this next sequence that we will treat as one; he tells us that Love: “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things“. In the idea of “bears all” and “endures all” we should be able to see the similarity to expressing patience and not being provoked and perhaps the clarification that these ideas DO concern ALL things and not selective patience or only being provoked by certain events. Here, if we tie these to Paul’s emphasis on the idea of the Truth as we discuss above, we can perhaps see how this clarification is necessary; ponder on this. The apostle also includes in this series “believes all things, hopes all things” and these we CAN NOT readily accept on face value from the perspective of the man expressing Love as these would make no sense in his thoughts and feelings in the world and we should note here that because these are written together and interspersed with bearing and enduring above, that perhaps we must look at them in a different Light as well as what we say above. There are many different understandings of this verse in the various translations of the Bible and most do more or less agree with what we have above. The Message Bible however, being more of a running commentary or a thought for thought based translation that tries to capture the tone of the text, translates these words thus: “Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end“.

Now we should not forget that we are talking ABOUT Love itself here and in this we can gain some additional understanding; we should understand as well that there IS an intentional trend at keeping the mysteries as mysteries and this runs through the parabolic sayings of the Master and His apostles. From the perspective of the Soul, the Love aspect of man as the Christ Within and the Love aspect of God as the Christ, the Son, we can see a very different dynamic in these words as the Soul has no part in the world except to express himself as Power and Love through the form. We have ofttimes said that there IS nothing of a carnal nature that is in the direct view of the divine nature; that keeping His words DOES NOT  result in material rewards and that the ONLY interest that the Kingdom of God has in the Earth is in its expression through the human Kingdom which expression releases each Soul individually, placing him in a position where the cycles of incarnation here in the Earth is ended. With this in mind we should be able to see the reality of these words that ARE of a more esoteric nature than those that precede them as the earlier words are concerned with the relationship in Love of man to man in the Earth and in these we should note a similar sentiment to Emmet Fox’s regarding the Golden Rule as he tells us that ‘I am to practice it whether the other fellow does so or not‘.**

And this IS Paul’s direction on Love as he speaks to us about the many things that Love IS and IS not and this is inclusive of patience, of envy, of pride and self promotion, of acting seemingly, of not being selfish in any way and of course of not seeing nor expressing evil or, as we understand this, worldliness. These are the nature of Love and the nature of the man who expresses Love. The apostle moves on then to tell us of the intimate relationship between Truth and Love and in this we read that there can be no selection of Truth based upon selfish motive….there IS ONLY Truth as seen from the perspective of the Soul which looks universally and evenly at ALL men. Then there is our current verse that tells us “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” and while we could break this up, we chose to leave it in the way that we believe it was intended. Viewing this then as Love, as that Potency of God and of the Soul, we should try to see that this Love bears its existence in the world of form subjected to the vanity, to the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world as he tries to wrest control of the Life from the personality that he created. We should try to see as well that in the believing and the hoping is that expectation of God as it works out in the KNOWING of of the Soul that he WILL BE delivered from this existence in this world through his eventual expression through form and we should try to see in the enduring the patient waiting for the consciousness in form to awaken to the Truth of the Soul, the Truth of Love. In these ideas we can see if we so choose a great extension of the importance of Love in the Life of the man in the world and that to express this Love is to express his very nature.

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post and as we close we remind ALL that tomorrow IS the Festival of the Christ and thereby the Festival of Love and of GoodWill which we can celebrate by our individual invocation, on this World Invocation Day, of greater Love to be expressed through our own being and pray that many, many more can come to this realization of Love in the world.

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!

• ** From The Fifteen Points by Emmet Fox; © 1932 HarperCollins Publishers Inc