Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCCI
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).
In the last post we continued in our discussion of the ideas behind the word translated as meek in the New Testament and we noted how the modern definitions of meek in the English language do not reflect the intent of the use of the Greek word praos in Jesus day; we noted as well the evolution of this word from the Webster’s 1828 dictionary to today’s modern usage here and we can only imagine the understanding in the day of the King James Translation which was first published in 1611. Over these spans of time the modern understanding of the word has moved from what we see as humble restraint and positive harmlessness, as signs of strength and fortitude where one could do this or that thing against another, even in retaliation, but would not do so in favor of the concepts of the Master on Love which includes the ideas that tell us:
- “That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39).
- That a man should NOT be “angry with his brother without a cause” (Matthew 5:22).
- That a man should “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him” (Matthew 5:25).
- That a man’s communication with others should be “Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil” (Matthew 5;37) and of course this must be in Truth.
- The Master tells us also that “whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain” (Matthew 5:41) which saying IS NOT ONLY in regard to travelling but in ALL things.
- He tells us also that we should “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew :42).
- And He tells us clearly about Love, and more than that we should “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:31) but that men should:And while these are mostly from the Sermon on the Mount there are many other like sayings such as that a man who desires the Kingdom “shall humble himself as this little child” (Matthew 18:4).
- “Love your enemies“
- “bless them that curse you“
- “do good to them that hate you“
- “pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
- And let us NOT forget the Golden Rule which tells us clearly that “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31).
It is in these ideas and the others like them from the words of the Master and His apostles that we find the Truth of meekness as it IS intended and as it is offered by the Master as His own quality as He tells us: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls“(Matthew 11:29). In NONE of these ideas and sayings will we find the common understanding of meek which is seen today as submissive in disposition or nature; humble; spineless or spiritless; compliant 10; and we should note here that the common understanding of humble is changed as well which has among its more modern understanding ideas like: 1. conscious of one’s failings 2. unpretentious; lowly: a humble cottage ; my humble opinion 3. deferential or servile 10. While there may be some better ideas in both these defining terms from today’s dictionaries, they are presented in a negative fashion according to the ways of the world and not in that positive way in which they are intended by the Master. And perhaps this IS the problem that man has in heeding His words, the negative picture that is painted by the words for those things that we must do is become a deterrent as a man IS too concerned about how his own actions can be perceived by others. He does not want to appear weak or spineless nor does he want to be the one who keeps the Master’s words regarding Love in our sayings above on “Love your enemies” and His words that follow. We understand that to be contrary to the Master’s words is to be focused on the self and the self in the world; the is the all too prevalent ‘what is good for me’ attitude by the man who believes that his Life IS this Life in this world today. It is the failure on ALL sides that has put us, and that keeps mankind, in this place as there IS NO True teaching on the REALITY of the Master’s words and these simple words as we read above are read by millions daily and remain but words as NO ONE teaches the Truth of the Master’s intent.
These are of course very difficult subjects to address to people who are focused on the world but at the same time these ARE words of Life for those who can see the reality of Life as the True man, the Soul, and the Life of the man in the world as temporal; and as well, those who can understand that IT IS here in this Earth that one must achieve; it IS here that one becomes accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. So we have these ideals of meekness and a humble attitude toward one’s own self in the world and we have these in combination with Love as the Master depicts it for us in our sayings at the top of our essay and we MUST understand that these are the Way, these are the Words and the Way of Life and it this idea of Life that we should try to see and to understand. We must understand as well that in our realization of this Life we are in essence living the Life of the True man, the Soul, in the world and that we should “take no thought” then for the things of the world nor the worldly opinions of others. This ALL IS, as we say above, a very difficult undertaking for the man who considers this Life in form as the Life of the man. And the Master says this for us clearly from the perspective of the man in the world as He tells us in full that he should “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on” (Luke 12:22) and we should note that when a man IS focused upon the Truth, the Soul as the True Life, then things like this admonition to “take no thought” will come rather naturally as to consider the self in the world IS NOT the focus of the Soul. The Master does address this difficulty for us but in a way that is not so readily recognizable as to be able to see it clearly; He tells us that we may think His words difficult and even impossible but that it is ONLY in shedding this attitude in faith, and we use this word partly in accordance with the common understanding, that we can proceed and progress. Faith here IS still KNOWING but it IS a KNOWING that is based in one’s understanding of the Master as the Christ and we should note that His words here ARE spoken to disciples and aspiants who are already believing in or believing on Him; here we can sense the breadth of the difficulty in keeping His words as even those who accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life 4, as Vincent interprets this believing for us, come to doubt because of the severity of His words. We cite the full dialogue for better understanding of the disciples ways:
“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying , How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said , This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” (John 6:45-57).
There are several points to consider in these words by the Master which were not so apparent to us when we last visited them very early on in our series of essays (In the Words of Jesus parts 65-69). There we looked at the link between these words and that current topic as we were looking at the things that the Master said. There are some that see a connection here in these words to resurrection and others who may see the direction given at the Last Supper but neither of these were topics of discussion for the Master and His intent was not to predict nor confuse the assembled disciples. Now while there may have been many here in this audience, it is the disciples with which we deal here today because this is the direction the the Apostle John brings to us. There IS a reality here that we did not address and which puts these words into the context of our discussion today and this is in regard to the disciples who, while being disciples and aspirants to discipleship as are we, and ARE presumably fixed in their believing in and believing on the Master, find that they CAN NOT go on with Him because of these words that He says; words that ARE very difficult to understand and for which there is likely no precedent nor basis. And here perhaps is a test of the sincerity of these men who would be disciples but who seemingly lack the fortitude; we should understand here that the claim to discipleship is John’s and not the Master’s so that perhaps these are in reality aspirants as the disciple, as the Master defines him, would likely not shrink away as do these men but rather would be in the mind of the Apostle Paul as he tells the men of Corinth: “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:15-16). Here in Paul’s words we see the way of the disciple, that he faint not despite the loss of “our outward man“.
As we take this episode for an example, we can likely better understand the inability of the man in the world today to Love, to express that meekness of which we have been speaking and to be humble as ALL three are not regarded as strength in today’s world. In our sayings above the disciples DO NOT understand the Master’s meaning in saying that “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” and these words are still a mystery to most today. We KNOW that this idea is not to actually eat the flesh of the Master and in a parabolic way we can likely see His meaning as that we consume what He says and what He represents and in this consumption we are fed with the bread of Life, that divine Love and Power of the Soul, the Christ Within. This is not unlike the apostles words to the Corinthians above as we see the same idea as the result, that “the inward man is renewed day by day” and we should try to see here that this renewal is from the perspective of the man in the world, that he IS renewed from within by the continued focus upon that divine part of Life.
We should always understand that these ideas are difficult to understand and even more difficult to express in words and a part of this difficulty is ever tied to our view of Life as compared to the parabolic view we get from scripture. Most scripture is necessarily vague as the Truths of divinity MUST be discovered by each of us and this because these discoveries are revelations and realizations that come from and in that Wisdom from above. We can and we do read, and we understand the basics of what we read, but this IS NOT the KEY to realizing our divine Life as if it were, it would be at best discriminatory against the less learned. But in realizations we bypass the idea of learning and we KNOW and this IS a great part of our objective and our goal, that we can become KNOWERS of things spiritual and divine even when we CAN NOT express them.
Can we see the purpose then of the scriptures and even of the writing of the commentators and the interpreters among whom we count ourselves? That we raise the consciousness beyond the physical realm and into the spiritual and for a time we raise the focus as well. As men in form we DO NOT like the thoughts implied to others who may see us as Loving ALL or as meek and humble and in this dislike we may faint as do the disciples and the aspirants in the story above where these men CAN NOT grasp these ideas that the Master is putting forth and likely see them as contrary to the way that they may see their own lives. But, of course, they are seeing their Life in the world and not the Life to which the Master points them saying “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life“. and this even though one of the reasons for their presence with Jesus is the reality of what they see as Eternal Life. And here yet today this same mentality prevails; men who keenly desire to be counted among His disciples shrink back from the required virtues and ideals of Love for one’s neighbor and one’s brother and for the stranger that qualifies as both, meekness in one’s dealings with others and a humble attitude in ALL things.
We will continue with our 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.
He who faces the light of His Soul and stands within its radiance is blinded to the issues of the world of men; he passes on the lighted way to the Kingdom of God. But he who feels the urge to pass that way, yet loves his brother on the darkened path, revolves upon the pedestal of light and turns the other way.
He faces towards the dark and then the seven points of light within himself transmit the outward streaming light, and lo! the face of those upon the darkened way receives that light. For them, the way is not so dark. Behind the warriors—twixt the light and dark—blazes the light of the Kingdom itself.**
We previously posted this saying in In the Words of Jesus part 367 and did so in conjunction with the Master’s teaching on the idea that ”But many that are first shall be last; and the last first” (Mark 10:31) and His teaching about the mustard seed where, in Luke’s Gospel, he says: “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do” (Luke 17:5-10)”. In this context we say about the words above: Remembering that the Master is speaking to His disciples in both instances above and both are, in our view, explanatory of the nature of the disciple; that he will accomplish what he has to do, his duty if you will, but will continue on in the service of the Lord and give his ALL in service to his fellowmen. There an ancient aphorism which states this truth in a different way and on which we have taken the liberty of rendering in a more understandable language;
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 10 Dictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers
